Be like a tree, you will get the job you want

   By ABJ

A lot of us want to be employed, in government or NGOs or companies or anywhere else. We have written quite a good number of applications, yet we haven’t been called for interviews.

A simple advice for all of us: Be like a tree, and you will get that job you ‘desperately’ need.

Look at a tree near you, observe closely what that tree is made up of. From our primary school science, there are roots that hold the tree and supply it with water and other nutrients. Then there are branches, leaves, flowers and fruits (in some trees, at some point in time).

For employers to invite us for an interview, we need to demonstrate to them that we have roots that hold and supply us with our professional or career nutrients. The roots are our passions, the motivation that drives our life. Others would say, the purpose or mission of our lives.

Our passions distinguish us from the crowd. If one wants a job as a Child Protection Officer with Plan International, for example, you need to show Plan International that your life exists for children: you have passion for children’s wellbeing, rights, etc.

Everyone can say, in their application letter, that “I have passion for children and I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Childhood Studies. I believe I will make a good Child Protection Officer…” or anything along those lines. But what would catch the attention of the HR Manager reviewing your application is how best you show that you live your passion(s) for children’s rights or wellbeing.

Have you seen what happens to a tree if you cut its roots? It dies. The HR Manager has to be convinced that depriving you of your passion in children rights or wellbeing will kill the very core essence of your existence. See the example below…

     “…My passion for children rights makes me to look at the world from a child’s perspective and this inspired me to study for a Bachelor of Arts in Childhood Studies. For the past four years I have been committing 60% of my vacation time to volunteering at Community Based Child Care Centers (CBCCC) and raising awareness in my community on the need for everyone to guard children from abuse, child labour, and to ensure children do not walk alone at night. This makes me confident that I effectively deliver as your Child Protection Officer.”

This is not the best example, but it somehow aligns the applicant’s passion with his or her lifestyle. Here, the HR Manager would see you as someone who lives his or her passion. Don’t just tell employers that you are passionate about something, show them that you live that passion.

Ask yourself How best do I know myself? Who am I really? Remember, should you be called for an interview you will be asked to “Tell us about yourself”. Your cover letter gives you an opportunity to tell your potential employer about who you are. You are a Child Protection Officer, and your passion and experience should demonstrate that you are the one. Once you get this right, you will be called for an interview and subsequently offered that position as a Child Protection Officer… because that position belongs to you.

For today, let’s stop here. Next time we will talk about branches. What kind of branches should we have for us to easily secure employment? We will answer this next time.




ABJ is a graduate of the College God loved the most (amatero eni akewo) and a Masters in International Law student at the University of Leeds.

Kalembera

It is that time of the week when we get to be treated with an article. Well. Here is one.

I must point out that I didn't get much of positive feedback from the early bird article last week and that might have been due the the crowded and clouded mind that was behind. That was one article that was drafted on a Chinese made phone (not unlike many others) inside the emergency room of a referral hospital. I know Richie Online family is a bunch of forgiving humans. There is nothing worth beating me over, anyway.

Back to Friday the 21st July, in the year of Liberals, 2017....

We all might have heard the National Registration Bureau advert featuring Gospel Kazako calling you to go and process your National ID jibber jabber. I like the part where he says something to imply that we all need to be registered so that when they tell all Malawians to stand, we should be able to do so and wave out our national IDs. What a motivation for having a national ID!

To be honest, I am not sure of the necessity of the national IDs and I personally am not sure this exercising will have any positive impact on national development or planning or anything of the sort. I know I might be wrong because of the narrow view I have of the whole thing. I am told the idea behind registering citizens is for planning in allocation of resources and for controlling the access to social services or something in those lines. I would like to think that it's reasonable idea but at the same time I am baffled by the extent to which people think these national ID thing will work. Two reasons.

