When you need that career switch

Irene Muthoni graduated with a bachelors degree in Tourism. Her sight had been set on working somewhere in the hospitality and leisure industry but that never came to pass.
For five years now, she has been working as a banker and has no regrets regarding her choice.
“I don’t even think of what I did at campus anymore. I have totally switched and my mind is now focused on something different,” the former teller who now works as a customer relations personnel in a Kampala-based bank, says.
Such is the work environment that we now survive in and have to adapt to without confining ourselves to a certain career path unless it has elements that require specialisation.
Many of us have worked with people whose area of study has little or no connection at all with what they are doing or have specialised in.
For instance, Mich Egwang, a former radio presenter and emcee, studied Veterinary Medicine at Makerere University yet his career path reads different.
He previously worked as a radio presenter before moving into events management, corporate emceeing and hosting events.
Similarly, Samuel Kasirye, a programmes manager at the Dar el Salam, Tanzania-based Rosa Luxermburg Stiftung, a non government organisation, studied urban planing at Makerer University but is now involved in identifying what civil society organisation activities should be funded and analysing the political environment, especially within and beyond East Africa.
For a long time, he says, he had thought that he would work as an urban planner but 10 years down the road that has only remained a dream.
“The education system confuses teaching from learning and this undermines the students’ own capacity to learn,” says Kasirye, adding that the lack of career guidance at an early stage sets a pendulum where students oscillate between mediocrity and unfulfilled dreams.
The conundrum, according to Kasiye, is that the education system has created a society of “young graduates that are often interested in the accumulation of wealth rather than building careers”.
However, career experts such as Mike Collins Turyakira, a human resource manager at Green Resources Uganda, believe that it is no longer tenable for a student to be so fixated on what they studied at campus or in school given the changing dynamics in the job market.
“There should be an allowance for learning on the job. Provided you have the required qualifications, apply for the job even if it does not relate to what you studied,” he says, emphasising that this only applies to jobs that have no specialisation.
“Otherwise, the same cannot work in highly specialised areas such as law and medicine,” he says.

took different career paths

James Onen
He studied philosophy in India but has gone on to become one of Uganda’s most famous radio presenter. He is a presenter and programmes manager at Sanyu FM. The 42-year-old is also an active blogger and podcaster. He is fluent in English and Japanese.

Anne Kansiime
She is one of Uganda’s most popular entertainers. The 30-year-old comedienne graduated with a Social Sciences degree from Makerere University but has never practiced anything that relates to her area of study. Instead she has become “Africa’s Queen of Comedy” in some circles.

Patrick “Salvado” Idringi
He quit his job as a switch engineer at MTN Uganda to become a comedian. According to Idringi, he was inspired into comedy by his sister and has never looked back.

Different career path
Job dynamics. The current dynamics in the job market have propelled people into choosing careers in areas that are outside their scope of study.

[email protected]