Baptism By Fire? What I Learned From My First Job Experience

The thought of being unemployed is something that scares individuals, graduates and students alike. Securing a job and being able to use one’s skills is a dream that many graduates hold.

Those who are able to get a job almost immediately after their studies are considered lucky, and they are always happy and ready to finally put their skills into practice.

QUICK READ >>> How I Got My First Job After Giving Up On Job Hunting

However, is it always easy for these young professionals who are just starting out on their career journey?

Often times, entry into the workspace is a baptism of fire for young professionals with many having to endure little pay, lack of voice, and harassment from clients and colleagues alike. It is a brutal learning curve for many.

Felix shared his experience at his first job, and how he dealt with some of the challenges he endured.

For him, it was a rough ride. He graduated with a diploma in sales from Kenya Institute of Management in 2014, and soon after, secured a job as a sales executive at a technology firm.

Here is his story:

The company was a mobile-based marketplace where subscribers could sell and buy goods and services. I was tasked with recruiting new clients into the platform and training them on how the system worked.

With no previous job experience, and fresh from college, the salary of Sh30,000 per month was an irresistible lure for me. I signed up for the job, my enthusiasm not dulled by the 150 clients a month that was the firm’s minimum target. This figure was nothing to me. I had the energy and freshness straight from school.

The firm was just penetrating the market and few people had heard about the product. Convincing people to subscribe to the platform was therefore very difficult.

At the firm, communication was centralized; the CEO made the decision and everyone acted according to instructions issued.

Suggestions and new ideas were rejected, and no one dared speak up when things went wrong for fear of being sacked. It was a hostile work environment.

Staff meetings at the firm were an awkward affair characterized by name calling. It was tougher if you had not met your weekly targets and we hardly met them. Instead of drawing strategy for achieving organizational goals, the meeting would be all about threats for sacks.

Whenever I ran into trouble with city-county workers in the line of duty, the organization would leave me to deal with my woes, besides blaming me for ‘negligence’. I had to pay fines from my pocket, without refunds from the office.

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I sacrificed weekends to be at work, just to bring more customers on board, but the product was a hard sell.

Six months into my new job, I was frustrated, and a desire to quit slowly crept in. When my salary was slashed by more than 25% for failing to meet targets, I could not take it anymore – I quit my job. I lost more than Sh40, 000 of my pay.

Through it all, I am glad I went through this experience as it taught me to be tough in the face of a hostile work environment.