Is It Okay For Degree holders to be A Nanny
I’ve received quite a number of questions from university graduates asking whether it’s okay to take up a job as a nanny when one has a degree or a diploma as they search for better jobs instead of just staying at home.
And I told them to not only take it up when offered but to actively look for it if no other door seems to be opening. It’s a humble job with low pay but after 3 months you’ll have saved something better and avoided upkeep costs as opposed to that person who is at home or putting up with a relative and doing just as much work as a home assistant but for no pay.
Besides, now a days more and more people are looking for learned nannies who can operate home equipment like washing machines and vacuum cleaners, and who can run other errands like driving, doing shopping and helping children with their homework. Most people who fly to the Middle East as domestic assistants will tell you that such skills are mandatory. The local market is beginning to require such skills as well, as more and more families are employing modern technology.
There are other jobs of a similar type that many graduates avoid but which I and other far-seeing graduates happily took up like Bodaboda job or operating a motorbike in a town, selling tea and snacks when it’s cold and fruit juice and pudding when it’s hot, vending candy and sweets in vehicles, etc. Ovet the weekends and holidays we would teach secondary school kids in tuitions and they were often surprised to recognise us after we had interacted in the streets as vendors or hawkers. We didn’t care about such minor things we just wanted to keep on moving and growing.
Of course these hustles were humbling and arduous but what was the alternative? To stay at home and run out of airtime and get stressed over being totally broke? We knew this lowest part of the ladder wouldn’t last forever but unless we started it we would never move. And for sure none of us in my group stayed on those kind of jobs for more than a year. Doors opened and we moved on.
Listen: all successful people appreciate process and they don’t allow their ego to get in the way of them starting small. If you can get a better job that requires your skills by all means take it up. But if you’re left no other option start with what you can find.
By Benjamin Zulu
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