My First Job Experience - It taught me an interesting lesson.

If you go into any job at any point in your life, chances are usually high that you will learn something on that job. If you are lucky enough, doing the job can also help you understand yourself better. Little wonder why hiring managers are usually obsessed about people's work experience.

Yeah! They know that the experience you've already garnered elsewhere will most likely make you a more suitable option to fit into their pay structure.

It gets even better when the work experience you have is relevant to the new position you are aspiring for. People like that usually find it easier to climb the hierarchy of competence in their new workplace. Now, imagine the person is also diligent and well-disciplined.

I've gained a lot of experience as a youngster who is fairly active in the labour market and I've tried a lot of jobs over the years. The work I've done is both in the formal and informal sector and I've been able to learn so much and also grow as a person through the experience I gained in those jobs.

This post is all about the first job I did. Let's dive into that.

My First Job...

Throughout the time I was growing up, I was completely focused on my academics. I went to highly competitive schools at each stage of my academic adventure and I spent the first four years of my High school in a boarding school. However, circumstances made it impossible for me to finish the remaining two years of my High school education in the same school.

I had to transfer from the boarding school to a different school and that was the moment I got an opportunity to try fitting myself into the labour market. I wanted to try and venture into the labour market and hopefully earn some money with the last two years of my High school education before getting into University education.

I was just a young lad with no experience. In addition to that, my parents didn't want me to get into any job that would distract me from my academic activities. So, I had to go for a job I could do whenever schools were on break. In case you don't know, Nigeria is not exactly the sort of environment where you can casually get a part-time job. Now, imagine the sort of job I will be getting into at that point.

The only job that was fairly manageable was a job in a rental company. 'Jiggy Rentals' is the name of the company. It's not a huge company. Instead, it was more like a family business. And, the son of the man that runs the business happens to be my primary school classmate. I applied and was asked to get started the next day.

This is the nature of the job;

• Anyone who's doing any event and needs Canopies, Chairs, Tables and a Cooling Van can send their request to the rental company.

• We load the company Van with the items on D-Day and we all get driven to the venue to set up the Canopies, arrange the chairs and also set up the tables.

• We also make a comeback whenever the rental period elapses to lose the Canopies, lose the Tables and pack all the chairs.

This is a very strenuous job and we were paid daily, depending on the general workload and individual performance. The maximum we ever got paid in a day was #700. And, the average pay was somewhere around #400.

One of the things I learned by doing that Job was how to swallow my pride when hustling. There were moments when we will go to set up canopies in venues where my classmates live. It somehow hurt my pride at the early stage, but I always felt good about the fact that I was doing a work that didn't involve stepping on people's toes to make money.

The man I worked for is still owing me for some jobs I did, but that's already a thing of the past. Hehe.

Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop Or Comma.
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