Student Talk

For most learners, and especially their parents, to further your education beyond high school is crucial. Not only does it increase your knowledge in the field you aspire to have a career in, but it also increases your chances to be employed by companies who seek for individuals with the specific qualification. The first thing learners concern themselves about, in order to guarantee acceptance at tertiary school, is their academic results. If not them, then it’s their parents who pressure them into excelling in their tests and exams, to render an exceptional academic report throughout high school, or at least from grade 10 to grade 12. I recall when I was still in high school that I had to submit my grade 11 academic report with my application – that was when I was applying at the University of Cape Town (UCT). I’m sure you can understand the pressure to excel as early as grade 8, because one would think you need to build yourself up to a certain level of academic achievement and a...

When entering into the working world, especially as a student or learner who neither had been exposed to the work environment nor has a mentor to guide them, exploitation may be an inevitable thing to happen: you might accept it before you even recognise it. It’s your first time working. You have this notion that you must impress your boss, to not be problematic, because it’s your first job and you also need a positive reference for future jobs, right? But what happens in an event that you find yourself doing jobs that are not in line with your job-description or what you expected to do? What do you do? Let me give you an example: You are employed to work as a trainee accountant at a small accounting firm to become a Professional Accountant (SA). The training is for 3 years. During your first year, you’re tasked with the following, along with very few accounting jobs: Making filter coffee for the boss Answering the phone when the secretary is not around (twice a...

The "Can I really stick to the budget?" face 😆  For some, budgeting seems useless, because already the money is not enough. That's exactly why we should budget: to make sure that we take care of our needs and priorities first before using the money in luxury or wherever we want to use it. Of course, one the solution is to have more than one source of income. That does not necessarily mean 2 jobs, unless you have the grace for that I suppose. But for now, let's look into the benefits and ability of being able to stick to the budget with your current income. Benefits of budgeting Benefit 1: Budgeting helps to know exactly how much you can spend - what your limit is, so that you avoid spending to the extent of being left with almost nothing before your next income. I mentioned on the earlier blogpost on this topic, blogpost 18: Financial education: budgeting  , that it helps to budget a little more than the exact amount of the expense. We all know more or le...

To-do lists! It's quite easy to disregard this. In fact, I myself never paid attention to it, and it's very easy to not think much of it when you're just a learner/ student with not much responsibilities - you know more or less what you must do and don't need to-do lists to remind you, right? Well, wait until you're all grown up and have a million and a half things to attend to (Lol!). Reaction when you have a million and a half things to attend to! Lol! For me currently, I have quite a bit of responsibilities, or rather things I choose to do with my time that are important to me. Let me give you a break-down: - I am a trainee accountant: Monday to Friday, working hours - I serve at my church (Christ Kingdom Life International) for Sunday services, and avail myself for any additional projects. I have to prepare and avail myself every week. - I edit and help publish books for people who want to write and publish books throug...

Some of the Co-opt students in the skills development programme at the office. Had so much fun with them. Missing them already before they are even gone back to varsity! Lol!  Becoming employable as a recent graduate is a challenge that is faced even today. It's understandable, because for many of us who study through tertiary (i.e university/ colleges), we may have been exposed to the studying of the theory of the career, and not so much the practical part of it. The challenge with being employable as a graduate stems from the fact that the work place requires more than just knowledge. In fact, the work place needs us to apply the knowledge we have. It needs us to bring solutions using the knowledge we have. More importantly, it needs people who will be efficient in the work they do. If a company was to choose between an individual with only a qualification and an individual that has vast years of experience in the field of work that both individuals are applying for, th...

As a person who is busy, who always has something to do, I can tell you that multi-tasking can be the bestest friend ever! For me, it is the solution to getting things done, BUT it can also not be so much of a good thing. Multi-tasking as the bestest friend ever! When I have a lot to do, starting on each thing, whatever it is, is much better than not having started anything at all!

I must say - when I started my training as a trainee accountant, I was frustrated at the "lame tasks" (according to me) I was getting at the time. I wanted the real deal. I wanted accountant-related stuff. And I was so wrong! 🙈 You know how people emphasize on the basics? I'm familiar with that term from university. The basics are the foundation, and foundation is the most important part of anything that anyone wants to excel in. Let me fill you in on the basics I'm talking about. These basics are things I didn't think were so important (in addition to other minor accountant-related work I had been doing): So glad that my colleague agreed to be featured on the blog! Yas! 😜 1. Every morning, I make filter-coffee for the boss:  I have never made filter-coffee. I don't even drink coffee! You can imagine how clueless I was in putting the right amount of coffee. I had to taste it, so that I make sure it is something I would drink. I realised tha...

Oh yes, let us talk about money today. Money - one of the reasons why we study to get that qualification; that drives us to work; that gets us so passionate about holding those big positions that the world has already taught us are high-paying positions. The fuss about money is understandable. I mean we need money to live in this world, right? We need to be able to afford to live. We need to be able to buy food, clothes, afford a house to live in, afford a car that will take us where we need to get to and back any time (more especially when public transport disappoints us at times). We just want to be able to afford anything we want and need without limitation. Trust me - I know. I've been in financial trouble long enough and was so close to being in poverty. It's frustrating. But here is my concern: the danger of running after money. https://www.gettyimages.com If you recall from my blog post #16 - Quitting , you will remember that I mentioned quitting the j...

