This is not a get rich quick email. Before I start, I wanted to tell you an article I read on the BBC website a while ago, apparently the ball boy for Ghana was paid $100,000 at the world cup in Brazil. The same amount as the manager and a few of the hangers on. If I had known that I could get that much for picking up a football and sticking it in a ball bag, I wouldn’t have wasted these last month’s hustling for employment.

However, I am finally gainfully employed, after 6 months of sending out emails to anyone who might read it, I am finally getting a salary. Well I say 6 months, it was actively less than that. For the first few months I was sitting around watching reality TV, sleeping, eating and then feeling guilty for eating too much so went jogging. Actually I say jogging but it was more like walking at a very fast pace. Then I sent out a few applications a week, got a few rejections back and then went back to my first routine.
After Easter, I was contacted by a few Agencies, by then I had dropped the Africa from the CV and didn’t mention any location for my job experience, low and behold I stated getting interviews. However, after half a dozen interviews I was hearing one song “my experience was too broad and not specific to the role”. Without going into the technical aspects, my role primarily has been in demand and supply. Therefore, based on the market demand, I have to ensure that the goods are available at the right time and in the right place. It’s not rocket science, however there is the technical aspect which companies expect from you, it’s a part of which I have managed to avoid for the past 6 months, not because I couldn’t but just because I didn’t have to, I am going to keep it real.

So for 6 months, I was told that I was told that I came across very well, but not enough experience, or that my experience is too broad. I wasn’t too disheartened, it was what it was, and well these things are all about whether you’re liked or not anyway. Besides, I had people around me worrying enough for me anyway, especially the smother who always has something to say about everything.

In the beginning I was working with about half a dozen agencies, but ended up down to two, the others, well they felt that they weren’t going to get any money out of me, so stopped calling me after a while. But I say, God always keeps people in your life for a reason and the two that did stick it out both got me a job placement. My last two interviews got me two job offers and on the same day. Long story short, I picked the one with the most money. The jury is still out about whether I made the right decision but I am in there.
The location is in Essex, for those of you who have watched the programme “The only way is Essex”, the people are just like that. Although I live in Essex, it is still part of Greater London, here is like a village and I am one of the only blackie’s in the village. It is also over populated with women, and well I have come to realise that I work better with men whether it is in UK, Ghana or Timbuktu. It’s all gossipy and bitchiness, and boy are they nosey. Whereas Ghana women pretty much tend to stay away, the English ones want to know your family, your pets, even your inside leg measurement and then they then they throw your business out there to the world. It is all rather exhausting but I am keeping my head down and getting on with it. Keeping very quiet, but making sure I have a smile on my face, and just gaining all the experience I can when I can.

I still haven’t given up my dream of running my own business though, throwing out a few ideas into the universe and hopefully something will come back in the meantime I am just making the most of the opportunity I have been given today.

The blogs are a bit sparse at the moment, only because there is a lot to take in, but will try not to keep them too long this time.
Until the next time….