Networking Can Get You A Job

Let me explain from the beginning for context. In December of Last year, I left my night job because after 8 to 9 months of working at night and sleeping during the afternoon, my health started to deteriorate and so I ended up resigning. I had no idea what I was going to do, or what going to happen, I just knew that leaving the job was the best decision right now. So after resigning, I spent a lot of time with my family (attended weddings, outings with cousins, and just chilling).

Till mid-January, my holidays were over and I was ready to get back to job hunting and finding work during regular hours. Finding jobs and applying turned out to be a very difficult journey for me and something that I did not anticipate but then again I never thought about job hunting when I decided I was going to resign. I got reality checks about my current position in the job market, specifically that I was looking for a role in marketing and I did not sit anywhere when it came to job descriptions which was the first strike. Then came the fear of where I apply, and how I use and because of this reason I got confused and scared and that led to anxiety where I wasn't able to look for jobs. I did apply to a few places and from there two places replied with an interview. One was kinda like an admin role and another was again a night job. I got the job on the first interview for my night job interview but I didn't accept it because I was more interested in the admin role which also, after a few interviews did get that as well and that was depressing and I tried not to give up, not to back down.

I do need a job so I decided to change tactics and work on my CV. When I got to that part I was greeted with more anxiety; what do add to my CV? Where do I make the changes? and so on. The anxiety was so bad that it started me to go into a slump where I didn't want to do anything. Just then my events society reached out to me saying they had an event and asked if I was interested in becoming a part of it. I immediately said yes and started working on that and because I had something to do I started getting out of that slump. That event didn't go so well but we had another event coming up and I was tasked with outreach for that event.

One thing I should mention, that is, last December I got the chance to meet with the Founders of a company called Reactree and we quickly became friends. The reason why I made this point is because I was to ask them to be a partner for this event. So fast forward, I got them on board, and during the next event, and the co-founder got even closer and we bonded very well. This event turned out to be the highlight of the year for how successful the event was.

After the event ended I was back to my unemployed life, where I was depressed and didn't really know what to do. So a few days after the event, I was at home, on my phone when my phone rang and I saw that there was a message from one of the founders asking if Im available for a call the next day. My anxiety went through the roof. I calmed myself down and replied back after a few hours agreeing. The next day I got the interview call and the very next day I went for my in-person interview which went super well and I ended up getting a job.

The point of this story is that even though I wasn't able to get a job by applying with my CV, I did get a job via connections. I realized the power of networking.