Engineer tells story of how he ended up packing bottles for work

- Martin Wairegi graduated from the University of Nairobi in September 2019 and hoped he would land his dream job

- The graduate got two internship opportunities in January but was impressed by an offer that came from one of the bakeries in the city

- The man lost the job after six months and began hunting for another opportunity which came in form of an advert on the university career board

- The job in question looked good on paper but in reality, Wairegi was tasked with packing metal crowns (bottle tops) at night

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The future looked bright for Martin Wairegi until reality hit him in 2020 when he sought a casual job at the industrial area despite holding a degree certificate.

Briefly.co.za learnt that Wairegi who graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor's degree in engineering had hoped he would soon be absorbed and earn a living from his dream job.

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"After graduating in September 2019 and landing an internship immediately things were going very well. In Jan 2020 everything seemed promising, it was the year I was going to land that dream job. Opportunities were in plenty Total, Schneider, EABL, Baker Hughes all had graduate programmes," he remembered.

Narrating his ordeal on Twitter, Wairegi disclosed he got two job interviews in the first week of January 2020. One was at Kapa Oil for an internship position and another at a bakery.

Though the first six-month internship offer had no pay, he took it and had to pay for lunch at a vegan canteen.

After two days at Kapa, he got a real job at a bakery but unfortunately lost it in June thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

"The interview was great. The offer was a six-month internship, no pay, had to pay for my own lunch in the vegan canteen, I took it. After two days there, I got a real job offer in a bakery till coronavirus hit and I lost the job after six months, had to start tarmacking again," he said.

Distraught and frustrated, he looked around until June 29 when he came across a job advert on the University of Nairobi career service board seeking Mechanical and Engineering graduates which he gave a try.

"On June 30, that was the last day on my old job, I got a call from the company's HR, a very nice and calm man, he invited me for an interview. I was lucky I mean I haven't even spent time tarmacking. I was very excited," he recounted.

After about two weeks, another lady called and said she was from a company called People Link, a consultancy company the human resource department had given them his number to.

He was required to go with his certificates at Corner House in Nairobi to sign some papers.

"I was confused because in the interview they didn't mention anything about subcontracting me. I went anyway to see what they were offering and see if they matched what we discussed during the interview. When I got they gave me some papers to sign and fill my details," he said.

At that point, he realised the company did not want to hire him directly so they subcontracted him through the recruitment agency at a fee.

But in his case, he was to give up his full first month salary to the agency.

"When an opportunity comes up they get you an interview and if you get a job you pay them a percentage of your first full monthly salary," he explained.

Unknown to him, the job in question looked good on paper but in reality, Wairegi would be tasked with packing metal crowns (bottle tops).

"The job was first forming the cartons in to a box, then fitting a polythene bag on the box, fill up the box with the metal crowns, shake the box for the crowns to settle, you seal the box, label the box, put it in a pallet, stack up the pallet up to five stacks,"he added.

He would then drag the pallet to the storage, come back with another pallet and start the same cycle all over again for a record 13 hours or sometimes more.

When his shift ended at 7am the following, Wairegi left never to return again saying it was inhumane to be on shift for such long hours.

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Source: Briefly News