Dream Starters Naija Stories
The Untold Story Of JOBBERMEN
These three left paying jobs to help people
get jobs. Ayodeji Adewunmi, 28, Opeyemi Awoyemi, 25, and Olalekan Olude 29, are
the faces behind the biggest job portal in West Africa – Jobberman. And like
parts of a clock, they have worked together to give Nigerians and other parts
of Africa employment opportunities.
Ayodeji, Opeyemi and Olalekan’s meeting was
written in the stars, even though Ayodeji is a medical doctor by training,
while Opeyemi and Olalekan studied computer engineering; like the aligning
heavenly bodies, Olalekan and Opeyemi each had a project or meeting that
brought them together with the doctor - Ayodeji, while undergraduates at the
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
According to Opeyemi, he first met Ayodeji in
his second year in the university where he helped him design a logo. Olalekan,
who was already working as a network engineer even before entering OAU, had an
epiphany that led to meeting Ayodeji. “I felt I was no longer developing, I
knew I needed to add something to move higher and get to the next stage, that
was when I met Deji who spoke to me. I recorded the conversation and listened
to it again.”
One will say Jobberman was Opeyemi’s brain
child, but the child would not have grown into a man without the input of
Olalekan and Ayodeji.
Opeyemi came up with the idea of a portal for
jobs while on internship in his third year, and hence came up with the name
‘Jobberman.’ “I am crazy about simple names. I like names that are easy to
pronounce,” Awoyemi said. After the website was born it went to sleep, and did
not wake up till August 2009, when he met with his partners in progress.
The trio saw an opportunity to serve the
about 16 million working populace and a chance to map new grounds and make it
into the top one percentile of businesses in Nigeria. “We started this as a
project in OAU, and we were excited to start something small and make it big,”
Ayodeji revealed, with a smile dancing across his face, adding that “this
internet opportunity was a clarion call to focus on something that could be
done.”
Every mother experiences pains at child birth
and faces challenges raising a little suckling to its full potential - business
is no different, and the ‘Jobbermen’ share the challenges of doing what they
love - building careers. “It starts with perception. How people see you is
important. They look at you from a credibility stand point, which is why we
made it a priority to build relationships with the human resources department
of the companies we worked with,” he added.
Ayodeji, who said that they had to learn to
grow fast and gain emotional stamina, noted: “When you want to succeed, you
have to allow passion and your dreams take over your life. You have to develop
yourself.” Each of these players in Jobberman’s existence played a role,
Olalekan handled sales and services, Opeyemi handled online products, while
Ayodeji managed the relationship between Jobberman and the public.
Jobberman has become a marketplace for
jobseekers and employers. It has been set up to help people get the right jobs,
develop skills and help companies with shortlisting from job profiles. “With
Jobberman, your chances of getting a job will be shorter than any other
platform. We are the biggest in West Africa, according to FORBES,” Ayodeji
said, with confidence.
‘Jobberman’ is in five countries, with two
offices in Lagos and Accra, and partnerships in East African countries. Ayodeji
who obviously speaks the mind of his partners said that the love of economics
and building institutions had been brewing within him since his third year at
the university while studying medicine, but when it came to walking away from a
job in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, the business opportunities in
Africa gained the upper hand.
Most people have ideas and do nothing, but
the brains behind ‘Jobberman’ have made their dreams count. The ‘Jobberman’
trio are quick to share hope for those who wish to take the entrepreneurs’
road.
“It is a mind game which begins with young
people coming to the realiSation that starting a business is possible. This
means a lot of young people taking themselves more seriously. Reading has a
role to play, as it will increase awareness and possibilities of young people
taking to entrepreneurship. A great thing the Federal Government has done
lately is inculcating entrepreneurship into the educational curriculum. It may
take a while, as there is problem with the way we have been raised,” Ayodeji
said.
The ‘Jobbermen’ want to expand their wings
into the London and Nigerian stock exchanges, while dreaming of becoming the
market leader in their sector, a dream that might sound lofty, but with what
they have achieved thus far -anything is possible.
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