Rational pieces of advice to new graduates across South Sudan. A Reflection of my personal experiences along with social and professional endeavors.
By Ustaz Abraham Mabior Rioch, Juba, South Sudan
Tuesday, August 31, 2021 (PW) — In the first place, I would like to congratulate you on your academic and professional struggles and endeavors during your studies. Through your own commitment and dedication, you have now turned out to be academic heroes and heroines. My hat off to you for your hard work to win your academic achievement. As graduates ready to fill the labor market and fully equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills, kindly note these key pieces of advice and pick all or a few of them for your own future.
First and foremost, please pay much respect and honor to your parents, guardians, and well-wishers who stood with you during your academic struggle. Without them, you would not have become who you are today. They have been essential in your life for the rest of your journeys. Kindly acknowledge them in your respective theses or dissertations, respectively.
At least, each graduate should become familiar with key professional concepts and key ideas and key colleagues and friends from within their field. As a graduate, you are expected to demonstrate a knowledge base and competency in your areas of specialization. Your competency is seen in your communicational skills such as writing, speaking, listening, and reading. You no longer need to speak like a primary school kid but speak and write analytically, persuasively, and eloquently. However, these should be not based on plagiarism and copying and pasting somebody’s ideas, quotes, and concepts, but on professional commitments and dedication.
On the same note, be in touch and network with positive and hardworking professionals, either within your family circles or outside your family affiliations. You are exposed to the outside world through your own social and professional connections, while knowledge sharing and construction are outstandingly emphasized. To have strong social connectivity, your chances of being integrated into the labor markets are high and trustworthily consistent.
As a graduate, you need to build your knowledge base within your area of specialization. Be consistent and persistent to keep abreast with the current developments in your field of specialization. In professional reality, develop love and passion for your specialism and continues to build it through 3Rs such as reading, research, and real-world application. Get at least 3 textbooks from your specialization and 3 books from other social and academic life testimonies. These will inspire you through the way to reach your social destination and professional reality.
On a sincere basis, never attempt to celebrate your graduation with an empty head and brainless heart. At least with practice, your knowledge and skills so that you can construct your known knowledge out of your acquired thoughts through formal learning. Being in the class of illiterate graduates is the worst ever. Be friended to books, and daily, you are supposed to read, read, and recite your knowledge adequately and squarely. Nonetheless, don’t forget to give due credits where it supposed to be to avoid plagiarism.
Conversely, keep yourself positive at all times and do not be married off by crazy ideas from other people whose mindsets are capricious and brainless. Never be pulled to pick the wrong ideological Outlook that family X is better than family Y and vice versa. On an equal term, being appraised that your relatives, father, or mother hail from royal families or privileged ones. These ideological perceptions change the mindsets of young people and create a fertile ground for lazy and idle graduates. South Sudan is a developing country and has never witnessed or had royal families since the creation of the universe, as short-sighted individuals always claim it.
In a similar vein, be flexible and tolerant to different cultural and social connotations while pursuing your mission of success of all forms. Much as varied cultures have different approaches to living; one ought to be easy-going and bendable. Rigidity is a dangerous idea that has made different people victims of their perceptions. Try as much as imaginable to fit in any situation, and always try to emerge the best among the best performers. In fact, all these require hard work, patience, commitment, dedication, and above all honesty despite all odds at hand. These are sometimes termed as pillars of success, though they are hard to consider as guiding principles by so many people.
Furthermore, be careful and mindful of negative peer influences in many mouthwatering times and moments. Many youths and adults have become useless in their respective families and communities due to negative peer inferences. On this veracity, never subject yourself to peer influence and social pressure in the sense that if you see your colleague pursuing a Master’s degree, you also need to do the same. Please note that you are not competing with anybody in life, but keep time and space to progress at your own dignified and glorious pace. For instance, President Museveni is ruling the country, but with a qualification of a degree.
In my earnest observation, many young graduates proceed for master’s degrees immediately after the first degree. This is the greatest mistake many are making unknowingly. So going for a master’s degree is not a measure of your success. You are expected to be a master of your own field at the postgraduate level, not just getting papers without skills and knowledge—a graduate of the first-degree lookout for an internship to get the skills knowledge for the job.
After getting on-job training, you acquire more skills that can help you to market yourself across different labor markets. Just get prepared for a job with the necessary skills and knowledge at hand, especially in your field of specialization. Keep in your mind to revise your past notes and apply them practically in your own situation. Because what is taught in the class and what happens in a real-life situation are the opposites of the same coin.
At the graduation stage, you have only acquired 20% of your knowledge through formal learning, 10% is through social connections and practice, but you will need the skills through internship and work-related propositions, which constitutes 70%. Your academic and professional mission is incomplete without experiential knowledge at the internship stages. First, aim at getting an internship that will help you acquire hands-on skills and knowledge that will place you at your dream job.
Meanwhile, you study and search for a job and think that wife is an important part of your life. Plan your marriage well, and do not be pulled into political and economic marriage. These are marriages of interest from the well-off families and sections. Such marriages lack respect on the girl’s side and parents since they would look at you as a poor guy. Here, I meant the marriage of interests does not last and does not recognize the value and importance of our parents.
To be happy in life, marry a village and semi-literate girl from a rural setting. Going for a slay queen or town girl with no vision, except leading a high lifestyle in town, is like being hit in the head with a thunderstorm. As you plan to marry, look at your parents’ economic and social life back home, and bring in a girl with the same family status. Such a girl and her respective families really emphasize the maximum respect of both parents. Listen and respect the choice of your parents, the tiny gods who have been standing with you through thick and thin.
Equally important, never attempt to turn down any job offer of any amount, especially when you are searching for a job for the first time. Even if it is 5,000 SSP, please accept it and do it wholeheartedly and the employer will appreciate and decide for you the best job offer and time and spaces go. Your first interest in the job is to gain skills and knowledge that will sell you in the later stages to a better job.
Remember, the writer of this article was at one time offered a job for 100 USD, yet he possessed 3 distinctive degrees (2 masters and 1 undergraduate degree). Still, out of my passion for gaining on-job skills, I wholeheartedly accepted the job offer without any hesitation. As time went by and my performances on the job spoke volumes due to my commitment and hard work, I was promoted. I had my salaries increased from $100 to $500 and later to USD 1,700 respectively till I voluntarily left the job 2 years later for my other professional commitments. Please, remember, hard work, patience, and commitment pay in the long run.
Lastly, try as much as possible to be a truthful teller, honest, and trustworthy in all situations. I know people will hate you, but God and the majority will appreciate and admire you all the time. Never compromise your life to tell falsehoods and agitations out of intimidation or in other means to please others. With these few pieces of advice, let me rest my pen here. I wish all of you, including my enemies, a happy life. Stay blessed and be safe all the time.
The author, Abraham Mabior Rioch, is a Scholar, Humanitarian worker, Community Educator, teacher, and freelance writer on different social and educational issues. He is the author of the two books (forthcoming soon): “Capitalizing on Education in Emergencies: The Perspectives from the Silent Crises” and Educational Ethics: Essentials of Daily Etiquettes for Teachers. He is electronically reachable via mabiorrioc@gmail.com.
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