Introduction
Getting better jobs in Kenya is not hard. However, it requires proper planning and strategy to grow your career and develop professionally.
A career isn’t something that happens to you. Rather, building a career is a lifelong process of honing your skills and talents to make a significant contribution in your home, workplace, and community. Devoted people carefully manage their careers because they understand that their prospects will be limited based on their professional development.
People frequently make the mistake of believing that they would be able to pinpoint exactly which career will provide the most satisfaction and that they will be able to plan every step of the way. While hard work and choice are important in molding your future, many unforeseen circumstances will affect your career. There will be surprises, disappointment, failure, and possibly even some backtracking.
The Perception Of Success
In their book The Zookeeper’s Secret, authors Jeffery A. Thompson and J. Stuart Bunderson use a famous social media image to highlight the contrast between what people think success looks like and what it actually looks like.
When people don’t see all of the hard work and effort that goes into an achievement, it’s easy for them to oversimplify it. Because it can take a long time to find your talents, success can take a convoluted path. You must reactivate and reactivate your passions for talents and employment.
In their book The Zookeeper’s Secret, authors Jeffrey Thompson and J. Stuart Bunderson discuss this process.
I wanted to reflect my own professional path. By the time I was thirty, I had a clear picture of my professional path. I had changed college majors numerous times, worked at a job I despised, experienced multiple unexpected reversals throughout my Ph.D. studies, and was working in an academic position I enjoyed but felt restless in at this point in my life.
At this point, my career appears to be a bit haphazard and meandering. It’s no surprise that I often felt lost.
Let’s take a look at where I envision my career going currently. I am currently employed in my second academic position. The events that led me to my current position were exceedingly winding, unexpected, and at times painful. But I’ve progressively discovered things I’m passionate about, including a teaching and research concentration that’s perfect for me. This is how I illustrate my path today, continuing on from the original diagram.
This diagram still has a lot of meandering going on. However, you may see a pattern. Over time, the variations have narrowed. Despite the fact that the journey is not in a straight line, you can clearly see a general orientation. In reality, there appear to be some boundaries that delimit the randomness in retrospect. This is what it looks like when I superimpose these borders onto the diagram:
With the advantage of hindsight, all of those seemingly random twists and turns now appear to be part of a larger pattern. The pattern was impossible to perceive ten years ago, and everything felt nearly random. But today, I have no reason to be resentful of a single change. Some of the reversals were unpleasant, but they were all necessary for me to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
Please note that I drew the graphic to show that I haven’t quite figured out what I’m supposed to be doing. My professional and personal experiences will continue to surprise me, and my path will continue to shift. But I’m confident that each step along the way will help me gain a better knowledge of my genuine talents and passions. The journey will take far longer than my life expectancy.
It’s natural to worry about your job, whether it’s at home or at work. We want to start at the beginning and work our way to the end. Take courage, be proactive, and prepare to contribute if you find yourself in this scenario.
How To Get Better Jobs In Kenya
Let’s go over a few key characteristics of a “job” before we get started.
We typically think of work as something we do for a living. While it’s true that supporting yourself and your family is critical, a job is much more than just a paycheck.
A job is an opportunity to put your skills and abilities to good use. Some may argue that some jobs in Kenya like dishwashing don’t make much of a difference, but how appetizing would a meal be if it was served on a dirty plate? Even more essential than a clean plate is the transformation that occurs in us as we persevere through a challenging task.
Consider the mental and character strength that comes from cleaning a seemingly never-ending stream of dishes day after day. People who work do menial jobs in Kenya are frequently unappreciated, but they persevere, do a good job, and provide a valuable service. They’ll probably become more efficient over time, with a better attitude and work ethic.
As a result, individuals are more prepared for future opportunities and more capable in other areas of their lives.
Even if you don’t perceive how your current job or scenario is preparing you for future career prospects, your attitude toward it does. All jobs in Kenya (paid or unpaid) are seen as opportunities for growth by diligent people.
7 Formula For Finding Better Jobs In Kenya
It is critical that you learn to work wisely, utilizing the most effective abilities and tactics to advance your profession. This post will lay out some fundamental career principles.
These ideas will not only help you in getting employment, but they will also help you establish a career once you have one.
- Match your skills to other people’s needs
- Concentrate on jobs in your field
- Create a network of resources and contacts
- Create audience-based résumés and applications
- Networking
- Interviewing
- Using technology as part of your career plan
Matching Your Skills to Other People’s Needs
People that are dedicated to their work understand the importance of proactively managing their careers. Identifying your strengths and interests is one of the finest places to start. Keep in mind that you’ll get the most out of your skills if you can discover a way to combine them with the requirements of others. You often feel motivated to help when you feel this connection.
