“Stay in one place for too long, and you just might become the local champion.” This is a popular belief and part of the starter pack for leaving one’s comfort zone. In this article, we speak to Courage Ujiagbe, an ardent believer in this statement, a stellar marketer, and the current head of growth at MyStash. This is the story of how Courage got connected to his present role via Blurpe.
When it comes to job hunting, some see it as a game of numbers—how many jobs can you apply for in a day, a week, or a month? Others have a more targeted approach. For Courage, it was a mixture of both. Having held his previous role for three years, he knew it was time to “try out a new experience.”
He went from the numbers game of applying for 10 to 20 job openings in a day to directly messaging CEOs and heads of departments, sending cold emails, and all that shebang. All of this led to “difficult” interviews, significantly lower pay than what he was earning at the time, and a decision to pause job hunting and focus on his current job.
That was until he heard about Blurpe. There’s something about experiencing both the hard process and the easy life—it gives you perspective. While we understand the unique selling point of Blurpe to African talents, Courage’s statement bears more weight because he has experienced both scenarios.
“I think it is far different. As a job seeker, Blurpe helps you simplify the process by recommending your profile to companies. What this did for me was that it validated my experience. You get to a point as a job seeker where you just start to doubt yourself, what you’ve learned, and your ability. That point can be quite depressing. So when you get matched with jobs, it is very validating and comforting. It means someone thinks you know your stuff well enough.”
While other talents might be hard-pressed to just get a job via the platform, which frankly, as a talent, you should—that’s the reason you would sign up while reading this—Courage was much more impressed by how fast the process of getting him hired was. “Even if I hadn’t gotten the job, I still would have been very impressed by the seamless process. There was feedback at every stage, telling me what the next step was, scheduling the interviews, and walking with me right up to the point I got the job contract. After that, you guys were still present. Like I said, impressive really.”
Beyond being a connecting bridge between jobs and talents, Blurpe is committed to ensuring career growth, especially for non-technical talents. Just like Peace Attah, Courage was moving from his familiar area of specialization to a different one, and we wanted to know how that aligned with his career goals. In the first month of his hire, he found himself responsible for much more, running touchpoints for different departments in a bid to spearhead growth at MyStash. This is something he described as challenging but overall, a good fit for his career goals and plans.
The expected twist for Courage was that he had to adjust to the operations of the company, which took some getting used to. As is customary for us at Blurpe, we run a check after three months to see how the talent and the hiring party are faring. Courage’s assertion of satisfaction was nothing short of pleasant to hear.
In the first three months, he says, “I’ve found my bearing. I’m building my team, which is very important to me. There are goals that are very crucial to me and bit by bit, I’m ticking them off my list”.
What WE know is that once again—and as usual—we have successfully placed the right talent in the right spot. It takes two to tango; a successful hire typically involves the hiring party. A company that bags a head of growth who says, “I’m very happy. I look forward to working with my team and achieving results. We’ve been building; there’s a lot of work to be done, and that’s why I’m here,” is, in everyone’s book, a winner.
“Talk is cheap.” We know. On achievements within the three-month range, Courage has built a community initiative and is in the process of refining and optimizing some of the product’s core features to suit and boost its user base.
In a moment of sheer vulnerability, Courage shares that he had a second offer at the time Blurpe came into the picture. He refused it because Blurpe was more considerate of both career and personal goals. “If I’m being honest with you, this role has opened me up to a lot of passive opportunities, and I don’t think I would have gotten here this quickly if it wasn’t for the intervention of Blurpe,” he adds. It’s the perfect way to close this—a jarring reminder that we are at the heart of both talent and employer fulfilment.
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