“ T.. you’ve had a howler ”

What’s good people? This isn’t the usual type of blog, it’s more of a personal one that tells you how I got to where I am today.

My journey into the IT industry wasn’t easy at all to be honest. Fresh out of university, I began looking for a graduate scheme to get enrolled into. Everyday felt the same, waking up each morning, logging onto Indeed and literally applying everywhere. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really check the job description as long as it had engineer in the title. Desperation was a real thing. After that, I would spend the next few hours on grad cracker, tailoring my CV to make myself appear to be the strongest candidate, describing the times I had shown strong communications skills and outlining why I wanted to join the graduate programme. It all became very draining.

My age mates had what you call “proper jobs” wearing their shiny shoes to work whilst I was in my air max 90’s en route to M&S. I was a barista, I was quite good at it too, I had that finesse and flair, that “je ne sais quoi” as one might say. However, I couldn’t help but think – this can’t be my destiny. I mean there’s nothing wrong with making flat whites for a living but I was at my lowest point, comparing myself to my mates. I felt I wasn’t at the right stage, career-wise. I recall when one of my former colleagues came back to visit and she said to me, ”You’re still working here?”. Yeah, my head was hot. My chest was tight. I could have easily collapsed at that moment. It was worse when one of my relatives asked me where am I working, now that I have graduated. Auntie mind your business, please please. From those conversations I was determined more than ever to get out of that place. I had to make some changes, starting with how I approached job applications. Once I did that, the telephone interviews started rolling through.

Let me tell you about this one telephone interview I had. It. Was. A. HOWLER. The waffling I was doing in this interview… wheww! Can I have some fried chicken and maple syrup with that please? I remember it being for a software developer role. The interviewer asked me, “What’s the difference between a hashmap and a hashtable?”. Believe I said “Yeah” and nothing else. The interviewer moved on to the next question and I tried to Google it during the interview but I even forgot the question. Multitasking was not my best attribute back then; I think I got 1 out of 15 questions right. The interviewer asked how I thought the interview had went. I just said, “yeah it was good”. I know… I’m shameless, but if you don’t believe in yourself then who will.

What did I learn from all this? I learnt that I need to type faster (I’m playing). I realised you can’t cut corners in this life, you have to put in the work. Just in case you were wondering, I didn’t get the job for that interview. I will however, tell you how I landed my current role as a consultant in a future blog. But until then…

Love & Guidance

TT