Career Talk: My journey is unique

Throughout my high school years, I do not remember being given career guidance to help me evaluate my academic strengths and decide what career track would be suitable for me after completing high school.

From a very young age, I loved reading and writing. I started reading Sesotho novels at seven for my grandmother, who was a storyteller of note herself. We alternated between my novels, reading, and her folklore narrations late at night. However, because the novels were new and riveting, reading soon became our favourite late-evening entertainment.

One of my high school mathematics teachers, a fairly new teacher, used to tell us about how we can never amount to anything without mathematics. He would passionately repeat every morning, “Without Math, you are nothing!”. This scared me very much because as much as I enjoyed some mathematical components, there were some that my teenage brain refused to understand. I also knew that mathematics went along with subjects like physics, chemistry and biology. I was not strong in these subjects as well. In fact, I never passed Biology in all my two years of high school education, despite my consistent top 5 ranks in all my grades in high school.

My favourite subjects were English Language and Literature. Anyone who knows me from high school will tell you I was never without a novel. Every opportunity I got, I read a novel. At home, it got to a point where I read novels in our little pit toilet because then I could read in peace while tuning out my grandmother's calls. I loved reading out loud during English Literature lessons and I loved comprehension and essay-writing. At my matric farewell, the principal presented with a Best English Writer award.

My Form E results were fairly good. I had an average of 25 and had achieved credit in all eight of my subjects except mathematics, where I achieved a pass (seven). The only courses I had heard of and expected to enrol for were BSc, BCom and Law. B. Ed. was not an option, perhaps because my math teacher had never mentioned that one can study B.Ed. to become a Mathematics teacher.

Disappointed by my results, I enrolled for supplementary math classes and registered with ECOL to re-write math in June. Meanwhile, I applied at NUL and chose BCom and LLB as my first and second choices, respectively. Remember that I did not particularly care for mathematics. I also was not very vocal and argumentative; in fact, back then I was at my happiest when I had a novel in my hands. But I was determined to study Accounting or at least Law.

When the June supplementary results came out and I still had a pass (seven) for Mathematics, I was momentarily shattered. I went back to NUL hoping to get admission into the Law program, but it was too late. Students who had Law as their first choice on their applications had been admitted; up to those with an aggregate of 34! The course intake for the year was full.

Upon a short enquiry, the B. Ed. intake for the year was also full. I was told to try the Faculty of Humanities. I had never heard of humanities. However, I got admitted to the B.A. Humanities program on the same day. By then, it had been three weeks since the academic year started, and first-year students had been at school for four weeks. Everything had to be done with the speed of light: register, attain proof registration, get the NUL identification, secure accommodation and so a good deal of other logistics. Meanwhile, first semester tests were already being written.

I remember that among my selected courses for my first year; I had Geography and Social Work in addition to English 101 and some Literature courses. The F I got for Geography stands out like a sore thumb on my undergrad transcript. I admit, I did not care for the sciences, however, geography was like a foreign language altogether. I sat in that class day in and day out and never grasped a single concept. Needless to say, I failed all my Geography mid-semester tests and gave up, only to realize too late that the final paper was made up of all three mid-semester tests!

Thankfully, I could drop Geography completely and did not have to supplement, repeat, or carry it on to the next year. For my second year, I chose a double major in English Language & Linguistics and Theatre & Drama. At the time, I regarded this as a compromise for my failed career choices. At least I would do something I loved and understood. This, however, did not feel like the right thing to do. What I did not know then was that had I received proper career guidance, I probably could have chosen these majors from the beginning. Only in recent years have I been able to recognize that this was God leading my way all along. The course felt oddly right, and I performed reasonably well. Four years later, I graduated.

When I completed my undergraduate degree with the Samuel Pholosi Memorial Prize for Best Graduating Student in Literature, I was convinced that my life would be set. There were only 4 Theatre Studies graduates that year. How hard would it be for all of us to get into LTV, Radio Lesotho and Ultimate?

Reality hit pretty quickly. Since then, I have been a high school teacher - got a PGCE to boost -, a communication and research officer and currently a public health practitioner. Along the way, however, I have done translations, transcriptions, editing and written scripts, poetry, curriculum vitae, and personal statements, mostly for fun.

I learned and continue to learn through and from all the roles that come my way. My career is still developing, along with my unfolding life story, and I hope to study Public Health Promotion soon; sending this to the universe as I strive towards this goal!

My advice to current tertiary students would be to always think about what they are going to do beyond their studies. While they’re doing that, join students’ associations and charities for leadership, fundraising, communication, financial management skills and so much more. The possibilities of learning are endless. Look out for and seek opportunities for gaining work experience, right from the first year of study. Use your semester breaks to gain valuable skills. Volunteer if you must. Your job search literally starts from the day you first set foot inside a tertiary classroom. Make it count! All these experiences are gold on a recent graduate’s CV. Imagine a CV containing just your name and qualifications versus a CV portraying leadership, service experience, volunteer roles and so forth and adding further details on skills gained from these roles; if you were the hiring manager reviewing these two CVs, which CV owner would you call for an interview? Why?

Nine months ago, I started a creative writing gig called CV Services & Professional Editing. I think of this venture as a COVID-19 baby. With no social life, isolated from friends and extended family, riddled by stress and fretting about financials, job security and my children’s future, the idea of monetizing my long-time hobby was born.

My colleagues in the previous organisation I worked for called me “the troubleshooter”. This used to annoy me a lot, but I appreciate the fact that it is actually who I am. I believe that there is a solution for every challenge, and I will research, research, and then research again until I find the perfect solution. So, this is what I did before launching this baby.

In these nine months, I have had clients from a wide range of backgrounds, industries, and sectors. These are recent graduates, entry, professional, and executive-level clients. I help my clients think through what their role is beyond just the job description they signed for; what value they add to the roles and the organisations they work, even the countries they work in; what accomplishments they have achieved in those roles; are they quantifiable? This information, expertly crafted, results in compelling CVs.

There is so much potential embedded in every one of us. Regardless of the circumstances, we find ourselves grappling with at any given time. We must know that our potential to succeed is overwhelming and we can succeed because we must.