On the issue of planning and allocation of resources to Malawians, one would wonder how the presence of IDs would help in enhancing the allocation of the already insufficient resources. I once happened to be involved in a monitoring exercise for World Vision and the whole thing got me to chat with a Village Headman in some part of Mulanje. He told me of how he had given all the names of households in the village only for some computer based program to determine how many FISP coupons the village would get and which household would get them. Maybe this whole thing goes beyond FISP, but at the moment I cannot think of anything else which could will be improved by the IDs. I just don't see the "P4s" sitting in a board room and discussing of what direction the country would take having known the number of registered citizens in the country. On the other hand, I am not sure that there will be enough screening to make sure that the IDs are going to Malawian humans only. I am pretty sure that some will fall in the hands of Burundians (and probably some fellas from the surrounding countries when the registration hits the border districts). Pointless exercise, if you think along those lines.

On the issue of limiting the access of social services to Malawians and Malawians only, one would wonder as to how far and wide that will be applied. It would be easy to say someone who doesn't have an ID should not be allowed into Ndata University or Chirunga College. On the other hand, it is not that easy for a doctor who has vivid knowledge of ethics to turn back a patient who needs urgent help on the basis that he doesn't have a piece of paper called a Malawian national ID. Not sure which other service we would like to keep to ourselves. I need some enlightenment here (somebody educate me).

Anyway. Those are just the reservations of an ignoramus who is resistant to change. I will probably have a good view of the purpose of the whole registration exercise once people are done schooling me on the benefits of the same.

Talking about the exercise itself, it has not gone without some negative feedback. Relating to the point that some the IDs will land in the hands of foreign nationals, reports have it that some of the forms are being sold to foreigners. News also has it that there are some chiefs who are talking over the job of distributing the forms, ending up disturbing the flow of registration in the process. On the far end of the whole thing, some of you might have seen the viral pictures of people whose pictures couldn't successfully be taken by the NRB cameras. Zimenezo sitichedwapo.

The registration exercise has now hit the commercial capital and I have made some observations of my own the most important of which is that the general public has no clear idea of how this whole thing is working out. There are many who do n't know what to do and what is required of them and most have had to make two trips to the place with the first being for enquiries and the second for the completion of the exercise. Some go with the expectation that they will get their chiphaso upon completing the process and there are a lot more misconceptions about the whole thing. This might be a far fetched conclusion but I think people were not informed enough about this exercise.

On the distribution of the forms, there is some level of false strictness in the distribution. Apparently, they are not allowing anybody to collect two forms but looking at how the distribution work one can easily get a form and come back for another half and hour later without changing clothes, putting on a cap or shaving a beard.

Having not spent much time observing, I am wondering if there is a special consideration for those with disabilities. I am told that civil servants have a special privileges as they are served first. Probably good considering that there are some civil servants who do some actual important work as opposed to playing bawo all day.

I do hope that all of you are following the schedules of the registration and that when it's the turn of your village you will get to register. I don't see the point of the exercise, but I will run away from my patients at some point and get my ID processed. It might be important, after all... so....

Go, ye and register for a national ID.

Letter to the "Independents"

Dear Reader,

The past couple weeks have seen the absence of the blog owner with dominance from Guest bloggers (who in other words are just fellow lazy people who do not want to commit to having their own platforms despite possessing a good command of written English). This letter just comes as an announcement that I am still alive and kicking (can't say alive and well in this state for a couple of reasons).

There are a lot of excuses that I can give for my absence the first of which was the availability of the already written articles which I got on blog day two weeks ago. Couldn't leave those unpublished and being the lazy guy I am nowadays I could not get those published mid week. You see, reader, times have changed. Despite the whole thing, I got caught up in a couple of things; work, Independence celebrations, a flu, transfers, weddings and church stuff. I had long wanted to write a holiday special on the Independence day, but that couldn't work because of mentioned. Those of you who don't like too much of guest writers will pardon me although I am inclined to believe that the quality of the articles that were thrown on this page was beyond satisfactory. That thing by the Venomous one and then the article by the young medic. All that was just good and thought provoking.

