My name is Benjamin Precious and I’m based in Nigeria. I recently concluded my undergraduate studies in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, and a few months ago I signed up on SkilledUp Life through the LinkedIn platform as an HR Volunteer.

I had knowledge in HR but I didn’t have any industry experience to back up my knowledge, which recruiters look for. So joining SkilledUp Life gave me the opportunity to gain Experience and develop my skills further. Before joining SkilledUp Life I was really interested in learning how organisations selected the best-fit candidates for a particular role out of hundreds of applicants, how they determine that the applicant will help grow the organisation forward.

Once I joined SkilledUp Life I learned more than I expected to learn from the Opportunity. I was given room to review applicants on a daily basis and also conduct interviews. HR personnel is always like the middlemen in an organisation, they work for the employees and also for the management. And I have always believed that employees are the greatest asset an organisation has and how the employees are treated will determine how far the organisation will go and will determine if they will have an advantage in the labour market.

And being a people person gave me the interest I have in HR today. For the past few months I have been on SkilledUp Life and I strongly encourage anyone who
wants to gain real-life Experience or anyone who wants to learn and build skills in a different field to join one of our teams. I have gained so much confidence and learned so many new things related to HR and I have also worked with some amazing people from different parts of the world.

Anyone who wishes to join is doing themselves a great favour and also you get to build your resume which will give you the boost to get that dream job. This is a great opportunity. I don’t think anyone should miss out on it.

Interview with Benjamin

Our Head of HR, Ayonike caught up with Benjamin to get an understanding of her 3 months Volunteer Term with us.

Q1: What skills and experience were you looking to get before you started volunteering with Skilledup Life?

Well before joining SkilledUp Life, I was looking to understand how the recruitment process of an organisation worked. How organisations are able to select the best fit for the job. The procedures they have to undergo in selecting each individual. Also gaining that industrial experience was going to help me understand a lot of things.

Q2: Did your experience at SkilledUp Life match up with these expectations? How?

Yes, It was actually beyond what I expected because I am a shy person and SkilledUp Life asides from giving me the platform to learn and impact, it also helped in boosting my confidence. Now I can conduct an interview without so much struggle and I have gained great communication skills too.

Q3: Kindly give a brief review of your experience so far.

Well like I said previously I didn’t have any experience whatsoever so this opportunity for me was a lot of fun. Although at the beginning I struggled a bit, with the help of my amazing teammates I was able to pull through. I am more confident in myself and I can boldly say that I am an HR personnel now. Although I still have a lot of things to learn but with time I will get to where I want.