Job hunting is costly, you must plan for it

Geoffrey Maina, a high school teacher, was happy when he saw an advert for a civil service job in his native Nyeri County. From the requirements, he realised that he would have to move fast to secure an interview and, hopefully, a job at the end of it all. Among the requirements were compliance certificates from the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

Others were a certificate of good conduct from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). He also required a letter from a Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) indicating that he didn’t owe any financial institution money.

Maina thought he could travel to Nairobi and get all these certificates at a go. But he hadn’t anticipated the long queues at some of the offices he visited. Notable was the long line at CID headquarters, where people had been from as early as 5am.

On the second day, he ran out of money and clothes and had to return home. He also had not reckoned on a Sh1,000 fee that the CID headquarters required to process a certificate of good conduct. Maina paid Sh500 to the commissioner of oaths at EACC to verify the information on the form he had to fill out.

“The CRB I visited charged me Sh2,200 to search for my name in their database and give me a clearance certificate,” he says. But it was his visit to KRA that was the most shocking.

“They told me I owed them Sh5,000 in tax arrears that had arisen from my employer’s late submission of taxes,” he says. Because he needed their clearance fast, Maina paid up. With his papers in order, he submitted his job application.

“I estimate that I spent about Sh20,000 meant for other things on this search for a position that ended up slipping through my hands,” he laments. “My employer got wind of what I was doing and denied me permission to attend the interview,” he says.

He advises job seekers to save a “war chest” to avoid having to raid their upkeep and children’s school fees budgets when changing careers.

“The need for a job doesn’t come up overnight and, therefore, a master plan complete with a time frame and budget for the search can be worked out,” he says.

Like Maina, many people spend a considerable fortune looking for jobs. And unless one is keeping tabs on the shillings, job searches have the potential to impoverish.

There are many people who have sold off property and raided their savings to sustain their job searches, which often end up being wild goose chases.

Tragically, many employed people looking for greener pastures often apply blindly, which can be costly. They surf the net for better opportunities and are forever updating their CVs, which they send to multiple addresses with little follow up. This becomes a pasttime that robs them of the enthusiasm required for their current jobs, and could lead to poor productivity, stagnation, pessimism, and the ultimate loss of all – the sack.

Personal finance experts advise that with due planning, a job search need not impoverish a person or a family. Daniel Komen, a personal finance banker in Nakuru, says that going flat out in search of a job and working smart at getting one are two different things.

“I have seen people take loans to look for jobs for themselves or their children, which is bad economics if you ask me,” he says.

Komen advises people to narrow down their search to a few areas that match their skills and intensify their efforts there instead of casting their nets far and wide to fields that are out of synch with their skills.

“It is the height of folly to spend money on sending job applications and testimonials to every firm that advertises a vacancy, as many people do,” he says.

This is a form of impulse spending. Komen singles out the lack of preparedness as the biggest cost in a job search.

“Many people routinely don’t keep their qualification papers in order until they are demanded, which is often on short notice.”

Keep your birth and school leaving certificates, academic transcripts and clearances from Government agencies in order because trying to get them in the hurry of beating job application deadlines is costly.

There is a misconception that jobs are so hard to come by and one must “tarmac” before an opportunity arises. Sadly, we make this myth prophetic in our lack of focus when searching for jobs, throwing away money in the process.

Like warfare that keeps both costs and casualties down, a job search needs strategy.

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