Are you enjoying your work?

For most people, the amount of work done does not commensurate with their earnings. Thus, they are not motivated to put much effort into their work.

Could it be your work environment? Maybe you are pessimistic about how things are moving. You worry that you can not achieve much in your present position. Or that you can not find anything matching your search for a respectable job. It can also be that the pressure at work is sapping your joy.

Were you desperate for anything that came along? Many graduates out of desperation accept anything they find just to survive. Some take up employment that they later regret. Others pay a high price-sex, big cash- to be offered a place to work; they later find out how unsuitable the job is or they are faced with other things that they must do to keep the job.

Have you been doing this job for a long time that you have lost interest? Doing the same thing over and over again can be boring, especially when it is in the same environment.

Are you doing a job you are not skilled for? It does happen that people take jobs they are not qualified for just to be employed. Others are pushed into positions because of someone they know at the ‘top’, with the view to learn on the job. The reality is that once the skill and passion for the job are not there, anxiety sets in and you lose interest in working.

For others, a change in circumstance makes it difficult to enjoy their work. When we are younger, we start with a lot of energy and enthusiasm to learn new things, make more money, travel the world, and touch the moon. However, as we grow older, parental obligations, health concerns, and additional responsibilities may have a toll on us making it almost impossible to find fulfillment in our careers.

No matter the reason you do not enjoy your work, there are ways to deal with it. Much of what satisfies us is our motives and passion.

Stay positive

Know that we are full of possibilities. Have you ever said, I can’t do so or so? Did you try before concluding? Exploring the world around you, thinking outside your comfort zone, you’ll find your interest. By exploring new experiences, you will realize pretty soon that what you felt could never be done is feasible. Most people find that a regular 8-4/9-5 job can no longer fill their needs so they do other things that bring them fulfillment- enhancing their talents.

Be diligent

Your work is a means to an end. Remembering this can help you to concentrate on doing your best. If we can be trusted with duties, it is an avenue to seek out more opportunities and get referrals. Being able to give more than is expected makes a person valuable to others. Once people are content with our work, they will patronize us, thus, generating more revenue for us.

The plans of the diligent one surely lead to success…

King Solomon

Remain focused

Ask yourself, Who am I proving myself to? Many people compare their career lives with others. We are all not the same. We have limitations, abilities, and expertise that make us different from others. We may start slow but end big. This does not make us unworthy. Focusing on what we can do and taking pride in our feat can give us a measure of satisfaction. Recognizing what makes us fulfilled is the key to enjoying our work.

Know your priorities

What do you wish to achieve with your career or business? Once you know what you expect, work towards it. Is it that you are limiting yourself because it seems your goals are beyond your reach? Talk to genuine people about your intentions. Read more about what you want to do. Join people who have similar interests, ask questions about how to go, fuel your initiative and seize opportunities to explore.

Learn more skills.

Having more skills is the best way to get out of a job you find unfulfilling. Many people find more satisfaction working as entrepreneurs than employees. Possessing multiple skills can make work-life intriguing. One does not need to feel bored performing the same tasks over and over again. Toggling another duty breaks the boredom. It also comes with a lot of flexibility and financial potential. Investing in oneself is the best gift one can give himself. So take a course that relates to a passionate skill. Veer into other fields outside your field. Acquiring knowledge about many different fields adds up information to innovate.

The harder you work for something you love, the more meaningful your life becomes.

Joseph Barbara

In many ways, our finding fulfillment in our career is directly related to personal motivations, ambitions, beliefs, past and present experiences, our work environment-colleagues at work, clients and our employer, money, time, present circumstances, family situation, and the world around us.

Accomplishment is relative because people seem to have different things that make them satisfied. Going to work daily is drudgery for many who do not feel challenged at what they do. A good number dread their work for not being appreciated and valued for the effort they put into their work or compensated for doing extraordinary labor, whereas several others are denied promotion.

No matter how you despise your job, enjoying it is intrinsic. Therefore, invest in activities that you believe in. Just develop your passion.

Do share with us what makes you enjoy your career or business in the comment section or reach us at nextjoblink@gmail.com

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What you should know about maintaining more than one job.

Finally…

You’ve landed your dream job or gained admission into an institution to pursue your preferred course of study.
You expect things to go as smoothly as possible but then your side hustle which initially supported you is either becoming demanding or your new chapter is just after your life.

Well, it does happen. Most people eventually just decide on one and drop the other. As far as Next Job is concerned, maintaining a good work balance between your day job and a side hustle is necessary. It is a fundamental skill one must develop or enhance to be successful in the world of work.

Balance is not better time management, but better boundary management. Balance means making choices and enjoying those choices.

Besty Jacobson

How to achieve balance

Let’s consider four operational approaches to help maintain work and side hustle balance.

