Have Degree but Can’t Find Job in South Africa

What? I do NOT have a degree but I have a job. If you have a degree but can’t find a job in South Africa, work for yourself like I do. My boyfriend and I work from home because he could not find a job in South Africa. He does not have a degree and neither do I.

Yes, it’s hard work working from home, but at least we have a job in South Africa, degree or no degree.

How on earth did we manage to start working from home without having a degree? Is that an odd question? I would think it is easier for people who have a degree to start working from home in South Africa. And yet many people in South Africa who have no degree are working from home, because they got tired of struggling to make ends meet, and because they got tired of struggling to find a job – and couldn’t afford to leave South Africa or don’t want to. At the same time many people who have a degree but can’t find a job in South Africa just keep looking.

Well, perhaps those of you who have a degree (and need or want to stay in South Africa) will eventually find a job, but will this be before you become really depressed and angry that you are struggling to find a job? Or are you upset that even though you have found a job, you’re not earning as much money as you thought a person who has a degree would?

We started working from home because looking for a job got stale and we got desperate for work. Being desperate for work is also stale. Many people in South Africa are desperate. We made a plan and that plan was simply to make a plan.

If you have a degree but can’t find a job in South Africa, what are you supposed to do?

Make a plan.

Work for yourself if you have to.

Do Tony and I have a degree in English?
No.
But we write for clients all over the world.

Do Tony and I have a degree in Graphic Design?
No.
But we can design logos and brochures and html websites.

Do Tony and I have a degree in Marketing?
No.
But we help our web design clients get their sites found on Search Engines like Google.

Do Tony and I earn a lot of money?
No.
But it beats looking for jobs and finding and earning nothing.

Did we learn to design websites, learn how to get traffic to websites, and learn how to make money online from going to university?
No.
We read and studied free information on the Internet.

Any business needs exposure, whether it’s the business you’re working for, or your own home business. If nobody knows about that business you cannot earn any money. If only a few people know about a business, it won’t make as much money as it could if more people knew about it.

Set yourself up with a website or blog, add lots of content to it, spend 80% of your time getting traffic to your website or blog, and get the exposure you need. If you’re really passionate about your degree and what you want to do with it or could do with it, then pour that passion into the pages of a site of your own, and into marketing that site, which, in turn, markets YOU – you, the person who used to think “I have a degree but can’t find a job in South Africa.”

Maybe it’s not what you wanted or hoped you would achieve by getting a degree, but the exposure may just help you still get to follow your dream of working for a large company one day – or of having a degree and finding a job in South Africa.

Also see:

Unemployment Alarm Bells Ringing – businessday.co.za

What can I do During a Gap Year After Matric? – aftermatric.co.za

Thinking About What To Do After Matric – aftermatric.co.za

Jobs for Matrics and Ways to Make Money After Matric

R420 per year .co.za website including domain registration and hosting

42 Free Ways to Advertise your Website

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2011