The truth of the matter is, when you start with a mind-set that what you seek is not available, then you are more likely to miss what is right before your eyes. When you are sure of what you seek, then you are more likely to see it.
The story is told of the first people who were present at the Kenyan coast when the first Arab dhow was sighted on the distant horizon. For days, some people tried to point out the strange item visible on the horizon to their friends. Majority would not see it. Then the few who could ‘see’ it, started to describe the thing that they saw. Only when their descriptions became more vivid did the people start to perceive the dhow.
The human perception is powerful. If you believe it exists, you will see it.
You can carry out this experiment for yourself. Ask several people who are in a job already if they know of any vacancies anywhere. Anything; any cadre, any profession, never mind the position. It is a powerful eye opener. You will quickly discover that every person in a job knows of at least one job opening some place. Now that is not particularly useful to you if the vacancy is for a watchman, and what you seek is a different position.
But the same rule applies to the particular jobs that you seek. If everyone you asked, randomly, knows of a position someplace, then it follows that there are people that you likely do not know who know of the availability of the position you seek.
That is your power. The decision to find those people is what will start to open your eyes to ways to find the right people who have the information on the specific jobs in Kenya that you seek.
I work with different people all the time; government officers, private business people, professionals, unskilled workers, and others. I am aware that there is no single week that passes when I do not meet someone who starts a sentence with, ‘am looking for someone who can…’
Finding the people who are asking for an employee who can do what you can do, is the single most important thing to enable you find jobs in Kenya. Do not worry about ‘the government is not giving the youth jobs’. The solution is not with the government, it is in you.
If you have the right personal plan in place, everywhere you are opens up a chance to find jobs in Kenya.
By Paula Thayrow – 8th December 2009
