Brand You

"Independent queen working for her throne" ~ Neyo


If you were a brand, what would your payoff line be?
To be the best you need to know what you stand for, what you represent, what you're willing to sacrifice and what you will not compromise on. Take me for instance; I would sacrifice my job to settle down with Will Smith. We could have a reality show and call it something original like "The Desperate Housewife of Will Smith". What? He's already married? Hmmm...ok. Plan B...



In second year I was introduced to a term widely used in Marketing: positioning. This, simply put, is how a certain brand is perceived in the minds of consumers relative to other brands. In a career context, it would be how you are perceived by a prospect employer relative to the other candidates? Unfortunately, you will never be the only one gunning for that position so it is imperative that you learn how to differentiate yourself from competition.

One question I was often asked in interviews last year was, "Why you?"
My answer started becoming a mantra I recited at all interviews. A mantra with a 99% success rate. While I would love to share it with you, it will have to stay between my interviewer and me for now. In the meantime, maybe you could come up with your own...

MissEducation

I can't recall a time when I did not know how to speak English. When I came out of my mother's womb, I believe that even my cry was that of an English tone.

Unfortunately for my mother, this was not the case. According to my dear mother, the first English phrase that she recalls learning was " he he he. I am laughing" (said in an African accent). Now my mother had no idea what this meant but she so often heard her teachers recite it that when she felt like showing off to her siblings, she would confidently chirp "he he he, I am laughing", in or out of context, based purely on luck. But who can blame my mom's lack of understanding of the English language when all they did in the Agriculture class was draw a cow?

That was in the 1970's...fast forward 2 1993. Education had seen a vast improvement. I was 5 and looking forward to finally starting (then) class one. The applications forms were sent in and I patiently waited for my interview date. In the mean time I prepared a schedule. Everyday I practiced counting, pronouncing words like my friend Lauren, learning the alphabet (with the kind help of my big brother) and writing my name. Yes, I studied hard for my class one interview...

Then the day finally came for my interview, I was prepared! I knew my ABCs, could count to twenty -error free- and not only write my name but those of my siblings too! When I got there they asked me my name and I said it in English (Zee-yan-der Coo-ma-low). Score, one to me, zero to failure. Round two was conversational. Round three they gave me a picture of a cow and instructed me to colour it in. Once I had done my best Leonardo Da Vinci impersonation -perfectly colouring within the lines- the interviewer took my paper and thanked my mom and told her the interview was done. What? That was it? After all my hard work they are going to take me back to my mom's Agriculture class era??? I was not impressed!

I got a call back! I mean, I passed the interview, and started class one (will hence forth be referred to as grade one for the younger generation) at Empangeni Preparatory School. Now I took grade one very seriously so when Mrs Cattroll started teaching us the alphabet I was probably thinking I got this, silently running through what my brother had taught me..."Ay, Bee, Cee, Dee, Eee, eF..." Then Mrs Cattroll went off "Ah, Buh, Kah, Duh, Eh, Fff...". Oh! What a waste of time! Needless to say, I spent the most part of that year unlearning what I had learnt.

So now you can see that my determination started at a young age. I've always been driven and not afraid of a little hard work.
See work started off a bit slow for me. Naturally I like having a lot of things to do, it keeps me sane for some odd reason. After my brief cry for more responsibilities at work I finally got loaded with plenty to keep me busy for a while! While some people wouldn't mind getting paid for doing nothing, I find it pointless. Where is the growth in that? To accept waking up to spend the whole day at the office surfing the net and living on social networks says something about you. Shame on you! Recently I spoke to a friend of mine who started working for an insurance company last year and spent the first couple of months doing nothing but the occasional photo copying. And she found this immensely frustrating, all she wanted to do was work! It was comforting to hear this from a young professional. We so often hear that South Africans are lazy and have low work ethic, but to know of people who actually want to work is promising. It shows that we are heading somewhere as a country. We are fortunate enough to have received an education that our parents could have only dreamed of, they have played their part, now the onus is on us to make a change in the way we do our jobs be it corporate, government or anything else in between.

P.S my mom has since perfected her English and has been using the phrase; "He he he, I am laughing" in the right context for as long as I can remember

AttitudeLatitude

It’s funny how my next blog (this one) was inspired by a hip hop song. But let us not judge, Hip Hop is a career too!

The other day I was listening to a track by Rhymefest featuring Kanye West, titled “Brand New”, and one particular line caught my attention; they say your attitude determines your latitude… Now focus on this line (the rest of the verse is pretty irrelevant)…

On Saturday night I was out with a couple of friends to celebrate a friend’s birthday. A majority of the guests were recent grads and former classmates of mine. We hadn’t seen each other since our last varsity exam so this ‘do’ also doubled as a mini reunion. Spirits were high as we exchanged our experiences of the working world, music was blaring from the speakers and this old white man (who looked like he was ready to walk to his grave) at a table next to ours was dancing like a grasshopper with epilepsy with the ten young (black)girls he had taken out for the night. Concerned.

Our table grew larger and so we had to move to a secluded section. Now most of us are in the marketing industry and one or two are in financial services. There were mixed feelings about work life, some loved their jobs others hated, while others were already experiencing office romance *clearing my throat*. And so the conversation flowed:

“The women outweigh the number of men at my office”

“There are way too many men at our office”

“People don’t dress up! What’s up with that?”

