Activities for the First 5 Years of Your Career

As usual, no long story, no superfluous foreign alignment, no theoretical validations, this is pure yarns for naija youths.

Well, if you never knew, be aware that the most fantastic and wonderful task ever completed or accomplished by you can only be done in the early part of your career. As you go higher, whether you like it or not, things that matter to you change and part of this is a rapid dwindling of the zeal to create an impression. There is a time limit to when you can put in crazy energy and sacrifices to the rudiments or Nitti gritty of your profession.

As you move higher, you will tend to have seen it all and you have more distraction from family. Not only that, your financial responsibility increases, your ego increases and that enthusiasm you used to have as a graduate trainee declines rapidly. There is nothing to worry about if you are still within this ‘enthusiasm rush’ age, just make sure you do the following:

Read anything readable

Look here, at this point there is nothing like reading within your field or discipline after all you are not yet experienced in any field yet. Don’t waste this energy rush, take up any task takeable, read up anything readable and consume anything consumable. You never know when all this will come handy. This was how random knowledge saved me some days ago at the office.

Don’t reject task

If you look at my CV, I wrote “I have been privileged to work and learn in ………”. This is

because you actually learn in some tasks you take part in. Most relevant and career-uplifting tasks that will be assigned to you during your career journey will be beyond your skillset and will usually require extra time at work, research and seeking help from a colleague (within and outside your workplace). Never say this was not stated in my contract or employee letter, take it up, jack up, and attempt to deliver.

Promote your brand

My guy, no time for waiting on the management to recognize you after this much work. Oga, you need to market yourself.  First of all you even need to brand yourself, declare and publicise what you stand for, craft a custom way of handling projects you are a part of. When this is done, you can then consistently be outspoken about your accomplishments. Craft an updated professional profile with tasks completed by you including your inventions and discoveries (Intellectual property) . Brand yourself like Debola Williams.

Learn the politics

Know exactly where to concentrate effort, align yourself properly, never believe only on competence or technical know-how. Identify the caucus and be aware of their interests in order to avoid a conflict. Know who to fight in the public and identify those that do not care about work but loyalty. You have been warned.

Thank you.