You did everything you were supposed to do. You burned the midnight oil in OAU, UI, or UNILAG, sacrificing social events for late-night study sessions in the library. You meticulously followed every lecturer’s instruction, aced your exams, and defended your project with flair. Your hard work paid off: you emerged with a First-Class Honours degree. You were the pride of your family, the benchmark for your peers. You completed your NYSC with the same diligence, armed with a stellar CV that proudly displayed your exceptional CGPA. You expected the doors of Nigeria’s top companies to swing open. Instead, all you’ve heard is silence.
The frustration is immense. The confusion is demoralizing. You start to question everything. Was all that hard work for nothing? Why is someone with a 2:2 from your department getting interview calls while your application is ignored? It feels like a profound injustice, a betrayal of the promise that academic excellence would be your golden ticket to a great career. This feeling is valid, but it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the modern Nigerian job market.
The hard truth is this: while your First-Class degree is a monumental achievement that proves your intelligence and discipline, it is not an automatic passport to employment. It is a powerful foundation, but it is not the finished building. The disconnect you are experiencing is not a reflection of your worth, but a gap between the world of academia and the practical demands of the corporate world. This guide is an honest, empathetic look at the common missteps that brilliant graduates make, and a strategic, actionable plan to help you translate your academic brilliance into the career success you have earned.
The Harsh Truth: Why Your First-Class Isn’t an Automatic Pass
Before we diagnose the specific mistakes, it’s crucial to understand the new rules of the game. The Nigerian job market of 2025 is vastly different from that of even a decade ago.
- The Academic vs. Corporate Disconnect: Universities are designed to teach you theoretical knowledge and how to excel in exams. Companies, however, hire you to solve their practical problems and make them money. There is a huge gap between knowing the theory of marketing and being able to run a digital ad campaign that delivers a positive return on investment.
- The Competition is Fierce: You are not the only one with a First-Class degree. Nigerian universities produce thousands of exceptional graduates every year. Your high CGPA gets your CV into the “maybe” pile, but it doesn’t automatically elevate you above other candidates who also have excellent grades.
- The Rise of Skills-Based Hiring: Modern employers, especially in high-growth sectors like tech, fintech, and media, are increasingly prioritizing demonstrable skills over academic credentials. What can you *do*? Can you build a website? Can you analyze a dataset? Can you manage a project? Your portfolio and certifications are becoming just as, if not more, important than your transcript.
A Diagnostic Checklist: What Could You Be Doing Wrong?
Let’s move from theory to diagnosis. Here are five of the most common mistakes that First-Class graduates make in their job search. Read them with an open mind and a willingness to self-assess.
1. Are You Relying Solely on Your Degree? The “Entitlement Trap”
This is the most common pitfall. It’s the subconscious belief that your excellent grade is all the proof an employer needs of your capability. You put your 4.8/5.0 CGPA at the top of your CV and expect it to do all the work. The reality is that employers see it as an indicator of potential, not proof of performance.
What to do instead: Build a Profile Beyond the Grade.
- Seek Practical Experience: If you are still in school or serving, you must get internships. If you’ve graduated, volunteer or take on freelance projects, even for little pay. You need tangible, real-world experience to talk about in interviews.
- Build a Portfolio: Create a body of work that showcases your skills. If you’re a writer, start a blog. If you’re a developer, contribute to projects on GitHub. If you’re a designer, build a portfolio on Behance. This is concrete proof of your abilities.
- Get Certified: A professional certification like a PMP (for Project Management), an AWS certification (for Cloud Computing), or a Google Digital Marketing certification is a direct signal to employers that you have invested in job-ready skills.
2. Is Your CV a Problem, Not a Passport?
Many brilliant graduates have surprisingly poor CVs. They are often just a list of academic courses, a high CGPA, and perhaps a list of personal hobbies. The document fails to communicate your value in the language that recruiters understand.
What to do instead: Re-engineer Your CV for Impact.
- Tailor It for Every Single Application: Your CV for a job at a bank should be different from your CV for a job at a tech startup. Read the job description, identify the key skills and keywords, and customize your CV to mirror that language.
