Read part 1 here
If I didn’t invest my own money, I would never have been given that opportunity because I wasn’t even in HR, nor did I have an HR background
After training, I worked on every project I could lay my hands on. Sleeping in the office was part of life. I absorbed myself in the work. It was while it lasted.
A year later, I left that job to Head the Human Capital function at Interswitch. The MD wanted a competency framework to be developed for the firm. At that time there were not many people who understood what even a competency framework was, but I did, and I would say that was the primary reason I was hired.
My salary now was about NGN350,000 about $2,000 per month. Nothing to write home about then but it was double my previous earnings, also not bad for 2006 era. I was single, so what was I doing with my money? I was taking care of myself and making investments when I could.
In 2007, that was how I carried my K-legs again, this time, to attend SHRM conference in the USA. Again my employer didn’t fund it, my MD refused when I brought it up. My dear, I bought my ticket to America, it cost the equivalent of my one month salary. The hotel bill I funded too. I wiped a few months of my salary savings to fund that trip.
That conference was an eye opener. This is 16 years later and I can never forget what I learned there. Levels changed. I went back to implement some of what I learnt. Interswitch still exists today, go there and ask about one Adora that was Head HR between 2006 and 2008. You don’t need plenty years to make impact.
The SHRM conference taught me something. It revealed that I wanted more than the role i was occupying could give me. I wanted to deliver impact on a larger scale
I still duff my head to my MD then, there was nothing he didn’t do to keep me. He expanded my role, he changed my job title but yours truly has made up her mind to leave.
Then, I was head hunted around the same time, but I wasn’t really keen on the firm for personal reasons relating to values.
The recruiter kept coming back even though I had said I was not interested. I eventually yielded for 2 reasons. The first was the link to the Nigerian Government. I had this dream to be in Government. I saw it as a means to influence at a larger scale than any company role could provide. The second reason was that they made me an offer I could not refuse. I flippantly gave the recruiter a salary request to scare her away. I was sure no one would pay me double my salary at the time, so I asked for it, and to my surprise, they accepted it.
Again, I carried my cockroach legs to work in Transcorp. I was hired to head HR transformation in its subsidiaries NITEL, MTEL and Hilton. That was 2008, and my monthly net salary was approximately NGN1m. To put into perspective I was earning about USD100k per year at the time, which translate to NGN100 million naira today.
I was 32 years old at that time. I was single and the only thing I did with my money was invest in my knowledge and save.
Let me tell you a fact, I don’t even earn anything near that much today, 15 years later, as a business owner, the irony of life.
After only 9months at Transcorp Plc, for personal reasons, I resigned with immediate effect. The only time I have ever done this in my career.
I scheduled a meeting with my MD and explained why I was either in or out in my conduct and I no longer shared the same vision. I decided to step down immediately to allow more committed members to forge ahead without any sabotage from me.
My CEO thanked me for my transparency. His parting words were to let him know if there was any company I wanted to work for, because he would gladly call the CEO to give me a referral.
We hugged goodbye and I went on my way.
…Continue reading Part 3 here
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