1. Make a practical schedule

Maintaining a healthy balance between your work and a side hustle is primarily a matter of organization. Planning and sticking to a roster does the trick. It’s said so easily but then its application is not trouble-free.

Design a checklist that would allow you to track your activities and keep you updated on your work plan. Fortunately, some Apps can help one achieve this. Todoist, Any.do, Doodle, Calendly, Google Calendar, etc

Download any of them that suit your needs. These Apps can make planning easy and prevent clashes between your two jobs.

It is worthy to keep in mind the thorn in this plausible idea – procrastination. To stick with your schedule you would have to be disciplined. Canceling activities or chores is not necessarily a means of balancing one’s day job and side hustle. It is just a coping mechanism to make one feel better.

2. Know when to stop

I have read many articles that advise people in stressful situations to continually push and give their all so that they can achieve great things. However, the reality is that sometimes we deserve a break. Know that quality is the goal and as such there should not be any room for mediocrity.

When you feel there’s a need to break, do so. It’s a must. Taking a break would help you regain stability. The benefits would be evident in your work output.

3. Prioritize your activities.

When it comes to working more than one job, the fact is that you’ll enjoy one job better than the other. This is where care must be taken so that standards are not compromised.

Consider a scenario. Your regular job is being audited and this has tensioned every employee, yourself included, would that be the right time to accept express orders or offers for your side hustle? Decide, which job is your priority?

Examine additional precepts. Will the quality of my brand be affected negatively since I would be working under extreme pressure? Will it affect my performance at one job since I will have to dedicate more time to meet the deadlines of my clients in the other job? Will it affect my self-care routine meaning I would have to lose sleep and feel haggard?

An affirmative answer to these questions is a hint to push on the brakes and reconsider your priorities.

4. Accept help

Many people view accepting help as a weakness. Rather, accepting help is a sign of maturity. Admitting you can not be doing everything on your own is an avenue to engage like-minded people to help expand your side hustle. Friends and relatives may assist with publicity and delivery. Training others to fill in for you when you are unavailable would be terrific in keeping your balance.

We asked a few young entrepreneurs about how they keep two jobs. Their experiences will inspire us not to give up when we have to combine our regular job and our side hustle.

It can be a bit challenging. But scheduling my daily activities has helped bridge the stress gap. I strictly dedicate the stipulated time for my day job to my day job without compromising. I strictly follow my work schedule. I make wigs only after the closing of work or over the weekends. I also don’t take express orders to maintain the set standard for my quality brand. Focusing too much on quantity would make this impossible currently but I hope to expand shortly.- Efya (Blaq wigs)

I’m running a startup. Accepting the fact that I can’t be schooling and running my side business on my own when demand increased helped me very much. Though I followed a schedule, there were days when demand was higher than expected. I had to teach other family members the trade. In cases where I was unavailable, they helped out. This has helped me balance my school life and keep my side hustle intact. – Quadwo (Kays Snack ‘N’ Lunch)

Being a content creator and working an 8-4 job is hectic. But it all stems down to passion. I make sure the content I create resonates with my work. Though I work in a production house (Creat Haurs) as an employee, I’ve been granted creative freedom to create and explore. That helps me work my side hustle alongside. However, on busy days at work, I make time at home after work to create content or I shoot a series of videos on weekends and schedule my posts across the week. In all, I would say not procrastinating maintains my balance.- Lois (Odaseni recipes)

Juggling a regular job, side job, or school and other tasks may be daunting. Nevertheless, with industry, discipline, and tough-mindedness one can successfully survive working more than one job.

How to start a fruit processing business.

An encounter with a fruit processor.

Since we launched the website a few weeks ago, the campaign has been to develop skills and harness our talents. We have also explored areas, where we can develop these skills.

You can find more ideas here 👇.

How to employ oneself in Ghana

We are proud to host Hajara Musah to tell us how she has put her skills to good use.

Rhoda:    Tell us your motivation for starting NASMA Fruit Juices.

Hajara:      I love mangoes and pineapples. Anytime I go to the market I think about the many fruits that go bad and have to be disposed of. Once, it occurred to me to start making fruit juice for sale.

Rhoda: So, how did it start?

Hajara: With 10 cedis worth of mangoes, pineapples, and ginger, I started production in my kitchen using my domestic blender. That day, and subsequent weeks, I produced ten 250ml bottles that I sold at 2.50p.

Rhoda: What has been the setback?

Hajara: I started by selling to colleagues, friends, and acquaintances. Patronage was promising, so I increased the quantity of the fruits.

From there, I decided to try places where people might need juice. I started with a restaurant on the University of Cape Coast campus. I left samples. A few days later, the manager called that they liked the product. I was hopeful about my business because it meant more production. However, they were not going to patronize the product because it was not registered.

