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Why did you leave your own country? Or should I say why did you decide to emigrate?

I think for us, there were many reasons, one of which was security in the country I’ve had a couple of near misses that were dreadful to even think about. And then the healthcare system that I had happened to fall victim to pure negligence on the part of the medical staff.

Also specifically for me, career-wise as a chartered accountant I was also thinking of what next. I felt like I had gotten to a point where I felt stuck and was actively thinking of how to navigate my situation so that I could access more opportunities.

But that was for you, was that the same thing for your husband?

So in our case, I was the major push on relocating.

So you made it a ‘We are going, you just need to follow me”.

Hahaha well yes!

The question I always ask people is, how did you fund that? It couldn’t have been cheap, because you came in through school, right?

Yeah.

So how did you fund that?

We had some savings and also got some loans from the bank in addition to our savings.

Okay. So now you’ve arrived, you have your savings, you’ve gotten the loan, you’ve come to school. What was the settling down journey for you?

That’s where the difficulties started.

As I mentioned earlier, I was the major driver for this decision to move and so I read so much. I was always on blogs reading about other people’s experiences of relocation so I thought I knew everything to expect.

That was a lie!

I was always listening to people’s stories, watching YouTube videos, and doing everything, to learn as much, know as much as possible, of what to expect about everything.

But it was still so challenging for me. I never believed I’ll be able to survive the weather until now. Because we came in January, at some point, I asked myself, and I said, “Are you sure that we will not go back? I don’t want to die in the cold like this. We might just have to go back and re-strategize or something.”

So that was one, then also, having to do all odd jobs, that was something that I read about. So in my mind, I thought I was prepared for that. But I never believed that I’d find myself in some situations. You know I can’t start talking about the individual scenarios that played out in that one area, then settling in was another part.

I mean, you had savings, you had the loan, why did you still need to do the old jobs?

Yes, we had savings. But we had to pay school fees and all of that, but we still had to work to pay rent or these other things.

Some people came and didn’t do anything at all throughout, to be fair but tha was not out case. The plan was to sort ourselves out as we went along.

How long did it take you to get your first job?

Ah, it didn’t take long at all. Immediately we got in. Because I was relating with people in school before we arrived and also was getting information about so many old jobs around. So even before we got in, even before I got my first proper job, a care job, I had done some stints as a security officer.

Wait, security officer?

O yes. I started with a stint as a security personnel in a stadium during a football match. There was that one and after we took up another one before we got a proper job.

Because to be honest we didn’t have a choice but to get anything done to pay our bills especially as we were in a hotel for three months.

What?

O Yeah. We were in a Travelodge hotel because we couldn’t secure accommodation, and you know how much you end up paying in a hotel per night!

God, that means you are using all your money to pay hotel bills.

Oh yes, and we couldn’t even cook. We couldn’t wash anything. I think a couple of times we gave our clothes to some of our friends to help us wash. It was just terrible.

Anyway, that was a major reason we had to pick up any job. Anything that could pay. Also because for main jobs they needed, permanent addresses, things like that, which we didn’t have. So it kind of delayed things for us. But the security jobs could pay cash straightaway.

I remember we even had to travel to Glasgow one time for a security gig. That one was some experience!

Those security job owners were very rugged and they expected to have rugged people on their staff. Those guys spoke to you anyhow. They don’t treat you like humans.

We didn’t even know the details when we got the jobs, we were just told it was a security job, but they didn’t give full details. We were supposed to be working 12-hour shifts overnight for three days outside in the coldest month of the year, January, in Glasgow!

It was some movie shoot so we needed to be guarding the parameters where the movie shoot was happening.

And you were supposed to stay three days straight?

Oh no, you do 12 hours, go home, and come back for your shift.

When I say outside, I mean out in the open, not like on the streets corner or by a mall. It was rough. You could be the only one at your station and the next person could be like, maybe 10 minutes walk from you.

And then when you get tired, you cant be trying to even lean on something. The security outfit owners will be driving around and if anyone of them saw you leaning on something, you would be immediately asked to stand well. Chatting with other colleagues was definitely out of the question.

I hope these guys were paying you some good money.

Not even close. It was the standard 10 pounds per hour or so.

The worst part of it was that, they had this mobile toilet which you had to beg to use. Because again the owners were monitoring our bathroom breaks. At some point, I went into a pub and pretended to be a paying customer so I could use the toilet.

Wait and you did this thing for three days?

We stopped the second day not because we were willing to go on for the full three days but after the second day when we go back…..

Ha ok, I need to go back a little. I came into the country first and because my school had initially made arrangements for accommodation within high school hostels while the students were on holiday, I took a room for myself, and then a week after or so my husband joined me.

But truth be told, it was supposed to be a room per person, so when my husband joined me a week after, I had smuggled him in and they found out.

Now this was the same time we went for that security job in Glasgow. On the second day shift, as we got back, they kicked us out of the accommodation.

On our way back to the room, I received an email and I thought I would deal with this later, I needed to hit the bed first. I mean I had paid for one month so worst case will ask them to give us till the end of the time I paid for or worst case ask for another room for my husband.

As soon as we got in, two people were by the door and they asked us to move out immediately. I was even trying to explain we had nowhere to go but they didn’t care.

So two weeks after you landed, you were homeless?

Yep, we had to immediately start searching online for hotels around. And that’s how we ended up staying in Travelodge for 3 months.

My gosh.