To the independence celebrations....

There were people who were asking me as to why I did not write about the stampede at the Bingu Stadium. The whole thing got enough media coverage. I actually got to see it on the BBC the day after it happened and as such we didn't have to talk about it here. What has resurrected the buried issue on the blog is the way things have been handled by the "authorities" following the incident.

About a week ago I got to see a copy of a letter from the President of the Society of Medical Doctors to the office of the Oumbudsman. This letter was a call for thorough investigation into what led into the fracas and how best such incidents can be prevented. In my professional opinion, I think it was a drive towards improving the organization of such events and the importance of having medical teams on site in the cases of emergencies. In as much as we can talk about the late opening of the gates and the unnecessary use of teargas at the stadium, the whole thing of not having first responders on the scene might have in a way contributed to the casualties.

I digressed. We were talking about the response by the government. Rumor has it that the person who was responsible for managing the stadium (or something of the sort) has been transferred to Karonga. Transferred, dear reader. I know that some of might not have a problem this because we hear it a lot, but elsewhere when something half as messy happens, (even when the mess was not a direct responsibility of the one in charge) people either resign honorably or get fired. I have heard of a guy who once resigned as Minister of Energy after a 30 minute power failure in some corner of a city in South America. Here, dear reader, it's a different story. Things happen and people do not take responsibility. As if that is not enough, the best action authorities provide is that of transferring those responsible and giving them an equally heavy responsibility. That is the state of our nation at 53 years of "independence". I was told the officers who were manning the stadium were to be interrogated at the Police headquarters at Nankhaka this very day. I am not sure as to whether that has happened or not. The best thing we will hear is that those officers have been transferred to some Police unit in Dowa or Ntchisi or some place of the sort.

While there was fracas in what was meant to be a national celebration, Blantrye City Council pulled off a nice event in the celebration of the same Independence Day. I would say that this was one of the positives from the whole thing adding to the fact that there were national prayers and all. The BCC fireworks were staged at the Independence Arch, right in the middle of the Masauko Chipembere Highway, and in the middle of the night but other than a few people tripping and falling over there were no serious adverse events on site. The presence of the live bands, DJ and brass band coordinated by lively hosts made sure patrons had a continual supply of entertainment and the heavy presence of security personnel made it pretty comfortable to take selfie and make calls without the fear of having your phone snatched by some thug. People enjoyed responsibly with their families and went home with good accounts of the day. Organizers of events like these should probably borrow a leaf from Blantyre City Council along these lines.

Talking of the independence day itself, there was a lot of debate as to how relevant the day is. One outspoken Kelvin Sulugwe posted "Ufulu odzisaukira tokha" on his Facebook timeline, entailing that the freedom we have is the freedom to make ourselves poor as opposed to that of  self-governing.  While some may say that it was a harsh insinuation, it is also easy to point out that as a nation we are not truly independent in the areas of socioeconomic, cultural and political development. There are a lot of fields you could add to that. I will not waste time trying to justify why I said we are not truly independent. Dear Reader, dzuwa salodzerana. At the end of the day the government might as well be  justified in trimming the budget for the celebrations and not holding a "mega party" in celebration of what we don't really have (despite giving a different reason). Ndi zabwinobwino koma.

On the last but not least note, I have heard a lot of you pointing out the things that are wrong with this country and saying Malawi at 53 at the end. This has been our way of saying that at 53 years we ought to be doing things differently and in a better way. Each and everyone of us is aging and with growing up we need to be constantly improving in everything. If Richie turns to point a finger at the nation which has little to show at 53, he needs to have something to show at 24 lest he be called a hypocrite. This should be the new thinking for us who get nourished by the weekly perusal of Richie Online articles.

Enjoy your Friday and the rest of the weekend.

Yours alive,

Richie.