It was a big blow. I didn’t know what registering the products involved. I almost quit. Nonetheless, I set out to inquire about registration at FDA.

The real problem was getting money to register the product, getting a place for production, and obtaining production equipment. Aside from these, mangoes and pineapples are seasonal fruits. Getting them was going to be tough.

Rhoda: How did you deal with that?

Hajara:       I took a risk to register the product, going through lab analysis and other protocols. Then I registered the business. After two years, my product was approved!

Rhoda: Well done. Can you tell us when you started?

Hajara: In 2018.

Rhoda: What is your success story?

Hajara: When I started up, I never thought I’d ever produce 500 bottles a week nor did I imagine I could produce different combinations.

Rhoda: Tell us how you arrived at these combinations.

Hajara: I started with pineapple and ginger juice, then I had pineapple and mango juice. Later, when the fruits were out of season I started ginger and natural spice drink. The newest product I introduced barely a month ago is hybis wine. As time goes on, I hope to produce other juice varieties that people would love.

Rhoda: Anything to share with us?

Hajara: Increased production means more hands. As a mother and full-time teacher, balancing the two has not been an easy undertaking. Getting people to help has been nearly impossible. Juice making is a skill I learned while growing up and it’s been a real privilege to use it as a side job. I am open to working with anyone interested in learning about drink production. I envisage increasing production to train more people.

I have learned in the last few years that to start a business, one has to bridge the gap between what people need and what you can give. It also involves taking a risk, without which one cannot achieve anything.

Our products are

mango pyn
pine ginger
ginger mix
hybis wine
Nasma dates

We have small packs for children. A carton of 12 pieces for 59 cedis. (500ml)

We are located in Cape Coast, Ghana.

Call Hajara on

0246269642
0551536791

Let’s inspire others. What are you accomplishing with your skills? You can also share your story here.

Send it to nextjoblink@gmail.com

Reasons you have to learn a skill now!

What is your next job?

Having a successful job is everyone’s dream. As a worker, have you thought about opportunities you have to learn a skill or develop a talent in order to earn passively? There are very good reasons doing so can help you. Let’s talk about how to get serious about doing that.

You might have read similar blog posts with tips along these lines. In this post, I’ll discuss several reasons you have to do it soon!

Get started!

Why?

Think about this. Just before the pandemic, and during the peak of it, well-grounded companies collapsed in Ghana.

Many people lost their jobs. Imagine how these will survive with their families.

As global economies are struggling, many companies especially in developing countries like ours, will continue to downsize or close down. This will lead to many hardships.

Picture the situation one can get themselves into especially if they possess no skill or other means of survival, this situation brings a lot of anxiety.

Today, one cannot be too complacent about being in a job for life. Anything is possible. Life situations can be very unpredictable. In today, out tomorrow.

It is for these reasons that we need to encourage ourselves to develop survival skills – be it hard, soft, social or technical.

Can you guess other possible thoughts for which we need to develop such skills today and not later?

For one, a skilled person is better placed to solve emerging challenges. When a person has skills, it is easy to put them to use to solve immediate needs. With practical experience, one can set up a business with little or no capital at all.

It is not unusual for a skilled person to land other jobs than those without any skills. Interestingly, a skilled person can have the advantage of moving around to accomplish tasks where his services may be needed. It also offers an individual the flexibility of working two or more jobs.

Having skills actually, help one to establish a good career. We all work to achieve success. Skills make us more productive, effective, and efficient. This leads to promotions and advancement in our own lives and career.

How to develop that skill presently.

• Work at improving what you love doing

I love to cook so I enjoy learning new methods of cooking. I commit myself to look for new recipes, signing up for cooking classes, link with cooks and friends to learn more about improving that skill. While I take time to learn these skills, I dedicate more time to mastering them in the kitchen.

•Research more information about the skills you need in your career path.

As long as a skill has a critical impact on your career, don’t leave it to chance. If your goal is to become an educator, learn social skills like good communication- listening, speaking, and questioning skills. Learn more about being an empathetic, patient, creative, and open-minded person.

• Take action

First, know what you want to learn. Find out what it would take to do it. Make plans about how and when you’ll learn. Start practicing that’s when you’ll know how good you can be.

The person who says it cannot be done shouldn’t distract the one who is doing it.

If one can count on his skills for survival, it brings emotional and mental stability – more importantly, self-respect. Be convinced that harnessing your skills can be a good way to deal with sudden unemployment. Remember, the fastest-growing jobs are around us, look for those skills that can meet them now!

Tell us about your skill development journey, the setbacks and the success stories at nextjoblink@gmail.com

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Simple ways to get a job in Ghana

    The search for work is high, as each year, a sea of high school  and university graduates flood the job market.

    The hard truth is that having a degree  or specialized training is no guarantee  that one can find work in his/her chosen career.

