EMPLOYABLE
How Graduates and Early-Career Starters Can Win in Today's Job Market
The career advice most graduates receive is outdated. Graduate, apply, wait, get hired no longer reflects the market you are walking into. EMPLOYABLE is a practical system you can run, starting Monday morning: self-assessment, reskilling, positioning and resilience, written for graduates and early-career professionals in Nigeria and across Africa.
Secure checkout and payment happen on Selar. You receive the PDF to read on a laptop, phone, tablet or e-reader, and keep.
Which one are you?
You have just finished school, or you are about to. You are smart, qualified and ready to work, but the applications go unanswered and the interviews are not coming. You are not failing. You are playing the game without knowing the full rules. This book gives you the rules.
You landed something. It gets you out of the house every morning. But if you are honest, this is not where you are supposed to stay, and you do not know exactly what to do next. This book gives you the map.
One sequence, run in order.
Most job-search advice is a pile of tips. This book is a sequence, and the order is the point: positioning before you have anything to position is marketing without a product. Most graduates begin at move six. That is precisely why the applications go unanswered.
Diagnose
Establish honestly where you are starting from.
Chapter 1Build
Close the gap between what you have and what the market wants.
Chapters 2 and 10Prove
Turn the skill into something a stranger can inspect.
Chapters 2 and 3Position
Make that evidence visible and easy to find.
Chapters 3 and 11Connect
Build the relationships before you need them.
Chapter 4Pursue
Apply with precision rather than volume.
Chapter 5Convert
Get through the selection system and close the offer.
Chapters 6 and 7Compound
Manage the career rather than the job.
Chapters 8 to 14Depending on where you are standing.
The Graduate
Self-assessment, reskilling without going back to school, the modern CV and LinkedIn, networking from scratch, applying strategically, the Nigerian hiring machine and the interview. Plus bonus chapters on becoming AI-ready and working remotely for employers abroad.
The Early Starter
Already employed but stuck. Diagnosing whether the role is a stepping stone or a dead end, defining the next move, closing the skills gap while still employed, repositioning quietly, and timing the leap.
The Inner Game
What nobody prepares you for. Rejection as data rather than verdict, resilience that lasts, the comparison trap and imposter syndrome, and knowing what you are actually worth before you negotiate.
And then the Appendix: working templates you use rather than read, including your Personal Career Baseline, the Application Tracker, the 90-Day Reskilling Plan, the 90-Day Job Search Sprint and an Entry-Level Pay Reference built on minimum-wage multiples so the ratios survive inflation.
- The complete CV architecture, section by section, with the results formula that turns duties into evidence, and worked before-and-after examples.
- Five STAR stories prepared properly, the questions each one answers, and how to close an offer and negotiate the number.
- Inside the Nigerian hiring machine: why the filters exist, how aptitude tests and assessment centres actually score you, and what these roles pay.
- Outreach scripts that get replies, and the four circles of people worth building before you need them.
- Two bonus chapters: becoming AI-ready rather than AI-dependent, and the four routes into remote work for employers abroad, including what you will owe under the Nigeria Tax Act.
- Appendix tools you use rather than read: Career Baseline, Application Tracker, 90-Day Reskilling Plan, 90-Day Job Search Sprint and the Entry-Level Pay Reference.
- “From Practice” boxes, where the author sets out what he has seen go wrong, and right, in real CV reviews and real interviews.
Ninety days from now, you can be a different candidate.
- Day 1Your Career Baseline completed honestly
- Day 30CV and LinkedIn rebuilt, one project underway
- Day 60Tailored applications in the pipeline and tracked
- Day 90Your first review: what the data says, what you change
Read a four-page taste before you decide.
The preview covers who the book is for, the eight-move system, the three parts, and a taste from Chapter 3 on the Nigerian CV conventions that are costing you. It may be shared freely and without alteration.
The Nigerian CV conventions that are costing you
Photograph, date of birth, marital status, state of origin, referees listed by name: most templates still open with a block of personal data. Those fields consume the most valuable space on the page, invite bias, and read as dated in international contexts.
Isaac B. Adetunji
Isaac Adetunji is a finance professional, career development consultant and public speaker with a strong interest in helping young professionals and students navigate the transition from education to the world of work. With academic training in Economics and Accounting and experience spanning audit, financial reporting and professional development initiatives, he brings a practical, real-world perspective to employability and career growth.
Details
- Published by GISA Publishing House, an imprint of GISA Professional Education Ltd
- Digital edition: a PDF to read on any device and keep
- ISBN 978-978-67-2171-2
Prefer a printed copy? Print copies are produced on request, including bulk orders for schools, graduate programmes and groups. Write to store@gisainstitute.com with how many you need and where they should go.
Getting hired is not about luck.
It is about strategy, preparation, and knowing how to position yourself before an opportunity even exists.