Why a Government Job is Likely to Stall Fresh Graguate's Career

Working for the government here in Kenya can be a walk in park; ask anyone working under any ministry or government institution and they will surely confirm that to be true. Only a few will genuinely say they are having too much to do and these very few are those who are keen to take initiative.
Most Government workers will leave their work premises at 5.00 PM having done very little or worse, no work, they never understand that there may be a need to work late nights at your job. So, if you are job searching, they will advice you to find one in the government. Why? This is because it is in Government where people are paid to sit around, swing their chairs and do absolutely nothing.

Kenyan job seekers are often enticed by these jobs as they offer the perfect opportunity to earn a living without having to stress on issues too much. It is, however, the one mistake you will want to avoid making.

Why Government jobs is one of the career mistake for fresh graduates

If you have ever been to a government office, either to get your passport, national ID,  NHIF card, Birth certificate, or any other document that is required of you. For every Government office there is the good and the bad; good employees who will take their time to satisfactorily tend to you and the bad employees who will sit at their desk, make you queue for long hours, then close and go for lunch without notice or hurry out at 4.30pm and tell you to come back another day.

It is almost impossible to find a good government, but when you meet one, be grateful. I am a frequent visitor to the NHIF, NSSF offices, Public hospitals, Huduma center and Registrar of persons offices and a part from Huduma centers, which is the best innovation in Kenya since Safaricom, the rest of the government institutions are inefficient and annoying. Nurses at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital will just stare at your dying patient as their listen to music on their China phones. Long queues awaits you at both NHIF and NSSF offices and to be served past 3pm on Friday is a crime in most government offices. Even POTUS Obama alluded to this inefficiency in Government institution in his book "Dreams from my father" where he went to follow up on his misplaced bag only to be dismissed arrogantly by a lady busy chatting with her colleagues at the airport's reception desk.

More often we have had to put up with the laxity that comes with government offices, and being part of this inefficeint team could impact negatively on you and your career growth as well.
In a bureaucratic work place where services are done according to laid down work standards and follow a certain process, it is hard to become an effective employee, especially when the task requires you to liaise with others who are, more often than not, non coorparative.
While you may want to be singled out and distance yourself from the general perception of government officials, others are bound to drag you down with them. If your colleagues decide to perform a 5 minutes' task in 3 hours, then you get pulled into the ineffectiveness.
If you aim to be an effective and successful person in later days and enjoy being in your dream job, then government offices would not be the best place to start off your career. You’ll hardly have anything to do, which means you will not encounter any challenges to toughen you up for later jobs and the world.
Being that creativity is always lacking in government jobs, you will have a hard time making informed decisions.