6 Things You should consider to be a Full-baked Graduate

In the midst of dwindling fortunes for graduates in the labour market with unemployment on the rise on daily basis in the country. There is need to address the issue of lack of opportunities from the grassroots. One of the major reason why we are sent to school from the secondary level of education to the tertiary level is to be able to utilize the skills that were acquired from these institutions to harness and utilize optimally our God-given ideas and talents. However, there are certain things that need to be in place for these ideas to thrive even when coined by the brightest of minds. .

I am of the opinion that a full-baked graduate of an institution work in the capacity as an employee, employer and an entrepreneur as the situation might allow. Here are few things, new entrants or prospective students should consider doing while in school.

1. Participate 

Being in a higher institution gives you the opportunity to meet with different set of people with diverse culture, characters and ideas. You can only tap from the ideas of others and liaise as appropriate when you build constructive relationship with people through participating in activities ranging from academic, social, sports and religious activities. It will be nice and productive to match your academic prowess with commensurate social ability. Joining and participating one or more clubs or society in school can help network and inter-relate with people from other departments, faculties, universities and background.

2. Learn other skills other than your Academic Workload

There is nothing wrong to learn something other than what you are studying in the institution. Leverage on every opportunity that you can lay your hands because you never know when the need might arise. Is it programming, welding, carpentry or tailoring? Don't be scared to get yourself acquainted to things that are not aligned in your course of study even if it means getting your hands dirty. The skills gotten could save you some day. So be open to learn new stuffs irrespective of their fields as long as you have the opportunity to learn them.

3. Have an Apt Time Management Skills

It is well documented that what your experience over a long period of time defines a good part of who you are really. When time management is started early enough in one's life, it affects how the person perform and organize the tasks that are assigned to him/her. This simply means allocating time and prioritizing your schedules from the most important to the least important, it will give you an ample idea of your daily, weekly and monthly targets. In so doing, you can always keep track of your progress and retrace back when you are not performing optimally on important areas. It also gives you a balance in your academic and social life. With good time management, you can still address your academic workload, church or mosque engagements, club/societal meetings, sport activities and still graduate with flying colours. It is about how meticulous you are with your time.

4. Grades Still Count

Although there have been cases where grades can not be defended due to inability of the students to work hard for them and had been aided by corrupted lecturing personnel to acquire such grades. The place of grades cannot be over-emphasized as it serves as a means of benchmark in assessment for the future and recruitment process. For example, in Nigeria most companies would want to employ graduates with a minimum requirement of second class upper(2.1) and this would be the baseline of shortlisting candidates. This does not necessarily mean that all 2.1 or first class candidates are better than the ones with a lower grade because every individual has its own unique skill, character and level of competence but there has to be a way for recruiters to filter candidates in the heat of high outlay of graduates from university on daily basis and this gives them an escape route most times.

5. Be Ready to Open Earn from School

In school, most students are quite comfortable with the stipends that are sent by their parents, guardian or benefactor. Take a holiday job, learn a skill and try something new during holidays other than your academics that could lead to earn extra cash legally rather than sitting at home playing video games and watching TV. I can remember writing a project report for someone in a nearby institution while in school and was paid for it. I gained the knowledge during the research and still got paid. You can do something to help your parents even while in school. Just be open to explore opportunities.

6. Lead

Show good examples, be constructive in your arguments, be articulate in your speech and show tenacity to get works done and naturally you would have done well enough to be eligible to lead a group. Be ready to lead even when it is not position-tied. Let your actions, words, charisma and body language depict that of a born leader. Don't be afraid to lead school association including intra and inter-institution associations like the student union, departmental societies, clubs and national associations. By leading at that stage, you gain more guile, experience and courage to lead a larger conglomerate in the future. So take the lead and take responsibility.