THE FALL OF LITERATURE AND THE STRUGGLES OF MODREN YOUTH

By Zaziwe M.D

"Why did you stop writing poems love?"

Prelude:
Prof Nyengo Mkandawire, during one of my chinwags with him, stressed that if you have the passion and dream for other things, do them now when you have the youthfulness and energy to do so.

Echoing his words, I say that indeed we can pursue many endeavors and become jacks of many trades. To raise literature from slumber, we need to pluck our writing apparatus from the cellars and start weaving a bit of a sentence, perhaps a paragraph. No power of social chatter should subdue the spirit of a writer, the heart of a poet, the soul of the dancer or the enharmonic timbre of the musical player.

The question above was a difficult question that akuchikazi sent me, surprisingly after the usual good night inter-changes. One thing I should state is that I taught her over the years we have been together to ask difficult questions and she shouldn't settle for less and one of the difficult questions is why. Nonetheless, I warned her to avoid directing to me the difficult questions unless she has failed to provide the answers herself.  In an attempt to address her question, I begun by letting out a reasonable smile followed by a descent giggle. Then I told her the reason why I was on recess regarding poetry.

Writing in this age is very arduous compared to a century ago, get me right here, am not trying to accommodate the laziness that has crippled the art of writing in our youth. Look here, in the era of Sherlock Holmes, Charles Dickens, Ted Hughes, Bertrand Russell and many others, writing then was regarded highly in the society. The writers had an easy-going because they had knowledge that the readership was ready to engage the daily papers and bookshops in order to feed on eyes upon something substantial in the form of either short story, an essay or a short metered poem. The competition was very high and during that period for someone to claim to be a writer, one had to endure quite a lot of criticism from fellow and highly regarded men of pen. It was an era of astounding literature.

Besides their involvement in literature, these ennobled individuals acquired the glory of dancing their minds in other engagements such as debating pertinent issues in their society. This led to formation of one of the known clubs; Oxford Union society. We have had witty minds and illustrious debaters such as Thomas Hobbes, George Bernard Shaw, G.K Chesterton, Oscar Wilde and many others. that graced this earth and offered their expertise in more than one field. Let’s look at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle whose fiction character Sherlock Holmes has been a household name for a century now. Sir Doyle was not only spending his time in his library writing the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He was a medical doctor by profession and was also involved in various sporting disciplines and politics. To underscore the point, the modern man must appreciate that the 19th and the 20th century writers were multitaskers and they excelled in many field such as economics, medicine, philosophy, psychology and many other difficult fields.

Another factor why we had blossoming of well baked writings was because of the discipline of the authors and the poets. Others may think that there were no distractions like we have in the modern age such she Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp and the Twitter. Well, that may be the case but it is quite obvious that every generation has its own struggles and it is only a few of the individuals that are disciplined and focused that are able to produce something worthwhile in the society. We can talk of Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb, whilst others found comfort in using the kerosene lumps. a writer that who is able to tame the world’s short lived infatuations is likely to go far with his work and eventually reap from his sweat. The writer’s pen must not run dry because of disuse rather the ink must be emptied in the shortest time possible time as the personal anthologies and manuscript amass.

Literature must be resurrected and we are the generation to make that possible. Let the creative brains be put to use. It is needless to say that writing stimulates the mind and it smoothens one’s soul. If you are a writer out there or you are aspiring, do not be let down by the challenges that you may face. Use the impediments as stepping stones in producing brilliant fine works of ink. School shouldn’t be an excuse for one not to be creative. You can be anything you want in this modern age despite the daily struggles. If you find yourself unsure of what to do, write. If you feel stressed and bored, write. Great pieces of written art are produced when one is under pressure and that’s the fuel in engendering excellent work.

About the author:
Zaziwe is a medical doctor recently finished his studies with the college of medicine. Besides practicing medicine, he is a poet, an essayist, short story writer. He also enjoys playing his guitar, graffiti and he is the CFO of Zaziwe Medical Consultancy.