5 challenges you will encounter while looking for a job

You have filed all your documents. Your CV is impressive; any company would be lucky to have you. You went the whole nine yards. You had a passion, signed up for the relevant courses, impressed your lecturers with your grades (and yourself, of course), showed up to all training programs and conferences, and amassed a great wealth of knowledge in your field. You are diligent, have discipline in buckets and self-drive in sacks. Having recently graduated, you can bet on your liver that you will definitely land a job within a few weeks. Is this how this actually plays out? Is it really that easy?
Many qualified job seekers are faced with several unforeseen challenges in the course of their job search. Below are five of the challenges you are likely to face as you seek a job:

1. Lack of experience

Stubbornly frustrating, this is the number one reason job seekers are turned down by potential employers. Job seekers, though academically qualified, are seen as lacking in skills if they haven’t previously held any positions. You are assumed to have no proven skills in teamwork, ability to work under pressure and communication. It’s even more frustrating that a person less qualified than you will land the job, owing to the fact that they probably had some contract that gave them a six month head start ahead of you. The best way to go round this one is to get an internship program that exposes you to the work environment before you seek a job.

2. Unpaid internships and attachments

You will very likely find yourself rendering your services for free. Many employers have trainee programs where they train their employees, some going for as long as one year, where they place you on probation as they assess just how good you are at the task handed to you. You will, in the meantime, struggle through your finances to keep yourself afloat as you crawl through this phase.

3. Lack of opportunities

You have mapped out clearly how you want this to go. You have picked out your dream career and have settled on a particular line of interest. But thousands of others have done the same thing. You are set on a competition for a few opportunities with the hundreds of thousands of graduates in your field of interest. The economic downturn is real, and unemployment is more because of the global sluggish economic growth than it is about lack of qualified personnel. You may end up creating your own opportunities, setting up your own entrepreneurial pursuits which could even mean entirely changing your line of work altogether.

4. Lack of trainee level programs

Though you have done your class work impressively, you will need some practical training at your new place of work to acquaint yourself with the systems you will interact with there. First times are tricky: you can easily get stranded and feel at a loss to manipulate the systems in use to produce results, thus the need to undergo training. The role of such programs is sometimes downplayed, which could slow down your rate of performance and growth. Research published by The Guardian in 2012 revealed that most young people (91%) believe employers should offer more trainee roles. Many also feel that apprenticeship funding should be expanded and open to graduates, with 76% either agreeing or strongly agreeing with this statement.

5. Too high expectations

Your first job will rarely pay you what you think you deserve. You will start off at a junior position with very little pay, lots of competing tasks and a number of bosses to answer to. It will likely take years to rise through the ranks. Many job seekers are often faced with this challenge and have to drastically lower their expectations. Some even reject such jobs. But the truth is, you will have to be exceptional and impress the management to get to your desired position. It will take time, but it is worth the wait.