- Focus on Achievements, Not Duties: Don’t just list what you did in your NYSC PPA or during an internship. Quantify the impact. Instead of “Responsible for filing documents,” try “Developed a new digital filing system that reduced document retrieval time by 30% for the department.” Even academic projects can be quantified: “Led a 4-person team to complete a final-year project, delivering the research and presentation two weeks ahead of schedule.”
- Make it ATS-Friendly: Use a clean, simple format. Avoid complicated tables, graphics, and columns. Ensure the keywords from the job description are naturally integrated into your text to pass the initial screening by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
3. Are You Lacking In-Demand Soft Skills?
This can be a tough pill to swallow. Excelling in academics often requires solitary, focused work. Excelling in the corporate world requires collaboration, communication, persuasion, and emotional intelligence. You can be a genius at calculus, but if you cannot communicate your ideas clearly in a team meeting or build rapport with an interviewer, you will struggle to get hired.
What to do instead: Intentionally Develop Your People Skills.
- Practice Interviewing: Record yourself answering common interview questions. Watch it back to assess your body language, tone of voice, and clarity. Practice the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your answers.
- Learn to Network: Networking is a skill. Practice talking to new people. Reach out to alumni from your university for informational chats to learn about their careers. (Remember, you are asking for advice, not a job).
- Develop Your Communication Skills: Join a group like Toastmasters to improve your public speaking. Practice writing professional emails. Learn to be a good listener. These skills are just as important as your technical knowledge.
4. Is Your Job Search Strategy Flawed?
Are you spending your days on job boards, sending out hundreds of applications with the same generic CV and cover letter? This “spray and pray” approach is one of the least effective ways to find a job. It’s a numbers game where the odds are stacked against you.
What to do instead: Adopt a Targeted, Quality-Over-Quantity Strategy.
- Identify Target Companies: Instead of applying to everything, identify 15-20 companies in Nigeria that you would genuinely love to work for. Research them deeply.
- Network Your Way In: Use LinkedIn to find people who work at your target companies. Connect with them, engage with their posts, and then politely ask for a 15-minute informational chat to learn more about the company culture and their role. A warm referral from an internal employee is 100 times more powerful than a cold application.
- Focus Your Efforts: Spend your time crafting a few high-quality, perfectly tailored applications each week rather than sending out dozens of generic ones each day.
5. Are Your Expectations Misaligned with Reality?
A First-Class degree can sometimes create a sense of entitlement regarding salary and role. You might be applying only for “Graduate Trainee” roles at major multinationals or turning down opportunities at smaller companies because the starting salary isn’t what you expected. This can significantly limit your options.
What to do instead: Prioritize Experience and Learning Above All.
- Research Entry-Level Salaries: Understand the realistic starting salary range for a graduate in your field in Nigeria. A First-Class degree might get you to the higher end of that range, but it won’t catapult you into a different bracket entirely.
- See Your First Job as a Paid Apprenticeship: Your primary goal in your first one or two years is to learn and gain as much practical experience as possible. The company that offers the most learning opportunities might be a better choice than the one that offers slightly more pay but has you doing mundane tasks.
- Don’t Despise Small Beginnings: A role at a fast-growing startup might offer you far more responsibility and a steeper learning curve than a structured program at a large corporation. This hands-on experience can be incredibly valuable and accelerate your career faster in the long run.
Conclusion: Your Brain is Your Greatest Asset—Use It Strategically
Your First-Class degree is proof that you have a powerful mind, an exceptional work ethic, and the ability to master complex subjects. These are invaluable assets. The frustration you are feeling now does not negate that achievement; it simply reveals that the game you are playing has changed. The job market is not an academic exam; it’s a complex system with its own set of rules.
Stop relying on your transcript to make your case for you. Your new project is to market yourself. Apply the same intelligence and discipline that earned you that First-Class to understanding this new system. Rebuild your CV, acquire practical skills, develop your soft skills, and adopt a strategic approach to your job search. Your degree is the foundation; now it’s time to build a skyscraper of a career on top of it.