JKUAT Career Talk [12 Feb 2010]

When I grow up, I want to be…’ this is the cliché phrase that recursively finds its way into every person’s conversation at one point or another in life. It defines passion, spells out purpose and serves as the foundation upon which our dreams are made concrete; at least in part. Almost always, at the end of everyone’s ‘I-want-to-be’ statement, the desired result is the same. Success. Comfort. Happiness. Luxury. Convenience.

None of this comes easy, though. This truth was clearly spelt out at the Career Talk Forum 2010 held on the 17th of February at the NSC Lecture Theatre 1. The afternoon event recorded first-rate attendance and confirmed that in issues of success, age is just but a number.  The facilitator, Catherine Kamau Wainaina, is a well known part-time lecturer at JKUAT Main Campus and Thika Technical College. She also lectures at the Mt. Kenya University and is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in Human Resource. She is very well versed with academic matters and didn’t hold back in sharing what she knows.

‘A career,’ she said, ‘is an occupation that offers one progress through life. It is a path, procedure, passage….a vocation to course. We all need to have dreams if we are to get anywhere’. She went on to state that some qualifications stand out, academic background not withstanding. These include etiquette, people skills, passion, which pushes us to keep working at something until it bears fruit, etc.

In the end, careers are influenced by:

• Passion
• Path of study taken
• Capabilities and talents
• Opportunities available
• How we respond to and deal with dream killers
• Where we draw motivation from; who our mentors are

Her parting shot: – I do not believe in inferior and superior courses; I believe in the person. Judging by attendance, the world has earned itself a few more informed would-be careerists. We thank Emmanuel Kasina’s office (Student Union Academic Secretariate)  for organizing the whole event.