MY FIRST APPLICATION LETTER

The first application I wrote seeking for a job was turned down rudely by the Proprietor of one private Primary school in my area.

Immediately I was through with my senior school certificate examinations in 2009, I felt a good way to keep myself busy and also make money while waiting for admission into an higher institution of learning was being a teacher.

I excitedly wrote
my first application letter, packaged it well in a sparkling white envelope, wore my well ironed shirt on my neatly ironed trousers with my well polished black shoe.

I got to the Proprietor's office and requested to drop my letter, the secretary asked me to wait and see him, since he was around. The man came, saw me , collected my letter and then gave me a lecture of my life, with stories that touch, told me to go read for my jamb, like I told him earlier I was not going to.

Where he sat opposite me at his table, after tearing the white envelope that contains my application letter, he snobbishly slides it back to me rudely.

I was near tears, I was young, I had that feeling of like, oh my God, this is my first ever application letter, I prayed before coming to meet this man, what and where did something go wrong was the question on my lips as I dejectedly walk back home.

It was one of those sad days I don't like to recollect.

But when I got back home, I explained to my parents what transpired and how I was rudely rejected by the Proprietor. My Dad came up with the idea of going to acquire an entrepreneur skill.

At first, I was not cool with it, I was like what will my colleagues in school say if they now see me beside the road side learning one thing one thing.

But as an obedient child, I simply agreed. And I opted for learning mobile phone repairs in Iwo Road, Ibadan, Oyo state.

My Trainer and boss Mr Arowosafe Tunde is a seasoned mobile phone engineer, he took me as a son, and my ever ready to learn person made it quite easy to get along with him. I soon grabbed how to do the elementary repairs. It was not easy at first, sitting under umbrellas under the hot sun, beside the road.

About 5 months into the training, I was already picking after the order of my boss, I was making some little money that goes into savings with the help of my boss.

Just 5months After my first Application letter seeking for a teaching Job was rudely rejected, I was grateful to God the man rudely rejected it. By that time, I promised myself not to write any nonsense application letter again.

That rude rejection was very painful at first, but alas it was that singular act that gave birth to a better discovery of the entrepreneurial spirit within me, within those years I learned how to relate with different types of customers, how to treat them well and how to negotiate prices cum how to keep those customers.

By the time I gained admission in 2011, my boss was excited, although I promise him I was going to graduate with a first class grade in school, sir am sorry I could not bag a first class grade, I made something close in second class upper plus a first class life. I immediately on resumption, told my friends I repair phones and luckily when their phones gets bad they give them to me to fix them.

 I made some money doing this that supported the stipends I get from home during my undergraduate days. Before graduating I repair phones for both my colleagues and lecturers.

Students pay me, and my lecturers do too and I ensure their phones were fixed.

Not forgetting my promise not to write any application letter seeking for job again, during my undergraduate days, I was privileged to manage two businesses  that were successful, and I never wrote any application before getting the job that supported my academic pursuit in those days.

The point in this long epistle is this:

 "dear job seeker, if you have been rudely rejected many times like I was when I wrote my first application letter, why not look inward and see how you can be a solution manufacturer in your niche, why not consider learning an entrepreneur skill, or for how long will the search continue? Start little, let the rude rejection spurn your appetite to want to be a job creator too, and when doing that please use your brains too".

Why did I even write the long epistle?

Well, I hope the young lad awaiting admission learnt something!

I hope the undergraduates learned something!

I equally hope the job seekers learned too!

Cheers!

#MAD

I am Agboola Biyi Micheal a BLESSING to my GENERATION, and an ASSET to NIGERIA.