Government needs to create sustainable careers, not seasonal jobs

Our government have promised to provide jobs; however, it is my firm belief that we must create sustainable careers, not seasonal jobs. 

If you tell the people of Bermuda that you are going to create 2,000 jobs and then the majority of those jobs are seasonal pot washing jobs, and jobs of that nature, that does no good to a Bermudian trying to support a family and trying to make a living. 

We have to start looking at careers; those are what are going to last.

A career is the pursuit of a lifelong ambition or the general course of progression towards lifelong goals; something that is pursued and sustained over a long period of time that benefits the individual financially, intellectually, and socially. 

A job is an activity through which an individual can earn money. It is a regular activity in exchange for payment. 

Sadly, our young university graduates go abroad and get a degree only to come home and be told they don’t have enough experience for an entry-level position in their career of choice. 

So what’s the choice? Work for free and gain the experience, or settle for the job that will underpay you whilst you’re overqualified? 

Some choose the former and more power to them that can; but not everyone in these economic times can work for free and so unfortunately the majority have to settle for a job; a job that varies by demand and often proves to be unsustainable.

This perpetuating cycle of uncertainty regarding careers in the field of choice, and the daunting question of experience, provides would-be university students with quite a conundrum. 

Do I risk taking out a loan for hundreds of thousands of dollars to get an education so that I may come back to my island home of Bermuda and find myself without a career? or do I settle for a job that I’m not interested in?

Don’t settle for less

My advice to the youth of Bermuda, and all Bermudians alike, is never to settle. 

Prepare your mind to be like an employer, but be humble enough to be the employee. 

There is nothing wrong with taking the job that you feel you are overqualified for if it is putting bread on your table and clothes on your back. But always have the end game in mind and never lose sight of it. 

Tell yourself this will only be temporary and only allow it be a temporary pit stop on the road to your ultimate goal. 

Go into it knowing that by a certain date you will have moved on, progressed, and elevated yourself to a new level. 

Most of all, learn something. Life is always teaching us lessons no matter where we are or what we are doing. We must forever remain students to the teacher of life. 

Never get comfortable with where you are; for once you are comfortable, it is right there that you will stay.

The youth of Bermuda need opportunities from young ages to gain experience in the field of their choice. All Bermudians need careers that are sustainable. 

I encourage this government to fulfil their promise, but not in the form of seasonal jobs, but instead sustainable careers. The Bermudian people are in need now; and so the time for the government to make real efforts to fulfil their election promise is now. 

After all, you cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. n