MY CONTRIBUTION TO NEXT STEPS
The Questions
The conversation is endless when the topic “Do what you love or what you can be paid for” arise. Many are of the opinion of pursuing financial stability at the expense of what you really enjoy, a thought that I constantly engage is what should be an ideal response? This conversation however gets real when you’re on a journey of self-discovery or a transition phase.
My Discovery
I have had several discussions with my curious peers across universities in Nigeria and discovered uncertainty being peculiar to most in their final year as undergrads. To contribute to their journey of after-school I planned a physical hangout mainly for Unilorin students, then came COVID. The pandemic shaped event of things and of course expanded the opportunity beyond the four-walls of my institution. I partnered with R(L)eaderact, a student-focused organization that contributes to personal and community development, to plan the event for final year students virtually. With a wonderful team to work with, we carried out “Needs Assessment” for a group of 50 students across 4 universities in Nigeria in order to put together an event that would be impactful.
The event
Based on the responses from the participants we decided to segment the event tagged “WHAT NEXT?” into two;
- Tips on CV/Resume writing
- What Next? : A Reflection session
The two main events was scheduled for two weeks to give participants ample time to digest content from speakers/facilitators.
- Tips on CV/Resume writing: This was put together to give the participants a peep into requirements for a corporate industry. The guest speaker, Jesuloluwa Adedeji(Nigeria) shared important tips that are essential in building excellent content for a CV;
*Quality experience
*Focus on key achievements
*Keep the CV concise
*Use action words
*Quantify results - What Next? : A Reflection session: The essence of this was to help participants identify their next steps after school. The event was facilitated by Daniela Gheorghe (England), Yojun Kaneko (Japan) and myself (Nigeria) with the aid of a Japanese concept “IKIGAI”. This is interpreted as “meaning of life” or “your reason for being”, it examines 4 interesting questions:
*What do you love?
*What does the world need?
*What can you be paid for?
*What are you good at?
Finding the intersection among the 4 means you have found your Ikigai and the feeling of unworthiness or uselessness is eliminated. Daniela however thinks that besides Ikigai intersection, the next best point you can be at is the intersection among the first 3 while you get better at advancing your skills.
Diagnosis session was held for individual participants in smaller groups after which a follow-up group was set up for further resources.
The conversation might remain continuous about which to choose when you get to that transition phase, the most important piece to remember is you have just one life to live, live it at your best.
