The Nigerian career landscape presents a disheartening reality for young people, where the simple luxury of dreaming about their future careers often remains unattainable or suspended in possibility. The journey from education to employment is fraught with systemic challenges that delay and eventually penalize them for circumstances beyond their control, fostering an environment where aspirations are often stifled before they can fully take root.

The intricate process typically begins with university admission, frequently delayed for students entering around seventeen due to chaotic and mismanaged JAMB processes. Even upon securing admission, many students may not gain entry into their preferred courses, leading to further delays if they attempt to change disciplines. This initial distortion of their educational timeline is significantly exacerbated by frequent ASUU strikes, which have become an almost ritualistic experience, transforming a standard four-year degree into a six-year ordeal or even longer. Consequently, students who should graduate in their early twenties often find themselves completing their degrees around twenty-four or twenty-five, sometimes as late as twenty-seven. The mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) then adds another full year, inevitably pushing their entry into the formal workforce to their mid-to-late twenties.

A profound and frustrating contradiction emerges at this critical juncture: most organizations seek experienced graduates or offer highly competitive graduate trainee programs, many of which come with strict age limits, often capped at twenty-five or twenty-six. This creates a cruel paradox where a system that inherently delays young people for years through various bottlenecks then effectively disqualifies them for being “too old” for the very entry-level opportunities designed for fresh graduates. Faced with this insurmountable predicament, many are compelled into difficult survival decisions, either venturing into business without adequate preparation or accepting jobs far below their potential, roles that often lack clear growth paths, structured development, or genuine future prospects.

This protracted period of waiting – waiting for admission, waiting for strikes to end, waiting for graduation, waiting for national service, waiting for job callbacks, waiting for someone to take a chance – gradually erodes their youthful optimism and their innate belief in endless possibilities. Their aspirations fundamentally shift from the ambitious question of “What do I really want to become?” to the more pragmatic and often resigned “What can I manage? What can I survive?” This fundamental change in perspective often manifests as restlessness, impatience, and a desperate pursuit of quick success, frequently driven by an overwhelming fear that time will consume their youth or by the insidious grip of greed.

However, amidst these daunting and systemic challenges, a powerful and practical piece of advice emerges for young Nigerians: proactive and continuous preparation from the very moment they step into university. Recognizing that the system is inherently slow, unpredictable, and often unfair, individuals must consciously take control of their personal and professional development. This involves actively seeking out internships, volunteering for relevant causes, and deliberately collaborating with creative and resourceful individuals, ensuring they never remain stagnant or passively waiting for opportunities to materialize.

Crucially, young people are strongly urged to transcend the geographical limitations of their immediate environment and cultivate a global outlook on their careers. The internet has effectively dismantled many traditional barriers, opening vast avenues to work for international companies, learn from global experts, and develop skills with worldwide applicability and value. This requires a heightened sense of awareness, an insatiable curiosity, and a genuine willingness to explore opportunities far beyond local job markets. By asking broader, more expansive questions – about global skill demands, rapidly growing industries worldwide, and where their knowledge can be applied internationally – their options multiply exponentially, and their dreams, once suspended in abstract possibility, begin to materialize into tangible realities. In a flawed system, dreaming must walk hand in hand with rigorous preparation to achieve real-world success.