HiveComb

My first job happened about a year after I was done with High School. By then, I was tired of staying home and doing nothing, so I needed to get a job so I could make some money and be able to do some little things for myself. Also, it was just a great excuse for me to get out of the house.

Back then, I was always the only one at home. Everyone else either went to work or went to school, leaving me all alone. And it was not just in my home, but in the entire neighborhood as well. When only ten percent of the population was around you could easily tell by how quiet the street was.

In this period, everything hits harder. The boredom hits worse because when you’re in your house you’ll feel like the last man in the world because of the deathly silence around you. This will be broken only by the momentary footsteps as few people go about their duties and concerns. And maybe some random ice cream truck that makes its rounds, blaring that god-awful music mercilessly for all and sundry.

But then, evening came and everyone returned. The children with their noise and the parents with their chores. The only time there was a semblance of peace and happiness was at night. Then, I didn’t really feel alone, and there was nothing for me to do. I enjoyed reading my novels then. And seeing as I wasn’t going to school anymore, I could read all through the night and then sleep it off in the morning.

But all this got tiring eventually, and I was done with staying at home. I just wanted to get out there, meet new people, make new friends, and get some money while I was at it. And it was with this in mind that I went in search of a job.

Back then, the most rampant jobs were either teaching or sales representative. But nothing would make me touch teaching with a ten-foot pole back then, so the only other option was sales representative. In my search for a job, I encountered all kinds of would-be employers and their various antics. The pay was never anything to write home about, but there were some that went a bit extra to provide feeding and transport. However, for jobs with such benefits, they were interested only in hiring ladies. To their understanding, females were more of a sales magnet than males.

And for others, the pay was just so abysmal that I couldn’t even consider them. I would rather let the boredom kill me in peace than torture myself all month because of peanuts. Eventually, though, everything paid off. I submitted a letter to a phone company in my area. By then, I was getting tired of the whole thing already and was contemplating giving up and waiting until Post UTME was announced so I could finally get a reason to leave the house.

About a week later, sometime around midnight, my phone rang. It was the HR to the phone company inviting me for a job interview. I went for it, and that was where I met someone who turned out to be a very good friend of mine to date. After the interview, I returned home hoping for the best. Another week passed and the call came in again at midnight, telling me to report for duty the next day. I and that friend of mine clinched the position.

My job was to sell phones to customers, and it was irksome. The experience was what made me swear to never work for anyone in the future, and prompted me to seek out ways of remote job. It was the first and only time I had an actual job, and I hated it!

I hated having to wake up early every morning just so I could sign my name in before 8:00, I hated having to look prim and proper all the damn time because I wanted to attract customers, and I so much hated having to be on guard all the time because the boss could come up at any time and if he caught you slacking that could mean the end of the job.

Like, we didn’t have breaks and we were not even allowed to sit for long periods of time. If you wanted to eat, you had to sneak out and buy food, bring it in, and eat it jealously while wary of watchful eyes. Also, there was this big speaker close to my stall that was always playing loud music. At the end of every day, all I got was just splitting headaches!

There were people who were thriving in this environment, but not me. I began to feel the toll of the work at once and people could tell that I was not enjoying it. For some reason though, I kept working and the moment Post UTME was announced, I asked for a leave so I could travel to my home state to write the exam. I took my pay and left, knowing fully well that I would never come back.

I worked there for just over a month, and that was my only time working in an establishment. Those days, sitting in my tiny stall, my waist seriously aching from all the standing I was subjected to, all I could think of over and over was that I wasn’t going to be in such a position forever. And at the first chance I got, I ran.

Admission didn’t work out that year and I came back home, but like I said, I didn’t go back. Instead, I enrolled in the next JAMB lesson. And that led me to my current school. And the rest, as they say, is history.

So, my dear friends, what did I learn from my first job? Well… it taught me a lot about myself. Although I won’t lie, it also taught me some of the basics of buying and selling. How someone can come to buy one thing, but you end up making them buy more by convincing them they need it. This experience was what stamped it for me that I was more cut out for remote work than anything else.

Thankfully, things have been going great since then for me with respect to work. I found Hive, I started my freelancing business and I work from the comfort of my home now. It’s not a lot just yet, but I can say that the promise I made to myself back then, in the stuffy stall, besides the blaring music, and with a splitting headache, I kept my promise!

And that motivates me to keep doing more. because I know that no matter how farfetched an idea is at the time, if you keep at it and just keep doing you, eventually it’s going to come to life and even you will be shocked.

This is my story.