CAN YOU HOLD A FIRST CLASS DEGREE AND BE JOBLESS?

Can a First Class graduate be jobless?

A friend posted that on Facebook.

Well, yes.

First Class is not an automatic guarantee of job. It will at best get you invite for job tests and/or interviews, it hardly helps you beyond that. If you are not able to defend it or impress your interviewer or do well in the job tests, your class of degree will not help you.

It can however be an advantage and a disadvantage.

An advantage in that it can give you some air of confidence and boost your performance in job interviews. “I have no alternative than to impress”.

A disadvantage in that you are likely to be drilled more than the non-first class graduates in interviews because the expectation will be so high, and any slip will be broadcast. Count the number of times you have read in newspapers some employers saying they met First Class applicants that, literally, cannot spell his name!

Joblessness is also time-relative. For how long are we talking about?  Not having job within 6 months of finishing youth service (NYSC),  irrespective of class of degree, to me, is not a problem. Recruitment process takes months, jobs are not thrown at anybody like that.

I don’t expect anyone that worked his way to having First Class not to be able to defend it anywhere. But, like any other thing, there will always be exceptions.