My Treasured Journey

I have found my journey getting smoother each day as I progress with the course in Employability: Personal Development. In the comfort of receiving knowledge, on personally developing myself, identifying my weaknesses and working on them has given me a feeling ‘I have done it’ though I am not close to the finishing line of the course.

The journey started when I was in the process of finalizing my dissertation in MA International Relations and World Order. At that stage a number of questions started forming at the back of my mind in that, can I be the quality of an employee that an employer may look for? What did I need to do to be a unique, professional and out-standing potential candidate amongst others vying for the same job as me? Sometimes I would comfort myself by believing as soon to be degreed person; there was no need to worry about other areas as I already was a qualified competitor who has what it takes to get there. With my job experiences acquired before and the job I’m currently doing, I consoled myself in that those two achievements would speak for themselves that I am the quality the employer would jump for. I was wrong in soothing myself that way. I didn’t know myself well, and that I did not have the skills needed to exude confidence and precisely know how to market myself better in a way that leaves the employer captivated about the way I present myself.

As I travel the academic journey, I have since realized there is need for personal branding skills to be able to enter the job market empowered.

Whilst doing my degree, analyzing and summarizing articles was my biggest challenge. I totally lacked the skill and had at one time decided to drop out of my MA studies. I am very proud of myself as I can place value on data by knowing which is more relevant that I can use. I can logically summarize information at the same time I can manage to define a problem and its contributing factors.  

I happen to be employed as a representative of my country. Although I am a product of Zimbabwe Diplomatic Training School and Czech Republic Diplomatic School, it was very difficult for me to know what the practical side of the job entailed. Initiative and creativity skill is what I needed to be able to identify opportunities and turn around ideas into actions. I hated doing things the way they were done historically. I yearned to grow more impact than originally envisaged for an Ambassador representing her country. With that I can comfortably say I have since grown the traffic of people between Zimbabwe and Sudan through tourism activities. I have managed to initiate cultural exchange groups between the two countries.

I can safely say I’m celebrating my personal brand as I can see my performance appraisal graph realizing growth. Employability: Personal Development course has answered most of the questions which were worrying me and I am motivated though I’m still in the process of learning more skills.