Life Lately: 5 months post-housejob + NYSC4 mins read

I finished my housejob (HJ) over 5 months ago, but I am just starting my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) year. While I could have started in November 2019, but I had certain things I wanted to achieve for the NYSC year that required some planning, so I deferred. I already knew that I might defer my NYSC even before I finished housejob. In June, I asked some senior colleagues for advice and all had varied opinions, so the onus was on me to make the final decision.

When people started asking me about going for NYSC, I gave varied responses depending on the level of stress I could handle per time. So most times, I just said I couldn’t meet up with the November batch ‘based on logistics’.

I will do a brief breakdown of how I spent the 5 months between finishing HJ and starting NYSC.

OCTOBER 2019

I officially completed my 1-year housemanship programme in the first week. The signing out process was smooth in my internship hospital, so I got all my necessary documents with a week. I then attended the Future of Health Conference, organised by the Nigeria Health Watch, at Abuja. Given my increasing interest in exploring non-clinical medicine, it seemed like a wonderful event to attend. It also provided an excellent networking opportunity for me.

NOVEMBER 2019

After spending some weeks just sleeping and waking up in Akure (I totally enjoyed this – it was good to have that free time), I returned to Lagos majorly because there were more opportunities there. I also missed my friends a lot! Getting to Lagos, I got an amazing contract offer on a research job for an international firm. All this while, I was also reaching out to companies and individuals for a placement in the field I wanted. This was also the ‘are you not going for NYSC’ peak period as mobilization for Batch C was happening.

DECEMBER 2019

This was a mixture of chilling plus small research gigs here and there. I also started getting ready for NYSC (2020 Batch A) while sending out applications more aggressively. I got a mixture of no’s, follow-up and complete airing. Thankfully, I had friends to rant to; it was also my birth month, so I guess that helped. Two days before the new year, I quit my main research gig (because I felt the pay was too low).

JANUARY 2020

January started with me wondering why I quit, as my income had depleted significantly. I did my best to focus more on job hunting. It was a stressful period, to be honest. I remember waking up one morning and out of frustration, I just printed my CV and started going to all the hospitals in my area asking if they needed a medical officer. Lol. It was funny because I had rejected such roles earlier as I wanted to focus on something non-clinical. I felt better after the search sha – it felt like I was doing something at least. My first-ever serious/corporate job interview happened in the last week of January – I had to make a presentation. I also set up my 2020 vision board this month and also tried grey hair extensions.

FEBRUARY 2020

In the first week, I had my second job interview. I also got a positive response from my first one. I started that while waiting for a response from the second, which I thought was my dream job. Several messy stuff happened work-wise during this period. The month ended with me being unemployed again, after getting 2 job offers. Some things just don’t make sense.

MARCH 2020

This was the NYSC month. I spent the first week finishing up at my last job and getting ready for the orientation camp. The first few days here were really somehow, and I was finding it hard to adjust. I was getting somewhat used to the environment when we were told to leave camp. The camp is usually 21 days, but my batch spent 10 days as COVID-19 cases were increasing in Nigeria. I wrote this post shortly after the authorities released corp members from camp.

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I am thrilled that I took this brief break as it helped me take a step back to think through things, especially career-wise. I know some people might say it’s only 1-year, just get it over with, but I don’t feel that way. If I had started in November, I will probably be like 3 months in now. But it’s not by ‘who first finish’.

Doing it my way, I believe I will have a better NYSC year experience as I will do something in line with what I want. So if for any reason you have been delayed, or like me, you intentionally delayed your NYSC mobilisation, know that you can make the most of it and no time spent waiting is wasted, if you use it right.

I will make do my best to share all about my NYSC year so ensure you subscribe to the blog so you can stay updated.

Yours-in-service,

Corps Member Sisikunmi.

Read about post-NYSC here – link