This is because we have a responsibility to put our abilities to good use and help others. When you locate the confluence between your talents and the needs of others, you’ll be able to make the most of them.
You’ve probably had this sense of obligation when you’ve witnessed someone in need of your special assistance. For example, if you are a gifted listener, you may feel compelled to sit with and listen to someone who is hurting. Alternatively, if you had trained to be a nurse, you would most likely feel driven to assist people who have been hurt in an accident. These instances demonstrate how our skills bind, persuade, and encourage us to serve.
Service can also help people uncover their talents and gain valuable insight on career alternatives.
Many people claim that their professions developed as a result of one thing leading to another until they discovered an interest they wanted to pursue as a career. While passion and talent are crucial, remember that there is no one-size-fits-all profession (job) that will make you happy. You can use your skills in a variety of professions. Simply look for areas where your skills and the needs of others converge.
Concentrate On Jobs In Your Field
The next stage in getting a better job is to narrow your search to opportunities within your field. Many job seekers waste time looking at a variety of positions, but focusing on a specific field that you are interested in and qualified for will help you get a job faster.
This strategy is not only more efficient, but it also shows your sincerity and enthusiasm in the hiring process, making you more likely to be hired and love your job.
You will find a job faster if you concentrate on a certain field in which you are interested and qualified.
This isn’t to say that you should wait for the “ideal job” because it doesn’t exist. It means you narrow down your job search to positions that fit your skills and interests. It takes courage to narrow your job search, but it also communicates to recruiters that you are committed to your career.
If an unskilled job allows you to get experience in your field, don’t be scared to take it. You may find yourself in need of a job to help you stabilize your finances, which may need you to leave your career; but, if at all possible, attempt to get a position in the industry of the certificate or degree you selected to study.
Employers will value you more if you are focused on your field and growing your skills to become a professional.
Professional focus extends beyond job seeking. It’s something you should work on for the rest of your career. Getting a job in your field is only the start of your career.
Once you’ve landed your first job, start thinking about how you may prepare for the next step in your career. Professional development will take time, work, and study, but focusing on your field will make it easier to develop your career.
Create A Network Of Resources And Contacts
You cannot build a successful career on your own. To become a professional, you will need the assistance of mentors, colleagues, friends, and a professional community. You should build resources and contacts within your profession no matter where you are in your career.
A dedicated person seeks for ways to form meaningful connections with others as one of their key traits. Devoted people care about others and desire to develop their network to increase their power to influence others for the better. It’s easy for networking to feel hollow and self-serving if you’re not interested in others.
One significant distinction between a job seeker networking and diligent person networking is that conscientious individuals are engaged in the relationship regardless of the outcome. Developing resources and contacts is an important element of the job search process and a crucial aspect in your professional success.
If you’re seeking for work, keep in mind that getting a job is a job in itself. You should be willing to work just as hard to obtain employment as you would if employed. This entails making a constant daily effort to identify resources and establish relationships with them.
Any source of information or link that will aid in a successful job search is referred to as a resource. It could be a person, a place, or an item. Any employment conversation with a resource is referred to as a contact. Meeting with someone in person, making a phone call, sending an email, submitting an application or résumé, or sending a follow-up note are all examples of this.
Important Job Search Tip! Follow the 15-10-2 guideline to speed up your job search:
- Every day, find 15 new resources.
- Every day, make ten contacts.
- Make two of those face-to-face encounters.
Use your phone, a spreadsheet, or a calendar to arrange appointments and follow-up reminders for your contacts.
When you ask someone to help you get a job or advance your career, it’s natural to be nervous. You may be the one who requires assistance in getting a job, or you may be the one who is assisting; either way, it is an opportunity to contribute.
Include Technology In Your Strategy
Consider including technology in your career plan. Digital fluency (the ability to engage with technology) is quickly becoming as important as reading, writing, and math in the workplace. You’ll almost certainly use technology for the rest of your life, regardless of what career you select.
Computers, networks, databases, and operating systems are required in almost every job today. IT is a massive industry that encompasses everything from software engineers to designers, support professionals, data scientists, analysts, information security, graphic design, project managers, and so on.
Job Crafting
You may advance your career in more ways than just finding a job. You can also develop your skills and abilities while working at your current position. Because you’re using your existing employment to design your career, we call this process job crafting. Diligent people are naturally good at job crafting because they are always seeking for ways to develop and help others.
A job crafter is usually someone you know. Consider someone who appears to be always learning on the job. Someone who takes initiative and seeks out fresh and creative ways to operate. Job crafters make excellent employees because they provide value to their employers while also advancing their careers.
Be a Reliable Employee
Have you ever had to work with someone who shied away from their responsibilities, did a terrible job, or was always late?
What were your thoughts about them?
You probably didn’t think much of them, and your boss probably didn’t either. In fact, evaluating if someone is a hard worker is one of the top concerns for employers when hiring someone (Top 10 Work Values Employers Look For).
