Well, Well, Well, Mentorship Panel Talk. I must admit, I didn't foresee this in one of the next articles I would write for Giz Munch. Here we are now, divulging into career talk for after-university life for 4th year students. I would like to thank Kabarak University, KUSSA (Kabarak University SSET Student Association) and SSET Kabarak for organizing this event.
The KUSSA Mentorship Panel Talk took place on the 26th of October 2023, at Kabarak University in our own school of law's classroom KLAW5. A star-studded list of guest speakers was presented in front of us that day.
Kabarak University's home-grown alumni Ann Muli of Pixel, CEO Agency 254's Founder Macharia Ngatia, Tims Owen from Safaricom, Kabarak University's SSET HOD Dr. Laura Cheptegei, Kabarak University's SSET Dean Dr. Peter Rugiri, Kabarak University's SSET Lecturer Dr. Chrispus Alukwe were the speakers of the day. Essential is the word that comes to mind to elaborate on the impact and feeling of this event.
Tims Owen from Safaricom kicked off the session. He discussed Upwork, picking what favors you most that's either formal employment or entrepreneurship. Make sure to build your skills. "Have a second skill at hand, don't just focus on one sole thing. Negotiate your stay. When you go out to the job market, make sure to choose your pain wisely. " These were a few words that were said by the Safaricom Guest Speaker.
Ann Muli was the speaker after that. She started off by asking the members of the crowd, what our plans were after university. Two answers came. Various answers from the crowd came from David Saruni and Felix.
David Saruni a 4th Year 1st Semester Student and Beta Microsoft Learning Student Ambassador answered this, "Getting a good job that could help me stabilize myself and start working on my own start-up. " Felix, a computer security and forensics student, answered that he wanted to start up his own cybersecurity company.
Ann Muli winded up her talk by giving us her personal 5 lessons. Her 5 lessons- You have to start somewhere. Prioritize what you are going to gain when joining a workplace, don't just focus on the money. Curiosity, be curious about what people around you are doing. Prioritize skills over degree.
Next was Macharia Ngatia of CEO Agency 254, he told us about his life journey and career in sales and communications pr. Entrepreneurship and more. He encouraged us to volunteer or start up our own projects. Below are a couple of videos from his panel talk.
SSET HOD Dr. Laura Cheptegei spoke next. She also spoke about education and work experience. My key personal takeaway is in this video below.
SSET Dean Dr. Peter Rugiri, followed after Dr. Laura. He congratulated and awarded David Saruni, Elvis Davis Otieno, Michael Owinyo, Michael Wekesa and more for their innovations from Kabarak University’s own Central Rift Innovation Week of September this year.
CEH Dr. Chrispus Alukwe winded up the session. He discussed his journey in Cybersecurity and how to handle interviews, preparing for them and asking interviewers questions especially those that need clarification. He gave us 10 key rules to do and to keep in mind when looking for employment.
Those 10 rules were 1- Make Continuous learning and Skill Development a habit, 2 - Have Networks, 3- Don't Burn Bridges, 4- Join Online Forums, 5- Customize your resume, 6 - Prepare for interviews, 7- When it comes to salary - Ask them what makes you not want to hire me, 8 - Be Flexible, 9 - Be persistent and resilient, 10 - Everything is built in the mind.
To conclude this article, I present to you the milkshake, sticky-sticky waffle dance. This clip below happened during our break-the-ice session with the MC of the day.
Special to Ian Kiprotich for the photos of that special day!
Thanks for taking the time to view and read this article. See you in the next one!