After university, a semester in the school of hard knocks

A few months out of work teach Simphiwe Ngwane the importance of a strong network — no matter how many degrees you have

In last month a decade ago, I began my matric year at Wartburg Kirchdorf School in the picturesque German village of Wartburg, a 20-minute drive from Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal.

The class of 2007 was rightfully excited about taking a step closer to the precipice of matric, having survived more than 11 years of schooling. Everything was possible.

We were giddy, anxious and expectant: we were going to matriculate from a good school, attend good universities, natürlich, land good jobs and —  obviously —  live good lives.

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Ten years later, with four degrees and almost four years of working experience, I look back and, boy oh boy, has it been an adventure!

I can safely say that qualifications and hard work alone are never enough; a strong network of great people is what you need most.

My network of friends has been responsible for directing me to knock on certain doors —  and has even unlocked those doors for me.

Networks are a valuable source of opportunity and, in many cases, are the real conduits to employment. I learnt that during my stints of unemployment.

You think, based on your qualifications and the symbols on your degrees, that you will naturally be spared the reality of unemployment. You think you've done your bit by studying and getting qualified, and the least the universe can do is to meet you halfway, right?

That is not always the case.

According to Stats SA's workforce report for the third quarter of 2016, South Africa's unemployment rate sits at 27.1%. The Adcorp Employment Index indicates that there are more than 600,000 unemployed graduates in South Africa.

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Stats SA's report "The Vulnerable Groups Series 1: The Social Profile of Youth 2009 — 2014" says the number of black graduates is decreasing, while the Department of Higher Education's management information system claims the number of black graduates has grown tremendously.

Some contend that graduate unemployment is low because graduates are snatched up upon graduating, and another argument is that there is a great mismatch between qualifications and the skills needed by employers.

But the resounding reality is that there is a great likelihood that, as a graduate, you will have to endure episodes of unemployment.

Every other Sunday, I drive Avery (my car) across the street from my complex to our local car wash. On one of these car-wash days, the attendant noticed my University of KwaZulu-Natal-graduate bumper sticker. He told me he was also a university graduate, with a commerce degree.

Strangely, I was not shocked that a graduate, especially in commerce, hadn't secured a well-paying job in his field of study and had to settle for washing cars in Dainfern.

His was a pessimism rooted in the expectation that the dividends of democracy —  in a largely free-market economy, industriousness is rewarded —  would be paid, almost automatically. He, like many young black people, had hoped that education would break the cycle of poverty.

My own two months of unemployment last year shattered all notions I had of "privilege".

Due to organisational restructuring, my contract was not renewed. The news was a bitter pill to swallow as I had worked hard to prove myself, I had shown initiative, I was improving in my key performance areas.

I was angry, anxious, and afraid of unemployment, but didn't let any of that show. I veneered these feelings with uneasy hope and the conviction that naturally I would land something promptly.

The countless interviews began to eat away at my confidence. I knew I had to find employment.

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After a month of rejections and silence, I knew I had to cast the net wider and wider. Initially, I had focused on my preferred jobs, but with time I knew I had to apply for just about anything that could bring in an income.

I began to sift through recruitment agencies on LinkedIn to find those that specialised in my field, introducing myself and sharing my résumé and portfolio of work. I checked them weekly to see if anything had come up.

Finally, there was news. A preliminary Skype interview was organised, followed by a face-to-face interview a week later, and a day after that I had a meet-and-greet with the division head.

Hours later, I received news that I had been offered a position and could start the very next day if I wanted.

I wish the younger me of a decade ago had understood the falseness of his perceived privilege and tried to pay particular attention to people, as social networks have great currency.

I would assure him that it was going to be an amazing decade ahead with wonderful experiences, great achievements and valuable memories created with friends —  but that it would not always happen as he had planned .

• Ngwane is an institutional researcher at the Gauteng provincial legislature and a 2016 Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa fellow