I was waiting on a train around past 6 am! Yep! We make time, even for selfies. See, if we can make time for selfies so early in the morning, surely we can make time for anything we put our mind into. There's this very common saying that "time is money".Ok, it's emphasis on how important time is - I get it. I really wonder, though, if we realise how precious the time we are given is. Consider this for a minute: regardless of how you spend your time, you will never be able to get those minutes/ hours back. You can't take that time you didn't spend doing something productive, and add it on the days that you need it the most. The most fascinating thing I discovered about myself quite recently is how much I always want to keep busy, and how when there are things I need to do, I do them as soon as possible. I'm so fast,  every time there is something to do, I jump to it as if I'm the only person that can do it, as if I cannot do it another ti...

The result when we steal a moment to take a picture: either early morning or during lunch - CAN'T POSE because inside office, because serious environment (lol)! On the first blogpost about employability , I shared the fact that there are graduate attributes and skills that we ought to have as students over and above our academic knowledge. There is one other thing that greatly contributes to employability that was not addressed: training. It is very fortunate that there are courses that incorporate training/ work experience in which the knowledge gained is applied during tertiary studies. However, there are other courses that do not incorporate training during studies, and students are expected to complete training after completing tertiary studies instead. The most unfortunate thing in this case, which I had witnessed and experienced, is the fact that employers expect results. It is as though they forget that as graduates, we come straight from tertiary and are not familia...

https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/changes-in-eating-habits/ You have to admit that throughout the whole blog, the blog posts have been encouraging hard work, dedication, focus, efficiency in both studies and work. What about taking a breather from all of that to refresh and rejuvenate? The importance of taking breaks is actually not hidden at all. We get lunch breaks during school and tertiary. Even at work - there are tea breaks and lunch hour. The unfortunate thing, which I’ve witnessed both at tertiary and at the workplace, is that I’d find people doing work during their breaks: students perhaps doing admin things like photocopying or printing out notes; and employees trying to get done with the workload that is more than enough for one person within the limited working hours. My concern, particularly when breaks are disregarded in the workplace, is that one gets overworked and ends up making mistakes. We are not machines but humans. Let’s look into the purpose of...

8 months later and I finally reached a point where I am efficient in my work…well, most of the time. One thing I’ve realised about myself is that when something comes up while I’m busy with one thing, if it is urgent and/ or will take little of my time, I’d rather stop what I’m doing currently and attend to that thing before I forget about it. I’d rather get it over and done with there and then instead of procrastinating it, otherwise it won’t get done. If it’s something that will take long, which I’d only realise while attending to it, I’d keep the paper work or a sticky note on the desk or on the laptop where it will not pass my eyes, so that I know it has to be attended to before end of day. I also don’t like papers on my desk, so putting them on my desk is motivation enough to attend to them and to get rid of them before end of day. However, it’s also important to be realistic: if I can’t do everything today, there’s always ‘prioritizing’ – doing the urgent tasks first, and ther...

This is a topic I feel very strongly about, especially now that I have entered the working world and see the need for both experience and qualification. Qualification I believe that a qualification, be it a diploma or a degree, is merely a resource to assist one in whichever field they intend to work in, for that particular occupation/(s). The concern I have is when we spend years to obtain a qualification that we don't even know how we will use it, or even worse - obtain knowledge that may not be used at all! Obtaining a qualification is good for getting knowledge, a foundation, a background of the field of work and/ or area of expertise one intends to be in. I realized that through the B.com Accounting degree I obtained. However, it is not enough alone, and that's where the need for experience comes in. Experience I feel that experience is better than a qualification. Let me tell you why: A person with experience obtains knowledge, the actual knowledge required for th...

This blogpost is quite different from all the others - this is a guest post. I was approached by a fellow blogger - Matic from DayPipe , whose team have invented pretty awesome applications software that individuals and small organizations can use to ensure efficiency and seeing results in the work, projects and / or tasks we have. The guest post included here focuses on the 3 applications software they have invented. These applications are free for single users, and are charged for use by a group of people (like companies). To get a complete picture of what DayPipe is about, check out their blog-post titled 'How to better use the most valuable resource:  http://www.daypipe.com/blog/2017/06/27/how-to-better-use-the-most-valuable-resource-3x3-matrix/ Guest post by Daypipe How to better use the most valuable resource: the 3 apps This blog post is part 3 of the 3 series of blog posts, written by Matic from  DayPipe team, about how we can better understand time orga...

This is most probably the one topic you wouldn’t have expected from this blog, hey? Well, I didn’t think I’d find myself writing it either, but it is quite relevant. As much as some of us cook for ourselves at university, some still buy ready-made food from the dining halls. It may also be that some never had the opportunity or took the chance to cook while at home. Eventually, we'd have to get into the habit of cooking, especially because there will be a need to do so when we start living on our own. How I started cooking I was always cooked for – from the time I was a child right up until I started my first year at university. I confidently started my cooking journey at university and I loved it! I even went to the extent of making samp - umngqusho as we call it in the Xhosa language: do you have any idea how long that takes?! I didn’t care, as long as I was cooking. I suppose it was the excitement of starting something I did not do before. I did not like buying at the dining...

In blogpost 17, I spoke about the transition from university to the working world. It’s been over 6 months now that I have been working, and there’s more that I have learnt. Discovering myself This is something I did not expect to happen in a work environment, but I understand why it did happen: I work with people, people from different backgrounds, different walks of life, people with different ways of doing things. The work environment helped me to discover how I relate to people – how I am with people, how I respond to situations I find myself in with people. I’ve discovered myself, acknowledged my character, and the work place couldn’t have been a better platform: it’s where I spend almost half of my time, and it’s where I work the most with people. Standing my ground – standing up for myself This must be one of the toughest things to pull through – not allowing yourself to be walked-over when you’ve only recently started working and most probably don’t want to lose ...