ABSTRACT Nigeria’s higher education system is plagued with diverse structural challenges. However, little research has explored its impact on the achievement of career goals of graduates of this system, especially in the workplace. This study adopts sense-making and blame attribution theories to investigate the experiences of Nigeria’s graduates in their workplaces. After a qualitative analysis of narrative interviews, this study argues that (1) blame attribution forms an anchor to organize narratives of sense-making within an organization; (2) Nigerian graduates blame their education, workplace, and self for the challenges they encounter. Self-blame can potentially shed light on newcomers’ sense-making of their difficult transitioning experiences. The analysis identifies a tripartite problem where these three distinct, but interconnected entities are viewed as responsible for post-graduation challenges in the workplace. Thus, the results demonstrate the need to extend blame attribution theory from its current focus on either external or internal blame targets to understanding individuals within an organizational context potentially blaming both internal and external factors simultaneously for workplace challenges.