 Thank you so much for staying with us. We are done with politics now. We speak about career. And today we'll be looking into work and career, how you build yourself from one level to another. I'm speaking to Mini Gashina. She will help us to understand how does one build themselves from a particular point at the entry point and then how do you get to a retirement point. Send us your comments to all our social media platforms, Y24 Channel on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. My name is Deva Hilary. Good morning. How are you? I'm fine Hilary. Thank you for having me. You're much welcome. Please. I'll give you an opportunity to introduce yourself and speak more of your profession because I say you have quite a profile here. If you name and maybe what you have done in your career. Okay. Thank you Hilary for having me. My name is Mini Gashina. I'm a digital marketer at Zitech University. I've been doing a lot of career advice to students over the years. So professionally I do digital marketing. Akademikali I have a degree in communication and sociology from the University of Nairobi. I've also pursued a master's in public administration at Kenyatta University. I'm currently working on my research. Over the years I've done a lot to do with digital marketing so I've been advising students online and face to face. I have a diploma in communication and media studies as well. Right. Wow. You have done several things but in the same line of course. Now how did you get to choose your career? Well choosing over career is a process. It's not something that you sit and do it immediately. When I left high school I was so excited. I just thought of becoming a reporter, news anchor. That was all the excitement. But when I actually went to class and I realized that maybe this is not really what I wanted to do. I had to go through a career counselor and I weighed the different options that were presented to me and I said yes I can do this and maybe I can major in communication and maybe that would be a better way of exploring my talent and my potential. And maybe at the time you wanted to be a journalist and did you have other influences maybe from parents? I think you should be a nurse, you should be a doctor, you should be an engineer, that kind of thing. Well my parents were very supportive. My sister was also very supportive. They gave me all the encouragement I actually needed for me to pursue that type of a career. Mostly you find that students are usually not convinced by their parents. They already have a calling inside to pursue a different type of a career. Even when the parents decided they should pursue a different type of a career. But I will tell anybody to actually try to match their passion with their interests then they will know exactly what they want to do in life. Alright now speaking of work and career I want us to look into this example how do you maintain yourself to a certain line of work or that career speaking of so. An example would be there are people we call them kamageras in the matatu industry. These are the people when you are in a jazanga matu when you are in a chapanga set in a jawa, in a shuka evo, that kind of a thing. And then this person will move from kamagera to makanga and then you find the same person maybe the next year he is now a driver. Now how does one build their profile in a certain line of their passion? Good question Hilary. You see when you pursue different types of jobs you get to gain skills and interest and over time you realize that there is a section that you are really interested in and you continue to pursue it. So if you are a makanga in this conversation and then you move on to you probably find the industry so interesting and you think that it's better for you to advance it's because you've developed an interest in this sector. There are people who will be a makanga like four a week and they decide this is not my thing. I really don't think I can do this further. There are people who do these things just to earn a paycheck at the end of the day. Maybe a simple wage not because they are actually interested but when you talk of careers we are talking about things that a person has acquired professionally has been trained professionally to take their life through. They have earned skills, they have a job that is actually related to the duties that they were taught in school. The type of character already is it marries so well with the job that they were given. It marries so well even with the education background but with a makanga you really don't need it's just work, you really don't need any type of skills. It's just an official, it's something that you do probably earn a living that day. Maybe because academic opportunities were never presented to you back in your days so you just find something that will actually give you a pay at the end of the day. With careers you have to actually train yourself you have to endorse yourself with the motivation you have to build yourself towards it. I wanted to give this another example which of course marries is the one that I have given. We have seen people who have gone to a particular industry and not actually even an industry a person who has maybe finished their high school and started working in a certain organisation and then you find this person has moved has become a secretary the next thing you hear they have an office and of course now they have a paper but now getting to that particular point there's a journey as a person because at the time you're becoming even responsible in other aspects of life how does one get to balance such focusing on what they want and even speaking to the young people out there beginning small. Okay. You know when you come in and you get a job as a cleaner in any institution you will have to develop different interests if you don't want to stay there for the rest of your life and you know careers it's a long life plan if you are visioned if you are focused you may not want to remain where you are stagnated for a very long time you may want to move from one level or from one stage to another so that you are able to grow yourself into a different level so if you come in as a cleaner and you realise that you are interested with the work that the receptionist is doing you have to train yourself you will ask the receptionist what can I do to assist you you have to even take yourself to school back to school you take a small course and you come back to employ and tell them I have this certificate can I get a chance in a different office and of course they will see that this person is making some effort and they will give you another opportunity can you go back to school we need somebody in this department so you have to actually invest in yourself if you want to have a career you have to invest yourself with a different type of skills you have to learn from the people around you you can just sit down if you want to grow that's a career but if you find somebody who has been a cleaner for 20 years this is a person who can say my career as a cleaner they don't have to really move up the ladder they can just call themselves my career as a cleaner begun this year to this year they really did not have any interest in growing up the ladder so this is the type of person like the Makanga who stays at a particular stage for so many years until everybody knows there's a Makanga of this nature at this particular stage so if you have to grow yourself you have to invest yourself like the Makanga will take themselves back to school to do a driving course and obviously the cleaner might take themselves back to school and probably pursue a course whatever the company is handling the industry of that company like in my profession where I work we have trained staff who can actually handle students they guide them on the different type of careers right from the beginning so that these