Looking back at my career trajectories and jobs I have had in the past if someone would ask me what was my best and life-changing job, I would say without any shadow of a doubt, it was my job at a small-sized audit firm along Ikorodu Road Lagos that changed my career as an accountant.
It was the year 2000 and I was done with my Accounting Technician Service(ATS) – I started with my SSCE and passed my PE1 with ICAN.
I was preparing for the next level and desperately looking for a job. Without a degree, OND, HND, and Nysc, or any formal education for that matter. I was a poor broke dude coming from a large poor family, all eyes were on me in the family and I could not afford to fail.
For me, it was a do-or-die kid of affair!
As broke as a church rat, I would always go to the newspaper vendors at the Cele bus stop in Lagos every Tuesday, and pay a token to borrow the Tuesday Guardian.
That was before the internet era, I would write out all the vacancies and return the paper to the vendor. That way, At some point, I had submitted more than 200 applications with no feedback. Totally discouraged, I taught the village people are on top of my matta and might be under some spiritual spell.
Around mid-2000, I came upon a brilliant idea, I made up my mind that I needed experience from an audit firm very badly on my resume if I were to succeed as an accountant. So, I printed more than fifty(50) copies of my resume and starting from Anthony bus stop on Ikorodu Road, up to Oju-Elegba bus stop, you know there are lots of small accounting firms along that axis.
I trekked and distributed my resume and cover letters to all the firms I could find while in the hot sun, sweating like a Christmas goat about to be slaughtered for the pleasures of others.
My modus operandi was to walk up to the receptionist of any firm and tell them I was looking for a job. I would give out my resumes and cover letters like candies on a Halloween night, asking for them to contact me if they happen to have any vacancies while I tossed resumes under doors for offices that were closed.
When I got back home, I would wake up in the middle of the hot night to pray and cry to God for divine favor on my applications.
One month after that exercise precisely, I got a call from one of the audit firms I had dropped my resume to come for an interview for the position of Semi-senior at a whooping salary of N5,000 naira in a month. I was so happy and was jumping upandan with joy, even went to the local revival hour service to share a loud testimony in the church.
Most of the time, I could not afford transport fares and would hitch a ride on the open back of a neighbor’s pickup truck for free while immaculately dressed in my cut-and-join three-piece suit and a fat guillotine, neck-chocking tie, sweating and smelling like a Canadian skunk, to work in the at my 5k naira job.
I worked in that company for about one year and learned a lot, I was able to lead audits of manufacturing companies, government agencies, and finance and construction companies, and within one year, I was already well-grounded in accounting work experience.
Going back to the topic of the thread, the reason why I rated that, 5000naira/month, job was that later in the years, all three breakthrough jobs I had specifically requested experience in an accounting firm as a major requirement.
I wouldn’t have gotten those jobs without my audit firm experience. I later went on to finish my exams and lectured for the institute, and the rest, as they say, are now stories.
Never let anybody put you down and do not despise days of little beginnings, That little position you may be occupying today may be a building block to a brighter future and hard work does pay.
Whatever you want in life, go out there and fight for it like it’s a matter of life and death.
After you have tried your best, you can now go and pray as though you depend on God 100% (if you are religious)
Without that 5k job, I am positive I may not be where I am today, and the purpose of this write-up is to encourage millions of young one’s out there. The country may be tough and our leaders may be failing us, prices of commodities may be sky-high in the market, but that is not enough excuse for you not to succeed.
My Most Important Job At 5000naira/month – Jobs/Vacancies – Nigeria (nairaland.com)