Up until 2021, I haven't spent more than a day outside my state(Rivers, Nigeria) not to talk of traveling outside the country which was almost impossible at the time.
Anyways, one Saturday morning or was it a Friday morning? I can't remember, I was at home as usual as a Jobless graduate then doing an online course, it was a Google marketing course a free one if I'm to be straightforward.
I stumbled on a job advert when I tried to check my LinkedIn profile, it was for a baker job in Lagos, Nigeria. I knew nothing about baking then but I loved the advert and I was studying digital marketing. So, I started perusing every length and breadth of it.
By the time I was done, I had submitted my resume and written a good and compelling cover letter for the Job.
When I told my friend Noble. He was like,
"Buezor, do you think making crayfish stew is the same as baking?" It sounded better in his voice, hehe.
I told him I'd watch YouTube videos if how they bake in big bakeries and learn. I wasn't serious about the job anyways so I didn't watch anything.
I applied by March ending can't remember the date also but by April 16th, I received a mail from the company that I was being invited for a physical interview.
Good thing it just aligned with my plans, as I was extremely bored in Rivers State and was traveling to Lagos to stay with an Uncle for a while. This would be the first time I visited Lagos and the first time I stayed overnight in another state.
So I packed my bags, it was a Sunday morning, by 4am I was already up and before 5:30 I was at the bus station. It was an adventure, but there was more waiting for me in Lagos, because I had replied the company that I'll be traveling from Port Harcourt to Lagos for the interview.
When I do a retrospect of my stay in Lagos, it wouldn't have been different from that of Port Harcourt without that accidental baking job.
Image by Artistic Realms on Pixabay
So back to it, when I arrived Lagos, I told my uncle I was going for a job interview the next morning. He was very surprised and thought it was a scam. He warned me about it.
In his own words, "Yahoo boys full Lagos oo" well I wasn't scared or discouraged, I went through the email I got from them over and over again then I went through their company site, it seemed real to me so by 6am Monday morning I was on my way from Lekki-Ajah to Lakki phase one.
When I saw the company in person, that was when I got nervous, I didn't think I had a chance anymore. The last time I touched flour was when I was helping my mom make pancakes for breakfast.
So I started YouTubing, I think I watched a hundred different techniques of baking bread, pizzas and rolls of different fillings. I got confused, by then I've seen other candidates and I've been scheduled for 12pm so it was a long and nervous wait.
The interview itself wasn't as horrible as I thought, though I had to improvise by that I mean lie a little about my experience. But the water got to my neck when they moved us into the kitchen for a practical interview.
I knew this would be where I die, and I said if I survived this I'll survive the apocalypse even. So how did I do it?, well, remember I watched some videos, that helped a little but because I didn't know how to operate the mixers, I had to manually mix my dough. My bread was made with my fist haha.
I don't know which recipe I followed, maybe it was a mixture of all I had watched but the bread was great, so I was told. The MD was around and she tasted all our bread.
"Your bread is great Buezor, just mind your water next time" that was her comment and that was how I got a baker job, the rest I learned on the go, online or offline.