Responding to my career expectations

I carried a worry for the first two weeks of the WOW training (www.pghumanities.wits.ac.za/) since most of the presenters were talking of very informative things but no specific connection with my career expectations. They were all good and I learnt a lot, then I asked my self, how useful is this going to be if I do not get an intern position after the training?

At the beginning of the third week, Jean Power asked us to give an overall assessment of the programme so far. One of the things we asked was that some of us have not yet heard from organizations they were interested in for a career. All we have heard that far was quite good and related to development in a sense. But for people like me, working within a multicultural and multitasks development organization has always been a target. The programme reacted very quickly. Thank you Jean and Lesley. I felt so satisfied when some guests addressed us on behalf of Independent Develop,ment Trust-IDT (www.idt.org.za), CIVICUS (http://www.civicus.org/), Environmental Resources Management-ERM (http://www.erm.com/), and Social Surveys (http://socialsurveys.co.za/).

Having studied development since my undergrad, there is nothing exciting than interacting with people from various backgrounds. The issue however, is that development studies are multidisciplinary, it touches at economics, sociology, almost everything and sometimes you feel lost, immersed, not focused, even confused, that’s the beauty of it.

When some speakers started talking of empowerment, poverty alleviation, policy analysis, people’s participation, etc, it started stirring up my passion and I reach the peak of my joy. The three organizations I named above on are exactly the sort of environment I want to see my self in. Mostly, grown up in a French-speaking environment, cultural diversity is something I always look at for my career choice. By culture diversity I go beyond language environment and I see the richness that combines different origins, backgrounds, knowledge, and lifestyles. Thank you very much to Audrey, Barkers, Lorenzo, Libby, Mpumi, Tshepo, Bangani, Mkise and Gadija.

But, on the other hand, I intend not to work for more than fifteen years; I wont cope with that routine. I do not want to offend potential employers, but I am trying to be true soul. For that reason, I am going to retire and concentrate on my own business, especially the mining one in the DRC. I am going to get some advices from Marius Venter (Open For Business) and Endeavour (http://www.endeavor.org/). Some courses I did with UNISA have already prepared me to that, moreover, my EQ (entrepreneurial intelligence) is high enough. There again, I will work for while and end up in politics. All the knowledge and experience I would have accumulated will be useful to contribute to the development of the DRC. Remember, change is constant, go green from time to time.