By Lilian Owaga- Author and Creative Writer

It is human nature to find no satisfaction, to look for more and to explore with curiosity and expectations. When you are jobless without a means of earning, you long to find something to do. Life feels empty and confusing. You start going through your potential, skills, talents and capacities. Some people are fortunate to find a fortune in their skills and talents, while others spend years trying to bring something out from within. You know too well that this is your particular area of expertise. Yet, no matter what effort you put in, no matter what approach you apply to harnessing your abilities, nothing seems to reward your trouble.

Then, at first, you refuse to give up because that is what everyone says. ‘Keep pushing’, ‘Hang in there’, ‘Consistency is rewarding’ and all those phrases which indeed fuel you along.

But the darkness is never receding, dawn is not happening, the silence grows louder, and the confusion proceeds to take the center seat, in collaboration with your fears and anxiety.

You begin to question whether you got it right from the beginning, if you had actually made the right decisions regarding your career. Whether you should start all over again, perhaps try another field of specialisation or start a fresh academic program.

It is at this point that you might indeed get a breakthrough or make yet another worse mistake full of futile and empty results. It is important to note that a breakthrough is bound to show up anywhere, anytime throughout your efforts and sacrifices.

Speaking of sacrifices, you venture into many, that is, if a breakthrough refuses to come along. The greatest of them are always time and finances.

You can then imagine how heartbreaking it is when, even after all the sacrifices, you are still sent away empty-handed by fate.

Let us then proceed with the unfortunate. You have tried to hold on, you have ignored the confusion and anxiety, you have tried to focus on giving it a try consistently, networking with all manner of people, sacrificing all you have, taking in all sorts of reasonable advice, exploring past your fears and sending more unanswered applications, but it just doesn’t work. There is no job for you.

You then sit and witness the years and resources you have spent and decide that there is no need to waste more time; it is then that you choose to settle for anything. Just anything to survive on, as long as you can provide for your adult needs and get busy.

For some people, the breakthrough might then happen at this point. So that you randomly receive a message of some jobs you had applied for, which you can no longer even remember what it was about, “we are pleased to proceed with you…” until you wonder whether they have mistaken you.

Message to HR and Employers

This is where we address employers and HR managers. Responding after months or years leaves no wound than remaining silent. It costs nothing to respond to applicants earlier and allow them to proceed with their struggles, inasmuch as some jobs require lengthy protocols.

An organisation can come up with a strategy of filtering the rejected applications and sending a mass response, at least to let the applicants feel they had actually communicated with humans.

Also, don’t let the response be blank. I have seen some HR managers taking their time to attach the ‘why we cannot proceed with you’ alongside, ‘but with your potential, we can refer you to…if you don’t mind’. These or an encouragement will be a soothing dose to the struggling applicants, dear HR managers.

Yet again breakthrough may also be through some successful business venture until you completely forget your academic qualifications. For some, the breakthrough never comes, and they are forced to permanently settle for whatever they come across and remain there just so they can survive. Then life moves on because it has to!

Challenges Employed Individuals Face

On the other hand, when you are employed or you have a job that pays, you realise you can provide, buy yourself stuff, and do a load of things with your money.

But you get used to the routine, the earnings, the experience, the people you encounter and all that. It becomes so mundane until you start looking for change, greener pastures and forgetting how you were once so desperate during your joblessness era.

I am not judging; we are just discussing why it has to be this way with being humans. You realise that you no longer have time to spend with family or friends as when you were not obliged to any job.

It is again at this point that others make the right choice of quitting their jobs to open other, better doors. Yet you might quit and struggle to bounce back. At first, you’ll enjoy the freedom of having all the time, enjoying the beauty of life and thriving in your savings as you seek. Until it is all over and you’re not back at anything, and the circle of anxiety resumes.

Those Satisfied With Their Careers

Only a few are indeed satisfied with their careers because it happens to be their legend, their thing, dream and passion.

Some, though, sail the sea of careers without finding their treasure, there where their heart can finally rest. Others are blessed to find mentors as early as at childhood. Their skills and potential are monitored, and they are immediately placed into the right paths, while others fumble miserably to get hold of their capacity.

In this field of finding your career path, you might be graced to have someone to hold your hand, or you might have to stand and fight alone until you find a steady ground. Be grateful if you are the former, and if you are the latter, be strong and know that we all have purposes here below, even when you don’t perceive it.

Sometimes it doesn’t have to be a professional vocation.

A photo showing an interview session. PHOTO/ Aston Carter.