Employers understand that they may have to teach employees how to do their jobs, but they don’t want to have to teach them how to work well with others. Employers frequently ask about how you cope with problems, deal with disappointments, and collaborate with others.
Listening to your supervisor, arriving on time, remaining on target, working well with colleagues, and making valuable contributions are all important aspects of being a good employee.
It’s important to be a good employee if you want to stay your job and advance your career. When you have a lot of job change, employers worry that you aren’t committed to your job or that you have an issue with your work ethic.
While you may not be able to control every aspect of your job, you can establish a reputation as a diligent worker.
Innovate
We can talk about job crafting now that we’ve covered the fundamentals of being a successful employee. A technique in which you shape a part of your employment to develop a passion or talent is known as job crafting. It shows that you can strike a balance between initiative and compliance. This skill—the ability to discern when to take initiative and when to defer to your superiors—is essential in the workplace.
There are three steps to craft a job:
- Make a list of the core parts of your job.
- At least one aspect of your employment should be done in a way that allows you to further develop your skills or talents.
- Involve your boss in order to get the guidance and feedback you need.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these processes and how you may use them to advance your career. First, by breaking down your job into its core parts, you may better understand how your work contributes to your employer’s broader objective. Employees are frequently dissatisfied when they are unaware of how their job adds to the overall picture. You can see how each part of your job works together and who is reliant on you if you split it down into parts. Breaking down your job will also assist you in analyzing your responsibilities and identifying areas for improvement. Many jobs include elements that have developed over time as a result of tradition or culture that may be discarded or enhanced. Finding strategies to improve your efficiency will help you free up time to complete the second part of the job crafting process.
The second stage is to modify a part of your job to aid in the development of a skill. Everyone benefits when an employer’s needs are aligned with its employees’ abilities and skills. The second stage is the heart of the job crafting process. The first stage was to simply assist you in determining which aspects of your job you can use to hone your skills, and the third step guarantees that you’re collaborating with your boss. Consider your employer’s needs first when selecting what portion of your job you’d like to change. How can your abilities and skills benefit your employer? Your employer will be more supportive if you can match your desire to change jobs with their demands.
If you find a part of your job that you wish to modify, make sure you talk to your boss about it. Your proposed adjustments should put your present job obligations first. Even if your boss doesn’t agree with your job crafting initiative, talking to your boss about your career and desire to advance might be beneficial. It communicates your initiative and desire to be a valuable employee.
5 Successful Job Crafting Tips
- Pay attention to your gut instincts. Evaluate which areas of your employment you could use to assist you develop a passion or talent as you consider the primary components of your job. Throughout your job crafting experience, remain modest and teachable, and follow your intuition’s promptings.
- Include your boss in the process. Job crafting should not detract from your primary responsibilities. Involve your boss so that he or she is aware of your wish to pursue a professional interest or talent. She or he can assist you in identifying proper methods for doing so, resulting in a win-win situation. Your supervisor receives a more valuable contribution from you, and you become more capable.
- Make an extra effort. Developing a talent at work often necessitates extra effort. Be willing to put in the effort even if you don’t get compensated or know what the end result will be.
- Create a network. Make other individuals aware of your newfound passion or talent. Discuss it with them. Seek their opinions and suggestions. They may remember you later when new opportunities emerge because of your effort and desire to enhance your job status.
- Be patient and adaptable. Your job crafting may not proceed as planned depending on the circumstances at your workplace. Your boss, for example, may require you to make changes. You can come into an unexpected stumbling block. Your efforts may provide varying results, be late, or even fail at times. You can improve your ability to adapt to these conditions over time.
Even if you don’t tell your boss about your job crafting efforts, being a good employee and taking the initiative to improve is a form of job crafting.
Job Crafting Case Study: Wamboi The Fruit Seller
Identify essential job crafting elements with the help of this case study.
Fruit is sold in a Naivas grocery department by Wamboi. She want to get promoted to manager so that she can further enhance her analytical abilities. She observes that the store occasionally runs out of fruit. She approaches her manager to see if she can conduct a fruit sales analysis. He agrees and gives her the inventory and sales statistics for the store. Wamboi uses a spreadsheet to plot the data and produce an inventory and sales graph. She doesn’t detect any patterns at first, but then she observes that sales were higher last week when the weather was warmer.
She devises a purchasing strategy that takes the weather into account while making inventory purchases. When she compares her plan to the existing data, she sees significant inventory reductions and a reduction in lost sales. She presents the findings to her employer, along with the planned procurement plan. He admires her strategy and the initiative displayed by Wamboi. He requests that she conduct a similar evaluation of other parts of the store, and he changes her schedule to allow her to devote more time to inventory analysis.
