After i was done with Secondary School, i decided to get a Job while waiting for admission into Tertiary institution. I had done other jobs before deciding to upgrade. My first job was as a Teaching job, i worked there diligently and was getting reports and gifts from Parents celebrating my effects on their Children and how much they've improved. Even though i really loved the Children and i was good with them, the salary wasn't really working for me. I tried to understand with the school since it was just starting up but my bills and demands were one reality i couldn't by-pass so i had to leave the job. Imagine getting paid six thousand naira by the end of the month in 2016. Your whole month's salary can finish in just a minute.
I had also worked as a Cashier at a restaurant, Secretary, POS agent and Sales Administrator but I evolved from these jobs for various reasons including; toxic work environment, underpayment; employers who wanted my services but weren't ready to pay the works worth because i had just Secondary School Certificate even though i was doing more than the job's description.
I picked interest in this Particular Job which was a Secretary for a Job Agency. The agency served as a middle-man between Employers and Employee; so they supplied companies with verified and guaranteed professional, domestic and all sorts of legitimate workers across job types.
I started working with this agency and my job description included registration of companies and potential workers, keeping records, accounting and marketing etc. It was a lot of work in comparison to how much i was being paid at the time but i liked the job because it challenged me and gave me room to learn and maximize administrative skills i believed i possessed.
There was on striking experience i had within the first weeks of working in this organization and left an imprint on my heart. It's also a trigger to my motivation to making it in Life.
On this special day at work, my Boss called me to his office and gave me a proposal letter and our business file to go to a company he had an appointment with that day and market our services to them. I complained that i was just employed and hadn't being trained on that aspect yet but he exaggerated my readiness and and quickly told me some things i would go and say and be done (like it was that easy). I hesitated but he insisted and i headed for the company in a taxi.
On reaching the gate, the protocol of the company i met wasn't what i was prepared for. I had to call the my Boss to call the Company to confirm to the Security Man that i was a visitor they were expecting.
When i got in, they asked me to sit at the waiting room. While i was there, i looked around and the excellence of the environment exposed the mediocrity of my dressing. I wasn't dressed as someone fit to be in such environment. I wasn't even close to ready for what was next.
I was ushered into a Boardroom! An oval table, with Presentation TV's at each end. It the ground was ever to open up and swallow people up, now was the time!
I sat down and two men (one elderly and another very young, i looked older than him) walked in.
They sat opposite and started asking about my organization and told the kind of professional workers they needed from our agency. At first it seemed okay when i mustered the courage to reiterate/recite what my boss told me but then they began to ask technical questions and use terminologies i wasn't conversant with.
"You said you have a database, tell me about it ?" The Elderly Man asked. He seemed to even be an assistant to the Young Guy.
I thought to myself "if you ask me, na who i go ask?"
I presented our Proposal and file to him and told him everything was in it. He said he wanted be to talk about it. When they noticed i was moving around the same words, they asked how long i had worked with the company? I told them i started last week and they were disappointed.
I shrank and felt so small in the room, like they were watching me from a pit.
" If your company can send someone like you to such a meeting, it means they cannot give us the kind of Professionals we're looking for. We won't be working with your organization"
My heart was in my stomach.I tried to ask for another opportunity for them to meet with my Boss but they said they wouldn't grant it.
As i trekked ro the junction to get a taxi, i cried and called my sisters and told them the experience and how i am going to be a great person in life and have my own company as well. It felt like the whole world was looking and shaking their heads at me, pitying me. I cried till i got to the Office and told my Boss.
He felt bad he had messed up such opportunity and tried to redeem it but to no avail.
After that experience, i doubled my learning and within just 2 months of working there, i was already being entrusted to run the activities of the Organization smoothly.
Well, i am still working towards having my own standard Company.