Sometime ago, I made a post on LinkedIn where I hinted that I might be sharing some tips that I’ve utilised in my work experience. This I believe will be helpful to fellows who seek job opportunities and look forward to optimising their potential.
Let me start with a disclaimer. I am not a professional in Human Resources, neither have I ever worked in a recruiting firm. However, I have been involved in several recruitment processes for local and international organisations where in some cases, I get to make the final call. My experience is all I have to share and I hope you find a lesson or two useful.
Shall I take you through the journey?
My first job was about two decades ago, as a young secondary school leaver. I had passed all my papers with distinctions when I wrote GCE in SS2 and writing the SSCE was a matter of completing the Secondary School rituals. I felt comfortably confident, academically.
While in Wesley College of Science (WESCOS) Ibadan, an old student used to visit us to inspire and encourage us to be the best we can be. Senior Saheed (as I still saved his number on my phone) picked a particular interest in me and my all-round progress. He still does till today and yes, we’re still in touch. We became family friends and he would sometimes visit me at home. At some other times, I would also visit him in his family house. I became friends with his family members one of who is more of my peer. At that time home visit was the easiest way to stay in touch with loved ones in Nigeria before the advent of GSM and the attendant social media. The debate on whether themobile phone preponderance is a blessing or curse is one that would linger for a while. This write up isn’t about that.
Senior Saheed knew a family who had two sons that were performing poorly academically despite attending a relatively sterling school. They needed a fixer in the form of a home tutor and he was given this recruitment task. He must have considered top on his mind, his newly found brother/friend so he set out for my house.
There are strings of similarities between this job and subsequent jobs I had undertaken thereafter. I would highlight the few I can readily recall now.
First, as I ushered him into the sitting room, he narrated the background and said “I want you to take up this role”. This statement I would later hear over and over again in the course of my career. That’s a story for another day. Second, the job was result-oriented and the hour of service was pegged at 6 hours a week. I was left to decide how to split these hours over the week. Needless to say, this had remained my favourite type of job ever since. Flexible, result-based.
As a 15-year-old last child of a disciplinarian father, I insisted that only my father could give the final verdict on the job offer. They both discussed, he argued his points and my father finally gave a nod. That would later form a foundation for the confidence my father reposed in me for my numerous adventures, some of which are James Bond-like in nature.
We proceeded to my students’ house for the initial orientation and I committed to doing all within my power to ensure the guys succeed. That’s what mattered to me. That was the end game for me- that I may be proud of them in the near future.
I assessed them both and realised their problem wasn’t much of inadequate teaching. What more teaching does a JSS student of The International School, Ibadan need? That a guy who studied those subjects in a more poorly equipped Loyola College would provide? They only needed to find a purpose and be given support to pursue that. I opted to parley these guys, we became friends, gist mates and later brothers. We’re still friends to date. We’re now blood!
Whether I was teaching them or took a break to focus on my medical school exams, I made sure to be in touch. I spoke to them as often as I could, they had access to my room for their studies. I was glad to have identified the game-changer. Theiracademics took a turn around. They started competing favourably with their classmates. They began to earn respect among their peers, I was glad for it.
I initially thought to highlight the lessons herein but I’ll rather leave this write up open this way. I wouldn’t want to limit my readers or spoon-feed you. I trust that you would have picked a thing or two as applicable to you. My goal is to make you better as potential and current employees. Once I achieve that, I’m happy! That’s the end game.
I hope to continue this series since writing this has opened up more stuff I wish to write about, as I continue my journey through career experience.
I wish you all the best in your pursuit.