    Therefore, it has become  quite  common for many people to change  career entirely or change jobs several times in order to survive.

    • What can you do while in school to prepare for the world of work?
    • If you find yourself  unemployed after school or specialized training, what can you do to survive?
    • How can workers prepare now for sudden  unemployment?

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    1. Get links

    At  every point in our life we need links. That’s why we don’t have to destroy  our relationship with people. Apart from our family and friends we contact  often, there comes times we need old school mates, old contacts and acquaintances to link us up.

    For most times, our kindness or other beautiful  qualities may attract us to strangers who may be of help.

    2. Ask around

    In some places, many jobs aren’t  advertised. So, contact companies  that may need your skills even if they have not advertised. Keep trying  until fortune smiles at you. Never be shy to tell people about  your search for a job. By telling  them, they may help you get one.

    3. Be observant

    Ask questions about buildings and other ongoing  projects  in your locality. Read notices. Follow  job seeking links  on the internet, beware of fraudsters.

    4. Be open-minded

    Being  adaptable can help lift us from the pit of unemployment. How? Most job seekers  have their ideal jobs in mind. Once they don’t get it, they keep waiting. Sometimes,  the job that comes our way may even be different from the skills we have acquired. Do we let it go? Not at all. We take every decent opportunity that comes our way to learn more skills that may be helpful  to us in the future.

    5. Be realistic

    In time, you may get  a job that you like. In the meantime,  don’t  look down  on any job. Ask to perform  services for others. Such service rendering  may even be the key you need to open the door to the opportunities you have always dreamed of.

    6. Work for yourself

    This series has been  advocating for skill acquisition and talent development.    Having practical skills  can help one set  up a business with or without  capital, and you can be your own boss. Why not try and learn a skill? Will you  harness a talent  or hobby and make money out of it? Do it soon!

    We’ll be happy to  hear  your  comments. Send us  stories about your business  journey let’s  share with others.

    Please, do subscribe.

    Regards!

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    Rating: 1 out of 5.

    Rating: 1 out of 5.

    The sun setting through a dense forest of trees.
    Wind turbines standing on a grassy plain, against a blue sky.

    Rating: 1 out of 5.

    The sun shining over a ridge leading down into the shore. In the distance, a car drives down a road.

    Getting career skills

    Hello there!

    We have been talking about skill acquisition and the development of new talent. The world is changing; things are moving fast. Most employers require specific skills added to our certificates.

    Most people are unemployed because they lack these skills. How do we bridge the gap between the career we want to pursue and employer requirements?

    Many employers ask for skills in

    * typing

    * use of Google tools

    * use of Adobe Acrobat

    * Microsoft tools

    * SPSS

    * marketing

    * programming

    * website development

    * content writing

    * proofreading

    * communication skills/ presentation

    * business analysis

    * graphic designing

    * purchasing and supply

    * photography

    * 3D modeling

    * Mobile App designing

    * music mixing

    * FL studio

    * music production

    and other such skills. One can easily land a job even on the internet and work remotely.

    While in school, why not learn these skills? Are you a worker? Take advantage and learn when you are less busy.

    Most of these can be learned from the internet free of charge. Whereas for others one may need to pay a small fee to learn.

    Career skills are necessary! They enable one to land a job and manage it efficiently and effectively. What is your career path? Look for skills that can benefit you now and in the future.

    Learn to communicate well and link up with people who have similar interests.

    What’s your next job? Subscribe for weekly updates. Feel free to contact us with any ideas you want to share. Best wishes.

    Making money as a student

    Are you ready to start that business this year? There are several ways of building that small business. No experience required! Very little capital is needed.

    If you have the vision, desire, and will, you can start a successful business even as a student from your pocket money.

    The fastest-growing jobs are around us. What are the things that people need in your zone? How can you meet these needs with the things you already have?

    Most students have fridges. If you do, why not throw in some drinks and water and make some coins from it? Let’s start with five packs and see how it goes!

    Will you try frozen foods like sausage and gizzards? Maybe you can fry for your friend and add three pieces of yam. Yummy! Why not try just ten packs a week?

    What about expanding the family business? Can you take orders for small things that your mates might need? Hand sanitizer, wig, perfume, deodorant, sanitary pad, underwear, etc. It can even be groceries. Ask that these goods are sent to you, possibly, fortnightly, for onward delivery to your clients.

    Guess, you might find your next hustle from here and save up for the next dream. Just think about what is available to you and start something.

    If you have a skill or talent, you are already there. Just make it known and roll.

    Are you thinking of the time? No fears. You decide. Can you do business one day a week, in the evenings or on weekends? At your convenience!

    Our hobbies and passions can open business opportunities for us now. Be your boss today. Let’s try now before we’re out of school! What’s your next job?