Hakuna Kazi---Till When?

Having recently completed my final four years of the 8-4-4 system, I went out into the world with a gusto, the thoughts of acquiring a job and making it into the ‘Income Earners’ bracket was enough to fuel me to search for a job in multiple offices but my delusions of grandeur were soon crushed by the realization that it wasn’t all roses.

While in campus, you often hear that there are no jobs, former comrades-six months into ‘outside life’ still wallowing in joblessness, it doesn’t really hit hard enough till you have experienced it yourself. Experience they say is the best teacher, one month into independence and I wasn’t feeling so independent. Going back to my mother’s house after 4 years of absence felt strange, I felt like a visitor in my own home.  As it turns out, though this was the easiest part of it all, the worst part, the one that gets to you is waiting, waiting for that job you were promised, waiting for at least one response to the many  e-mails...Waiting...

In my first years in campus I used to ask myself why there were always hordes of people at KenCom, well now I get it. Majority of people sitting there are job-seekers. Why KenCom? Eas!. Public benches are free to all and sundry, the shade of trees from the scorching sun and distance from any hotel that may tempt you into spending the last hundred bob in your pocket and to some the sight of The Hilton Hotel that serves as a mental target of where to be in a few years.

Most people have embraced the newest way of job seeking: looking up to old friends in your Phonebook in pretense of ‘seeing how they are doing’.  I have no qualms with this system, in fact, I embrace it. That’s how I intend to get my first job anyway. Aside from that system of job searching there’s the old fashioned: ‘send a CV and we’ll get back to you’ method. Though limiting and depressing when you don’t get the job-again, (the waiting is the worst part); it gives a sense of satisfaction when you are chosen above all other eligibles' vying for the same job. 

Despite all the downsides to job seeking, it is still a necessary pain some of us have to go through. The waiting never stops, even after you get that job: You’ll wait for a promotion, then a spouse, house/mortgage, divorce, alimony and maybe death if you are so lucky as to see it coming.  So chin up, let that sun beat on your head. Stay hungry for an afternoon; these painful moments may be the story you share with your children if you are lucky enough.    

by Jeff Muiruri