Tomorrow I will be making a presentation to the president and CEO of the non-profit organisation I work for fulltime. If things go well, he’ll be convinced to let us improve the ICT infrastructure in the 19 schools our organisation runs. I would like to talk about how I got to this point. Brace yourself… It’s a story of grace, guts and geekiness.
I’ve been working fulltime for the last ten years. And in my entire life, I’ve only ever sent out four job applications, been called to interviews four times and have been offered four jobs.
My first ever job interview was on Monday May 30, 2005. It came after my brother, David (known as the IT Overlord in other parts of this blog) told me about a job opening at the Convent school in Chingola. So I took the 10-minute walk from home to Sacred Heart Convent School, armed with my 12th grade statement of results, a maroon shirt (not tucked in and sleeves partially rolled up), dark blue jeans, not a clue what I was worth, a limited knowledge of IT systems, and a ridiculously high level of zeal to work… Heck, I needed the job! I was being interviewed for the computer teacher position. Highly zealous, highly unqualified, poorly-dressed.
There were four other candidates. All qualified. All well-dressed. I knew one of them personally. I was the first candidate to be interviewed. I was also the last candidate to be interviewed. I got the job after a 20-minute interview in which I explained that the only teaching experience I had was as a sports trainer for 4 months, coaching soccer, volleyball, track-and-field and chess at KCM Nchanga Trust School. Apparently, that experience, coupled with my desire to see young people acquire computing skills that could make them not only employable, but could help them do their own private jobs after high school, made me get the job. Another contributing factor may have been my willingness to accept a not-so-high salary. I was not used to earning money on a monthly basis.
Some Background
Let’s back up a little. My best buddy, Emmanuel and I were hustlers. IT hustlers, you could call us. We were still learning the ropes, but I’ll tell you we were heavy on the streets of Chingola, up and about with CD cases, PS/2 keyboards and IDE hard drives, steady scouring the town for every computer project we could come across. We fixed Windows 95, 98 and 2000 computers, and designed MS Access databases. Whenever we landed a project, we shared the spoils equally with David Zulu, our IT overlord. (Yes, he was and still is highly revered.) Our first project, which was in 2004, got us K75.00 (K75,000.00 back those days). That was K25.00 each way. Emmanuel will scold me for sharing this, but he invested his K25.00 in his younger siblings, buying them jiggies or party naks or munchos or whatever the heck they were called that time. Not that I was a better person than he, but I bought some detergent and a bunch of other ‘useful’ commodities for home. Anyway, the point is I was not used to having money regularly.
Back to the Interview
The big question arose: “How much would you like us to be paying you?” Sr. Odette was looking at me funny above the rim of her specs that she wore on a string. I had never been coached. I probably didn’t even know that HR websites existed that showed you how to handle job interviews. Looking back, my answer to the question was funny: “K250.00 (K250,000.00 that time) is fine.” Truly, that amount seemed like it was going to be fine. In any case, it was going to be a huge jump, given that I had never been on a salary before. Sr. Odette laughed and said “You are too kind. We’ll put you on this level.” She slid me the salary scale, underlining K760.00. “Is that okay?” “Are you kidding me?” I said inside me. “I’m not even qualified for the job and I’m being placed third on a 6-tier salary scale! That’s not okay; it’s ridonculously awesome!” In a calm disposition, I said “That’s okay. Thanks.”
Unqualified school-leaver landing a computer teaching job at a convent school. It was pure grace.
