Believe

January 26, 2026

I’m currently in the job process, and I’m realizing how important self belief and confidence are to the success of the job search. Job searching is exhausting, mentally taxing, and stressful. As someone who hasn’t gotten an internship yet for Summer 2026, the job search forces you to deal with uncertainty. Uncertainty, for me, is one of the worst feelings you can have. This is exacerbated by the fact that a lot of the job search is purely down to luck. Applying at the right time, passing the ATS screen, having the right keyword in your resume, or even the company still having spots available.

I was invited to interview with a big company, but I couldn't because they reached headcount before I could interview. I’ve done a couple of interviews so far, and haven't landed anything yet. One thing I have tried to internalize is that sometimes stuff just happens, and that's alright. I subscribe to the practice of intense self-candor, but even then, I know that there are so many variables, known and unknown, that go into a hiring decision, from the interview stages to the choice to extend the final offer to a candidate.

I did the whole job searching charade back in second year, but my circumstances were much different. I was working at a startup with my friends, where I was learning a lot and doing a lot as well. I had to do summer school to catch up on credits. I applied to jobs assiduously, but I wasn’t agitated. I had a solid plan: do summer school, work on the startup, practice Leetcode (did not do this), go to the gym and have a fun summer with my friends. I still badly wanted an internship, but I knew it wasn’t the end of the world if I didn’t get one. One of my summer courses involved working with a company, and I could pass my work as experience. I applied to maybe around 150+ jobs, and didn’t get any interviews. I got a handful of OAs, which I flunked. The only interview I got for that cycle was through a recruiter reachout; the interview was for a massive financial services company. I wasn’t selected for the final round and I fell back on my plan B.

The main difference between my situation then and my situation now is that things were certain. I knew I was staying in Canada for the summer. I knew I was going to take summer courses. I knew that a good number of my friends were doing the same thing.

Now, things are much different. If I don’t get an internship, I’ll have to go back to Nigeria and figure something out from there. I have a couple of options, but this is very much a plan B. I’m not entirely sure whether I will be in Canada over the summer. New grad recruitment will be rough without a junior internship based in Canada. Even when I’m applying to jobs, I barely see any new grad postings, leading me to wonder how seniors without return offers are dealing with recruitment. If you are currently reading this and you are in this situation, Godspeed.

One thing to keep in mind is I’m trying to balance this with school as well, which has proven quite hard. I’m not the best at multitasking, especially when both things i’m balancing take up a lot of energy. So one thing tends to suffer for the other.

The number one thing getting me through this stressful time is belief. You have to believe in yourself. It doesn’t really matter who believes in you if you don’t believe in yourself. I’ve come to realize this. It’s my life, and I’ll be the one tackling the problems and obstacles I will be encountering.

When looking at someone, from the outside looking in, it may be easy to believe in them to execute on a certain task or objective. This may be because of their credentials, their track record, or just your perception of them as a person. But the person who is meant to execute needs to believe they can. They may still be able to succeed if they don’t believe in themselves, but I believe it makes things harder for them.

A good anecdote I can give is FIFA, the video game. When I play someone, and I believe that I can beat them, I normally do. But if I even have an inkling of doubt in my mind about my ability to win, I tend to perform a lot worse. It could be a skill issue, yes, but I am a pretty good player and I have an idea of the players I should be winning VS the players I eventually lose to. When I’m talking about playing worse, I’m not referring to my games against clearly superior players, I’m referring to my games against people at or below my skill level. I tend to choke more, or make bad decisions, simply because I don’t believe I can win comfortably. This can be extended to interviews, where I tend to over-explain simple concepts or second-guess my design choices when I am not as confident in excelling at the interview. This happens even when I have amply prepared.

Still on FIFA, my younger brother is much better than me. I knew he was better than me, but I clearly didn’t know by how much. Over the Christmas break, I made a bet with him that if he could beat me by 8 goals or more in FIFA, without me scoring a single goal, he would get $80. So basically beat me by 8-0 or more, without me scoring any goals. He had three tries (matches) to do this. I didn’t stand to gain anything, this was just a matter of pride.

