Before my national service in 2016, I was already working for TV3 (Media General) as a social media person. So I was hoping I would automatically be maintained to do my national service with the company.
Unfortunately, when the postings were out, I did not get the opportunity to do my service with the media company. I was rather posted to St. Francis Girls Senior High School located at Jirapa in the Upper West Region of Ghana.
I didn’t really like the idea of moving to that part of Ghana. I wanted a big company like some of my friends got. As a result, I did all I could to be reposted but to no avail. So I finally decided to go to Jirapa due to my father’s advice.
Funnily enough, a lot of people were really scared for me because it was an all-girls school. “Eddy, be careful as you go there oo. Just go and focus on your teaching and ignore the girls”. That was the advice they gave me. I took the advice in good faith and left for Jirapa.
When I got to the school, I met the headmaster and I was assigned five different classes to teach economics. This is because the school had lost one of its economics teachers few days prior to my service commencement.
Along the line, I used to travel all the way from Jirapa to Accra periodically for job interviews, because my main objective after national service was to land myself a job. I was also managing social media pages of some enterprises and that has also contributed immensely to my career journey.
In fact, my one-year service period had an enormous impact on these young girls at St. Francis Girls SHS. According to the headmaster and the students, my presence in the school was refreshing and interestingly, it was my period that over 100 final year WASSCE students obtained “A” in the economics subject.
This makes me feel very happy because I know I contributed to the success of these young girls. Currently, the majority of them are in various tertiary institutions pursuing further studies.
My advice to prospective service persons is that If you are posted to a ‘not so prestigious organization’, don’t worry. Mostly the ‘not so prestigious organizations’ are the places where your abilities could be used to the fullest instead of the usual “waakye” and “beans” errands, hahahahaaa.
Also, the smaller organizations are more likely to retain you after service as compared to the big organizations with fixed organizational structures.
In conclusion, it is great to have a big and prestigious organization on your CV but if that doesn’t happen for you, trust me, it’s not the end of the world.
Dear fresh graduate, as you prepare to join the labour market, do not restrict yourself, be open to different avenues of opportunities; you may not know what the future holds for you.
At any point in time, employers in Ghana are looking for qualified young graduates like you on Jobberman to grow their businesses.
Your next career step begins with us, level up with Jobberman today!
Would you also want to share your experiences with us. Send it to us via guestwriterjobs@jobberman.com.gh or WhatsApp.
Author: Edward Asare (Digital Marketer, UBA Ghana)
