Thursday, March 24, 2011

Intellectual Redundancy

Towards the end of last year I was in a place of confusion with regards my career. I was stuck in a rut, I didn't know what I wanted ( maybe I still don't know sef, hence, why I'm writing this) and I was rather confused and unhappy. Scratch that, it wasn't my career per se that was making me unhappy, it was the fact that I needed more money and I wasn't seeing it happen. So I started poring over the Tuesday and Thursday Guardian, searching for anything, any opening, something, one thing, ANYTHING! I was confused the private sector had nothing for me since all I kuku want is money isn't it? I asked around, "what field of the public sector pays well?" I mean i knoew for sure I definately didn't wanna go to the ministry of justice... hell to the nizzle!!! Not after being in an office with airconditioning and fast inernet and working photocopiers and intercom! no no no!! I wasn't willing to go below what I had grown used to professionally. Special shout out to our friends who work in the civil service... May the Lord bless your hustle! Lol

Ok I digress, sorry. So in my quest for a new job or career opportunities, I was told that federal parastatals especially in the finance sector and in the oil and gas sector were the big payers!!! WooHoo!! I applied to NNPC and SEC. Fingers crossed on that! But the issue that arose is this.."INTELLECTUAL REDUNDANCY" These words have been swimming around in my head since January. I love to have money and all, but I also don't want to have spent 30years of my professional lives writing letters to external counsel reminding them to provide me with an update. **gasp** I mean it's all nice and dandy collecting money and all but what happens if I end up being one of those Director Generals with absolutely no clue on how the system works outside. I mean in this my office, bad as e bad reach I learn new things every day. I get exposed to high level international transactions, I may be getting paid peanuts but when I read about some transactions in the news, I have this secret smile inside knowing I worked on it or I heard about it. I asked a friend of mine what he thought about going to work in the public sector and how I was worried that my brain cells would atrophy if I just went to some parastatal to tweedle my thumbs, he said " Ronke, did you say they pay well? Omo, if you have a chance go there, take the money and if you feel your brain is dying out play Sudoku or something" I laughed really hard that day and thought, wow get a rubix cube, play sudoku, crosswords are there and you'd be find doing "availability at Corporate Affairs Commission"

The silent battle between wanting more money and being intellectually redundant. I spoke to my cousin recently about this issue. He works for a multinational investment bank and he has worked there for three years. He's moving to Nigerian Deposit Insurance Company in April. Now NDIC is a government parastatal and everyone I know who works there says "mehn... that place is the ish!! the money there is not small matter!" However, when I ask these guys about the kind of work they do i get a shrug of "you know this and that, a bit of this and a bit of that". This doesn't help someone like me who's already confused. So I asked my cousin the high profile investment banker "S, why aren't you afraid of intellectual redundancy" and he said " omo, na person wey no get sense go reash dat kain place siddon sey he no go study or advance himself. I mean Ronke, there's so much time and there are so many opportunities for scholarships and study leaves in the public sector that only a foolish person would rest on his oars and become intellectually redundant!" This was such a light bulb moment for me. like Selah or Eureka ( i really don't know if I've used those words appropriately but u sha get the general picture *kaching* *bells ringing*lol)

So there you have it, I found how to go chill with the "chillers" in the public sector and at the same time keep my brain working.

Pray with me oh, because the koko of all this is that I WANT MORE MONEY ;)

3 comments:

  1. LOL...I think your cousin makes sense. And all the best with making the money too, lol..

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  2. Hope you make money, we all need some cash. :)

    http://themessenger-bag.blogspot.com

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  3. Wish u all d best but pls don't forget that money doesn't always bring happiness! Whatever u do, make sure its what u love doing, that'd bring u a lot of happiness, especially when u get well paid to do it!

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