Everybody wants job security, but most people never get it even when they think they do have it. It is a pity because true job security is not as hard to acquire as we think it is. Probably we look in the wrong places.

I don’t really think it’s about the master’s degree you have or the 15hours you spend in that stuffy office; job security does not even require office politics it’s not even found in the office at all. It has nothing to do with your boss, her boss or his boss’s boss.

Forget about the international organization, local company, agency or consultancy you work for, neither be fooled by the post you hold in a ministry.

How ever high up you are, you are at the mercy of a boss who may or may not like you and one day you might have to be given a piece of paper with " sincere regrets” written on it.

Just read the news or look around you and you will understand what I am trying to say.

It’s easy to confuse a set job for a secure job. When you are hired by a big established company or by a very competitive and ambitious government department in a certain ministry, you have a pre-defined career path laid out in front of you. You get to do what millions of other people do every single day, getting employer-sponsored health insurance and a host of other benefits.

This creates a very convincing illusion of safety and security. However, no sooner is someone fired or laid off, the illusion is stripped bare.

If you’re counting on a company or an institution to take care of you, I recommend you rethink your position. No one owes you a job. Our employers are not in business only to provide for their employees. They exist to fulfill a mission or to make a profit.

A secure job will not leave you out in the cold; it gives you something to count on; something that can’t be taken away from you just because someone decided to re-organize your department.

Real job security means ownership. It means possessing the deed to a steady income, rather than borrowing time from an employer. Real job security is something you will not find in a corporate office, because it’s always limited by a season of service.

If this is the case, where does real job security come from? Who has real job security? The answer is the employee who has the ability to provide real value to the marketplace.

This totally depends on an individual’s motivation and will to learn and develop skills that are dynamic with the needs of the market and their employers.

The truth is that if you are not building something uniquely yours, then your future is often decided by other people.
If you want more job security, become more valuable to the marketplace.

Learn what you need to learn, develop the skills you need to develop and become the person you want to become. That’s the way to have job security.

Emmanuel Nyagapfizi is a regular contributor to The New Times