“There are so many things that I have to learn and remember”

“I’m everybody’s skivvy”

“I’m giving corporate a year and I’m out”

“I hate my job”

“It’s all so mundane”  

“We go drinking with the bosses…”

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I love my job, sure it has its ups and downs but I’ve realised that that is something that comes with every job, period. Quitting your job in the hopes that the grass is greener in the other office may not always be the best solution, sometimes you just have to stick it out and turn your complaints into opportunities. Now I’m no motivational speaker but one valuable piece of information that I can add here is that an adjustment in attitude can sometimes make a world of difference. If you are always negative about things, you might just miss the good ones while you’re busy wallowing in your sorrows. Yes it won’t be easy but sometimes you just have to look at the bigger picture; where you want to be and what you need to get there. If your job is boring, think out of the box – how can you put an interesting twist to it? Change your attitude, smile more, make a friend at the office, sign up for gym(and actually go), take up a hobby, look for how you can make a difference in the organization no matter how small. The way I see it, life is like sour worms, if you want to get to the sweetness, you have to bear with the sour part first.

It's a man's world

“This is a man’s world, this is a man’s world/ But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl”

These were the wise words sang by the legendary “Godfather of soul”, James Brown. Brown wasn’t too far off, but I can’t help but object – that’s only because men had a head start (no, I am not just saying this to console myself). This song has been playing in my head like a stuck record all week mainly due to the overwhelming number of males I’ve encountered this week when I started my first day of work in Jo’burg. I suddenly found myself adjusting my voice to sound little deeper, or quickly turning around to google a few facts about the cricket world cup, or the results of last night’s Barcelona vs Arsenal game...and when all else fails, I’ve decided to add the occasional “I know hey!” when somebody mentions how “Player A” was in good form or how “Player B” was offside (*names have been changed to protect the individuals’ identity). Ok, back to the principle of this article...

So Brown confidently lists the wonders that men have made; “cars that take us over the road...trains to carry heavy loads...electric lights that take us out of the dark...boat for the water...” As I listen to this song I think about what women have made in the past million years, then I come to an epiphany (word used for dramatic effect): it was a woman who made that man who made that car, boat, light bulb, train, so I came to a realisation, Brown and I have been on the same page the whole time! He was talking about gender equality!

On paper it all sounds good, this gender equality thing but in reality it’s not that simple. While women are trying to step up and compete with their male counter parts, they still have to report to other duties outside of work; being a wife, a mother, or both. The reality of this struck me while we were busy in a meeting and one of my colleagues asked to be excused so she could go pick up her son from school before it got too late. This got me wondering; how much would I, as a woman have to sacrifice to climb up this corporate ladder? I need some inspiration!*cues for Alicia Keys’ “Superwoman”*…

Land of Milk and Money

On the 10th of January 2011 I entered a new chapter in life: the working world. Five weeks down the line I am proud to say, I love my job! It's been really hectic, waking up at 7am, attending presentations, playing paint ball, factory visits, laughing with the directors, breakfast with leadership teams and fun workshops...yep, hectically fun! So now I am faced with two more days of this Fabulous Life of the Young Professional then reality hits!

You'll often hear people comparing working life in Johannesburg to working in other parts of this country. Johannesburg has earned titles such as "city of gold" and "concrete jungle", characterized by a fast paced life, well I've been at the other end of the radar, the Western Cape. Let me paint you a picture, today I was working with a rep in Hout Bay, just driving around makes you think you're on holiday, you're constantly surrounded by mountains and beaches. Traffic out of Cape Town subsided in approximately ten minutes, I've been here for barely a month and I have almost forgotten about life in Joburg. Then there's Stellenbosch where staying 10 minutes from work means actually get there in less than 10 minutes (note: no speed limits were exceeded). This is the life I've been living but it's all about to end as I get ready to head back to Joburg where the real work begins: now I have to learn foreign languages like Waking up at 4h30 and getting 101 guide books titled "How to make it in Johannesburg after you've been away for four months"...

Letter from the editor

So when you start university they tell you, forget everything  you were taught in high school, there’s much more to well, everything. The parrot learning stops and suddenly you are actually required to think! So you put in the hours, this is where hard work starts to payoff, or so you hope. If you’re lucky it may just, if not well, try, try and try again! It is possible to know everything and still fail that exam! No more parrot learning remember? Regurgitating the textbook went down (or would it be out in this case) with high school. By second year things pick up, including marks (hopefully) and then the time comes, you finally graduate! You have a degree, you earn alumni status, job offers come from every corner (again, hopefully), the world is oyster. So this is the point I am right now. Wits graduate, undergrad – Marketing and Finance, honours – marketing, job experience? Close to none...wait do those little promo stints I did in varsity count? Yes? No? Ok, yes it is.

When you get to the workplace you wonder what it was exactly that you were taught in university. Which part of it is relevant to your current job description? Well I am to find out this part, just graduated, moved to a new town, finding my feet, socially and career wise. My job description? Management trainee at one of the world’s leading tobacco companies. What does my job entail you may ask? I’m not so sure myself but I’m willing to take you along for the ride as I explore various parts of our beautiful country, learn how succeed in the work place, making that smooth transition from university to the office...and everything else in between. Just sit back and enjoy while you flip through the pages of this megaZEEn...