How to plan for a successful career during your NYSC

Guides on how to plan for a successful career during your NYSC (National Youth Service Corps). This will enlighten and prepare every serious Corps member for the journey ahead.

There is a popular quote that says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. Waiting till the end of your NYSC before planning for your career could be the biggest mistake you ever made.

This article will serve as a guide to prepare your career during your NYSC.

It’s unfortunate that many Corps members do not see it as time to prepare for their careers. They rather see it like their days in the university, and use the little time they have to wallow in fun of the moment as Corps members, believing that tomorrow thinks for itself. If tomorrow really thinks for itself, it’s definitely not in Nigeria.

The one year as youth Corps Member supposed to be a year of rigorous planning, identifying opportunities and directions to follow.

How to plan for a successful career during your NYSC

Below are some tips on how to plan for a successful career during your National Youth Service;

1. Plan on what exactly you want to pursue after services

While you may be doing whatever job you are assigned to at your Place of Primary Assignment (PPA)., Never lose sight of the fact that you should plan on exactly what you want to do after your service.

Do you wish to work for yourself or get a job in a certain blue chip company? Define what you want to do and move on to the next step.

2. Acquire needed professional skills

Narrowing down on what you desire to pursue as a career after service will obviously help you decide what skills and knowledge you lack and that are needed for success in the path you have chosen.

As soon as you are clear on the analysis of what you need, the service year is a good time to embark on aggressive skills acquisition and self improvement.

Most likely you will have plenty of time on your hand that you shouldn’t waste. Join professional organizations, get online and start bringing yourself up to date in your area of interest.

3. Start your job hunting months ahead of schedule

If you have identified clearly the type of jobs and career you are interested in. It is advisable to commence your active job search few months before you pass out from service.

Many graduates have landed job this way. Send your CV to many target as possible when the pressure to sustain yourself isn’t yet fully on you. Create a professional career profile for yourself and join career platforms like LinkedIn.com

4. Identifying internship opportunities

One of the best ways to get your foot in your dream career is to seek internship opportunities where you will be trained and given the chance to prove your worth.

Internship opportunities are not that rampant so you would have to know where to search.

You can search for internship and trainee opportunities on Ngcareers and any other decent job site.

You can also check out opportunity desk, it is a good place to find all sorts of graduate opportunities and internships.

5. Look for the right business opportunities (If that’s where your inclination lies)

If you are interested in hustling on your own, then your service year is a fantastic time to plan and prepare for this;

• Identify your passion area and entrepreneurship ideas you want to pursue.
• Save some amount of money to help you take off capital (To this you will have to work on several jobs like take up teaching in one or two schools, do any job around that will fetch you some extra thousands of Naira per month).

Very soon from now, you will be directly responsible for every penny that you earn.

Your effort will determine how very soon your ‘allawee’ will be replaced with salary or income from entrepreneurship. By now, we must have understood that there is no free lunch anywhere, not even in free town.

If the Government could post us to a strange land, keep us under stringent rules and subject us to laborious works before we could earn #19,800, we should imagine what the labor market would have in its coffer.

As a matter of fact, the labor market is not smiling at all but the good news is, some people are smiling there and some are even laughing.

My advice for those who will not get paid employment immediately after these services is to look inwards and tap from innate abilities so as to get engaged in self employment.

Do not detest little beginnings, but take a solace in this common saying that the little drop of water makes a mighty ocean. Even where Rome was not built in a day, works on its building commenced in a say. The longest journey begins with the first step.

I enjoin us to make our first step a right one in the right direction. The horizon is clear even where the cloud appear blurred. Thanks

Written by Musa Ozovehe Abdulazeez.

FCT Corper.