The thing is, once I made this bet with him, he instantly started going on about how he had already stolen my lunch, and I had just given him free money. He started planning how he was going to spend the money, before he even got it. I was confused. All I had to do was score a goal, and it didn’t matter if he was winning 15-0: he would get no money. We ended up playing the match, and well — I lost the money. He won me 8-0 on the second game.

My brother had complete conviction that he would beat me. He believed he could beat me 8-0, and he did. Reflecting on this, I think my brother’s belief helped him a lot in terms of his mentality and how he approached the game. He played basically flawless gameplay. It helped him to lock in. His confidence also sort of calmed him, and he was not agitated at all (it maybe helps he had nothing to lose, but that's beside the point).

As you advance in your life, self belief is more important than ever. It allows you to take on stuff head on, with the confidence that you can execute. Self belief will convince you to take on that daunting project at work that has the potential to accelerate your career growth. It will convince you to join that club, or step out of your comfort zone. It will convince you to approach that cute boy/girl, knowing that regardless of the outcome, you will be fine.

You will be fine.

I think this is the most important thing to believe. Believe that no matter the circumstances or the outcome, you’ll be okay at the end. I think this is even more important than believing in the success of something. If you operate in an all or nothing mentality, you may be paralyzed by the worry that things will go wrong and this worry may prevent you from taking action, or taking risks that may have great upside. I’m not saying don’t aim for the stars, or lower your expectations or your effort, but just change your perspective. Believing that you’ll still be somewhat okay in the worst case scenario makes it much easier to take action.

It is important to be pragmatic, but it is just as important to be optimistic. My reality if I don’t get an internship is I’m leaving Canada temporarily. I’ll probably get a regular job in the meantime, and maybe work on some sort of project or startup idea. I don’t have any ideas right now, but I trust that I will be able to figure things out, if it gets to that point. The worst thing to do in this situation is be all doom and gloom about it. Regardless of what happens, I am going to do something, even if my situation is not ideal, or the one I originally envisioned finding myself in.

A general rule of thumb you can follow: for any outcome that is mostly based on your execution of a certain task or objective, believe that the successful outcome is within your reach. The best way to do this is by preparing well; practice as you play. You have to distinguish between the "gatekeeping" and the "performance." Luck might decide if you get the interview invite, but your agency decides what you do with it. If you let the randomness of the "luck" phase shake your belief, you will be too fragile to execute when the "agency" phase finally arrives. If an outcome is mostly out of your control, believe in the fact that you will be fine.

What mainly helps me maintain my self-belief and my confidence is drawing from past experiences. I have achieved a lot of things that I am very proud of, whether that is in high school or in university. The timeframe in which I achieved it doesn’t really matter for me. Anything that can prove I got that dawg in me helps out. I trust in my abilities to execute when I need to, and that’s the number one thing that matters. I don’t currently have an offer for the summer, but I remain optimistic. I hope to come back in the next couple of months with a positive update.

To the reader, you may have a situation that is testing your belief in yourself, or you may be in an endeavour where success is not guaranteed, the outcome uncertain. Maybe as an exercise, I want you to think of the worst case scenario. The circumstance you would find yourself in if everything went wrong. I want you to convince yourself that things will be fine. If you have to trick your brain to achieve this, go ahead. You need to believe, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that there is a positive in this worst case scenario, and you’ll be fine at the end of the tunnel.

I first thought of writing this when I was going through an old email my dad sent me 3 years ago, where he discussed a number of other things but he talked about the importance of believing in myself. I was in high school at the time, but the advice is very applicable to my current situation. I have written a lot privately, but I haven’t posted a public blog in a hot minute, so I thought writing on this topic would be a great way to resume.

Hope is the antidote to uncertainty. Believe in yourself. Believe in a positive outcome. But most importantly, believe that everything will be fine.

“Until death, all defeat is psychological” - Jocko Willink

“Always bet on yourself” - my mum, thanks for your constant encouragement.

Update (Feb 7 2026): In a pleasant coincidence, I got a coop offer 3 days after writing this article! To anyone going through anything similar, or just a hardship or a tough situation in your life, I wish you only the best. Have faith. Stay optimistic. I know you can do it. You should know you can do it, you can persevere. If you read this blog from start to finish, I really appreciate you. I have no idea who reads my blogs or how many people do. But I'm satisfied believing that this post at the very least resonates with someone, or even helps them.