From Broke to Bold: How a ₦7000 Job Transformed My Life

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 that changed my career as an accountant.

It was the year 2002 and I was done with my Accounting Technician Service(ATS), I started with my Secondary School Certificate (SSCE) and passed my PE1 with ICAN.

I was preparing for the next thing and desperately looking for a job. Without a degree, a Diploma. 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 kind 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. At some point, I submitted more than 200 applications with no feedback. Totally discouraged, I thought the village people were on top of my matter and might be under some spiritual spell.

Around mid-2002, 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 hundred (100) copies of my resume starting from the Kola bus stop on Lagos Ota Road, up to Abule Egba bus stop, 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.

About a month later, I got a call from one of the audit firms where I had dropped my resume to come for an interview for the position of Semi-senior at a whooping salary of N7,000 naira in a month. I was so happy and was jumping up and down 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 to work place, I 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.

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 I was already well-grounded in accounting work experience.

Later in the year, I came across a job offer that paid 350000 naira a month, I applied and was hired. I wouldn't have gotten the job without my experience working at the audit firm. I later returned to school and finished my studies.

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.

If there is something you really want in life, then go out and work hard to get it like it's very crucial for your existence, and ask God for help (if you believe in religion).

If I hadn't gotten that 7000 naira job, I might not be in the place I am now. I want to inspire many young people with this story. Things may be tough and the prices of goods and services may be sky-high in the market, but that is not enough excuse for you not to succeed.