students are able to envision themselves in better positions they are able to see their potential they are able to tell themselves that I can't really do just a short course on maybe culinary arts or hospitality and stay there I have to grow myself into the managerial position I have to build myself so they do the course probably because of finances and other constraints they drop out but they come back and we take them to this process they come back they join us for a diploma they come back we enroll them for degrees and that way you are able to grow even in your career you are able to move from one level probably from the receptionist to the administration we are living at a time especially during this COVID-19 we have seen people lose their jobs most of them get retrenched and of course this is something that has been happening even in the past but now how does one make themselves relevant to a point where even when the employer wants to release some people you may have done maybe just one course or a degree but you will find yourselves you have remained even when others have left ok you have to grow yourself with the growing trend Hillary you cannot stay stagnating in a place for a long time when you get into an industry you have to look at the positions that this company cannot do without you have to look at sections where for this company to thrive this must exist like if you get into a company whereby you know technology will overthrow your position you have to take yourself either back to school and change your career or you have to probably train yourself to fit in other sections so that your skills are not only limited to a specific department so if a company decides to restructure you will not be thrown out if a company decides to maybe render people redundant you will not be like let's say for today when covid was announced most companies had to send people home and definitely if you are working in most in offices like an accountant you will find yourself probably sent back home because the system can replace you and pay payments have replaced you digital banking has replaced you but what if you are in the system in an office whereby everything has to be accounted for if you are an accountant and your work is probably to counter check the records of payments that means even if you are at the front office receiving the cash receipts and you are writing receipts down and issuing them out you will be sent home probably doing all the reconciliation you might not be sent home you might be needed to check through the types of payments that the new company has adopted during this season so like in my take if you are probably in news anchoring you have to learn new digital ways of presenting news to send your news probably to youtube maybe to attract more traffic different types of ways online instead of just taking to the normal traditional media that you are used to that way you remain relevant you develop your own content you sell it through internet, youtube and various form of social media that way you are able to thrive so I will urge everybody who is out there make yourself relevant by joining departments and careers that actually you cannot be rendered redundant easily if you take your if you are rendered redundant and there is no option for you to probably move on think of something else that you can do if you are a chef probably you can sell your staff online you can develop courses that you can teach people online don't just give up and say now the company rendered me redundant I have to stay at home and wait for a next chance to be employed yeah brings me to the next group of people these are now the juakalis you have opened your business you or maybe you are doing a certain thing like the architecture let me actually give them an example with someone who manufactures some codes they went for that particular course to do or even arts they went for that particular course that's their career this is what I do how do they build themselves to a point whereby we will not be speaking of artists but we will be speaking more of art in the art industry it's a tricky one but everybody can make it out there so in terms of let's say musicians these are artists that have developed themselves through various skills and their passion they already have a ready market for whatever they are selling so in this case you have to go the extra mile you have to explore different types of ways you can make money so as much as you are a musician I've seen so many musicians pull out and make their own record company they decide to grow their careers from being a musician to having a record company to record other people's music the source for these musicians the source for these artists they create the content and they sell it even in stations like View Sa Sa and what have you so you don't have to only be a musician you can be a content creator you can be a producer you can explore the different type of angles that you can fit in so long as you don't stay stagnated that's my tip how about the people who business courses they become do they have to go to be employed by a certain organization or it's something they can begin by themselves become their own employer and sustain them how do they do that as a finisher you see in the current market Hilary whenever you pursue any course you have to look at can you employ yourself can you get yourself into a sector that you don't have to really rely on employment so in this case Hilary I will tell anybody pursuing any business course that they are practical and applicable skills that you can offer apart from being employed let's say you are an accountant I've seen people run these money exchange programs on the website selling of shares you really don't have to be specifically in employment for you to thrive it you can pursue other interests in the business field let's say if you pursue procurement it's a business course you can write tenders for people you really don't have to be the one employed you can help people get these tenders you can take them through the documentation process you can guide them through you can even present for them opportunities whenever they advertise on probably the PPOA whenever they advertise you can present to them the tenders show them how to write bid for them the tenders and probably that way you can make a living you really don't have to be employed all right and now speaking of the career and building yourself to a certain point where you become relevant even when others are doomed to not give us your final recommendations you know if you have if you don't have a career you don't have a vision you need a vision to guide you through the career and you know a career is an encompassment of various different aspects and decisions that you make throughout your life that direct your educational, political, social, economic path I will urge all the young people out there to encompass their values their talents and their passion for them to actually realize what they need to do in life and that way they will be able to to make firm decisions in their careers and their lines of work so that they remain relevant even when others are being rendered redundant all right thank you so much for coming and speaking to our audience they are young people and you've had it's important for you to grow yourself from one point to another sika e palesano se mange my career as a it's not important at least have something else to top it up because you will always be relevant wherever you go she has been my guest mini gasina digital Maketa and thank you so much for coming and back home thank you so much for keeping us company it has been a pleasure staying with us we were speaking about growing your career or career and work my name is Dereva Hilli we will be seeing you again in the evening until then have a good day and enjoy the rest of our programings good morning