I don’t even know how we survived it, because we couldn’t do anything. But the only good part was there were a couple of people like us too in the same Travelodge with the same accommodation problems and we bonded over our common problem.

But I think we were one of the last set of people to leave the hotel eventually. At least until we got a space.

We could not have any downtime with not working because we had hotel bills to pay!

How long did you have to do these odd jobs for?

So you know, there’s odd job, there’s odd, odd. Hahaha

There were the odd odd jobs aka the security jobs, and then I moved on to odd jobs as a care worker which came through after about a month.

Did your husband get something as fast as well?

Well, he got an odd odd job within the Travelodge we stayed at and then got a customer service job.

So now you are in school plus the care job. How long did you do care job for?

So I think, relatively for like a year. During during summer of that year, in 2022 I also took up a waitressing job. I was just combining as many paying jobs as I could handle. Just combining so many things,

At some point, I stopped the care job because I got a job in a small accounting firm. The company was just by my house and every day as I went to school or work I used to wonder if I could find an opportunity with them. So one day I went in and asked for the MD. He wasn’t around but I was given his email so I sent him an email with my CV etc. He replied asking for us to meet for an interview and I got the job.

It was a small accounting firm but I was willing to learn as much as possible because I was thinking ahead of job opportunities once school is done. I needed to have the UK experience on my CV.

But it was an entire disaster!

The MD who interviewed was a good man but he was retiring and had sold the business to a younger accountant in the office. I did meet the younger accountant as well during the job application process.

But mehn, working with him and the rest of my colleagues was one of the worst experiences of my life. I mean these guys treated me like I was a leper. I would come into the office in the morning, call people’s names specifically and say good morning but they would ignore me. This was in an office of less than 10 people. But if someone else walked in and did the same they would respond.

The new owner spoke to me like I didn’t deserve to be there. I just could not understand why they treated me that way.

Even If I tried to persevere because of the job experience, that was not even happening either. They kept me working on very administrative tasks; I mean I was answering phone calls, opening letters (remember it was an accounting firm so they had a lot of letters from HMRC, the tax body), and being a front desk office. It was just a mess and a waste of my time.

When I tried to speak to the new owner about it all he said was “What do you expect”

How long did you stay at this firm?

I left after 2 months, No actually after a month and a half but they paid me two full months’ salary.

Do you think it was a case of racism?

Looking back now, It might be. But one thing for sure I think they felt some inferiority complex. As far as I remember I was the highest qualified, a chartered accountant and on the road to my Masters degree, but the most senior person in that firm was still on the road to his qualification as a chartered accountant.

So you left that job to nothing?

No, I went back to the Care job. Actually, I didn’t exactly stop the care job, I simply combined it again. Went to school, worked at the firm 3 days a week and did care jobs over the weekend.

So I just went back to the Care job till I finished School.

Your journey is quite interesting. I know you work for ia multinational company after school how did you land this role?

When I was in school, I think six months after I came in, I stumbled on a Black Professionals Scotland’s post on Linkedin and I registered on their website but I didn’t take it seriously. I just registered and went back to my normal events.

But one day I went to one of their career events and I met someone that I got talking with. She mentioned she just finished an internship. And I was like, I am looking for an internship opportunity. So I asked how she got it and she said it was through the same Black Professionals Scotland.

I immediately went home and registered for one of the events organized by my current employers. As you register you also had to send your CV in. When I got in before the event started, I was chatting with people, there was a woman who came in. I introduced myself and she said “are you the one with so so and so experience?” she mentioned something very specific on my CV and of course I said yes.

I found out from someone else who worked at that company and was also at the event that she heads the team in the department I could find a role in. She said to me “You should have that lady in your network”.

After the event, we were told to apply for roles on their website. I did and I got an invite for an interview, aced the first stage, and at the second stage that same woman was on the panel.

The rest they say is history!

In fact, around the same time I secured three other internships with companies. But the one my current employers were offering was a permanent role. So of course I went with them.

But the funny thing is, when they started the interview process it was a permanent role, only for me to get to the second stage, and without giving a reason they said the offer is now an 18 months fixed term contract and they didn’t offer sponsorship for a resident permit.

I was so crushed but I just went ahead to take the offer and thought I would have them on my CV and gain some experience. But months down the line they offered me a permanent role and also sponsored my resident permit to remain in the UK.

O wow! They sponsored you eventually?

O yes, I thought I told you. Thank you so much for encouraging me back then.

Congratulations. That’s really good news. I am so glad to hear this! So how are things with your husband job-wise?

He has been changing jobs but he has just been getting customer service roles and that is what he is currently doing.

Now it sounds like you have settled down somehow. What is the next big financial goal for you?

That’s quite tricky because I don’t feel like we are settled. Being settled is very different from financial freedom. For me, I didn’t leave my home country to come live paycheck to paycheck. I mean I desire to thrive not just exist.

Even before I graduated from school. I told you about it, right? I knew I wanted to get into business analysis as a profession because it’s also a means to position myself to attract better opportunities.

And my husband has been doing the same, although he hasn’t landed the business analyst role yet. We have been doing all those training, getting certifications, and all that.

Plus my employers didn’t pay for the resident permit fee and associated cost. We had to bear the cost ourselves. This was about £11k. All that came from our savings from the many hustles and so we are back to ground zero financially.

How many years now have you been in the UK? Your second year or third year?

This is our second year plus.

It’s been rough but I must say you are on the road to greater things. Thank you so much for sharing this with me

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