By ADESOLA AYO-ADERELE
Nigerian employers of labour should fear God. At least, once in a while.
A tech company on the Island offered a young graduate that I know a job on a monthly salary of N97,000. The company works with Google, Facebook and Amazon, among others; so, they can’t pretend that they can’t do better. Worse still is the fact that the job is 24/7. Can you beat that?
For someone who will commute from the mainland to the Island on a daily basis and work on weekends and also on public holidays, even a slave wage couldn’t be worse. The parents told her to reject the offer and she did.
As for young graduates and mid-level workers, be it known unto you that Google Africa, Udemy and Cousera are some of the platforms through which you can improve yourself and up your marketability.
She eventually got a job as graduate trainee at well over N700,000 per month on the same Island and she only works Mondays to Fridays, 8-5PM. If graduate trainees earn that much, I wonder how much the company pays its permanent staff.
The tech company obviously wants to rubbish the applicant’s first degree certificate and intellect because the individual concerned doesn’t just hold a good first degree, she has also taken plenty relevant online courses running into about 17 in total. With such an applicant, why would anyone offer slave wage if not for uncommon wickedness bordering on sadism?
Yes, life starts small; but then, how small is small? With N97,000 per month, the worker can’t even eat a decent lunch at work and, naturally, there’s not going to be any savings whatsoever!
Indeed, parents would still have to subsidise the child for a long time to come because, with such a nasty offer, she will still have to live at home!
Worse still is the fact that, with such a miserable offer, the probability is that in 10 years’ time, she might not earn N500,000 as monthly salary. Pray, what sort of life is that?
And, very contrary to the common mantra, there are more than enough well-paying jobs right here in Nigeria. What is needed is the skill, which is available online. Some are free, while you pay a token that is little as N5K for some.
As for young graduates and mid-level workers, be it known unto you that Google Africa, Udemy and Cousera are some of the platforms through which you can improve yourself and up your marketability.
No matter the course you read, there are more than enough online training that can give you the much-needed edge in the competitive world of job application.
And, very contrary to the common mantra, there are more than enough well-paying jobs right here in Nigeria. What is needed is the skill, which is available online. Some are free, while you pay a token that is little as N5K for some.
And, believe me, with these skills, Master’s degree pales into insignificance. There you have it!
*Culled from Ayo-Aderele’s Facebook wall
