It’s now official. I am unemployed. Handed in my dissertation today, which my supervisor finally accepted. It’s the only thing that was still keeping me on campus, as I finished my three-year course. Now I am thinking of what to be telling my friends, the continuing students, whom I have no doubt will be asking me what’s keeping me on campus.
I begin thinking of what to do next, but certainly parking my stuff to Sembabule isn’t one of the options.
What would I tell the old man who up to now is waiting for me to return home in a posh official car, with a juicy job to turn his life around?
Mr. Bernard Sabiti
That’s what he boasts of all day, telling his drinking friends of how his son has finished Makerere, one of my distant uncles who recently came from the village told me. Because I can also neither stay in University Hall (UH) undetected due to tougher university rules and regulations these days, I decided to rent a one roomed house in Kikoni.
*** End of Mr. Bernard Sabiti’s Real Life Experiences Diary Entry ***
With the permission of Mr. Bernard Sabiti, we are serializing and publishing selected episodes from his column “A Job Seeker’s Diary” prior first published in a national newspaper. Whereas, Mr. Sabiti is now a very successful consultant, we decided to share and to publish episodes from his column on our website because they are directly relevant to the stakeholders of our project: “Challenging Categories: Educated Unemployed Youth as Institutional Innovators in Rural Uganda;” And they speaks directly to the young adults whom we are mentoring under our project: “Mentoring Young Adults into Innovators Against Poverty.” Mr. Sabiti’s life story, as a whole, is the more relevant to us, since there seems to be nothing he has not done, innovating to better his lot and to contribute to the bettering of life for his wider communities. Read more here.
CPAR Uganda Ltd 
7 responses to “A Job Seeker’s Diary Entry on Monday, 24th May”
In fact I always tell youth who are still at the university not to expect white collar jobs immediately after graduation,I always emphasise to them how I graduated and I was all expectant that I could only sit at home to watch t.v thinking that I was going to get a white colla job soon, I refused to engage in any innovation that could keep me going until a friend of mine who was working with plan international called me and told me to go and stay with her in Yumbe that she would loby for me ajob,it wasn’t easy because I stayed there for afull month without anything to do,I could just be sleeping in the house and wait for her to come home, things became hard and she told me to start baking bread and taking to their office for her colleagues to buy as breakfast,but I didn’t percieve it positively,I thought in my heart that she was mocking me but since I was living under her roof I couldn’t disobey her,so I started making mandazis and I could sell at their office,in a day I could sell bread of 16000 shillings and at least life began being easy for me. Luckily from there, anew project came in their organisation, it was called Education Cannot Wait,and I was admitted as a primary school teacher in agomvususu primary school along the Nile in madi okollo district,that was my first salaried job in Avery deep village where I didn’t even know the language from there I didn’t only go to class but I embraced the idea of being innovative that I had refused at first when I just graduated from university, so I decided to go for vocational training in hair dressing because to me I didn’t just want to sit home and watch television at the end of the contract as I was doing before so when our project got affected by covid,I decided to open a saloon with the skills I had acquired but according to me my education wasn’t helping me so much and I felt I needed more knowledge outside my profession that’s why when I saw CPARs advert of mentoring young adults I decided to apply because in my heart I knew I needed some more knowledge beyound what I studied at the institution, so for youth at school, I advise them not to be like the first version of me who only wanted to watch TV and wait for white collar job after graduation,innovate something that can make your life better. Like right now I am an inspiration to many youth in my neighborhood although at first they laughed at me that I had studied law and I was again working in a saloon,but this evening I was surprised when one woman called me and told me to allow her daughter who’s studying from kyambogo university to come and work in my saloon after she finishes her course by the end of this month.
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It is very sweet to enjoy the money from the parents while still at the University. But after finishing, most of the parents especially those who are not learnt do not expect you back in their homes. They do imagine that you have to get a white_collar job immediately.
Please parents learn to be patient with your children.
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The life outside is not as exactly as we imagine it to be while still at school. I agree with Mr. Bernard Sabiti because I have experience in it. For instance, When I finished school, I expected to get employed in a good organization immediately, but every where I would go, they would require a work experience of at least 3 years. I got tired and decided to give up
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Sadly, this whole business of requiring experience may be the real reason why many young adults who are educated remain unemployed. And that is why we. at CPAR Uganda, passionately believe in mentoring young adults so that they may get experience in actually doing the work.
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Infact get people to talk to the old man that going to school isn’t all about getting a job but is to learn how to be self employed (being innovative).Most of our parents think if they paid fees they’re not supposed to give us capital to start our own business “parents create jobs for your children”.
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An interesting perspective indeed Salama.
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it is very sweet and exciting to wear the gown for the special day, but after the day has passed, you can wish to have not worn it. The life outside is not as exactly as we imagine it to be while still at school. I agree with Mr. Bernard Sabiti because I have experience in it.
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