Vacancy

“Jobs are not scarce, good people are!”

I’m certain that this statement sounds like a falacy to many of the people being churned out from schools in Nigeria and some other parts of the world where unemployment is real. The supply of graduates and wannabe workers are more than their demand, hence the price of getting candidates has dropped, and the scarcity is of good jobs. This seems the logical sequence. I however, have come to discover otherwise!

I can confidently tell you that I have seen over 10,000 candidates in my career as a recruiter. I have seen different types of people, looking for different kinds of jobs. I have seen candidates from Nigeria, Ghana, UK, Poland, Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, e.t.c. Believe me, the good jobs are not as scarce as the good people.

Whenever a vacancy is to be sent to the press, the first thing that is done is that the objective for the role is defined, and the corresponding profile of who will deliver that objective is developed. This profile includes knowledge, skills, attitudes and experience of the head that will fill the vacancy. Vacancies are vacant sits, they are descriptions of people who can fill a vacant sit. When the vacancy is published, it has nobody in mind, just descriptions. It can be anybody’s game, anybody! It finally goes to the person who had prepared his life and developed the profile that is vacant. Filling a vacancy is not a days job, it’s preparing ahead for the opportunity you believe will exist, it’s maximizing your potentials, getting ready and waiting.

All vacancies are not yours! You have a unique set of potentials, it’s your responsibility to discover them, and develop them! The reason you haven’t yet been luck is because opportunities passed by you, and you were not prepared. I have seen people rejected for $50 jobs getting $300 jobs, don’t mind my using money as a measure, I’m just saying that you’ll get higher value in time gunning for the vacancy that’s looking for what you have.

I believe that in heaven, there are vacant picture frames hanging over the walls. There are no faces there, but they have descriptions. Some are labelled Leader, Hero, Successful Man, Entrepreneur per Excellence, Teacher, President of Nigeria, Encourage of the Youth, Inspirational Writer, Motivational Speaker, Group MD, HR Icon, Hope Giver, Business Teacher, Peace maker…e.t.c. All these frames are there, hanging without a face. You and I are saddled with the awesome responsibility of determining where our faces will be placed. Those are vacancies that the divine powers that founded the universe had in mind while forming you. The pictures are not predetermined, the descriptions are. They are vacancies…are you the one?