How to Build Your Career in your Early Twenties!
Gen Z’s (born between 1996 and 2010) are the talk of everyone’s lips in the workplace because of their unique presence and impact on the corporate world. They are known to be technologically savvy, creative problem-solvers, and highly resourceful. Gen Z’s are also bringing a myriad of fresh ideas to the workplace, disrupting traditional processes and pushing the boundaries of innovation. However, there is one muscle that Gen Z fails to build … the muscle of resilience.
While it is great to know what one stands for, and I applaud Gen Z (I being one) for this, there needs to be a certain level of professionalism that we need to put into our corporate brands as Gen Z. We want things done at the snap of a finger, and we want immediate results. And I’d like to believe, it’s this same instant gratification that would lead to someone handing in a resignation letter for a meeting not having “vibes”, or the recent case of a JKUAT Student killing himself for lack of a job barely 2 years after graduation.
A habit I completely abhor with Gen Z is the infamous “nataka connections” or “nataka links” to scale their career. I recently addressed this on my Instagram Stories whereby a few people had asked me for connections, which is not in any way wrong. However, everything good in this life takes a form of commitment and level of hard work. Said people sometimes don’t even know in what direction they want to steer their career. I personally think that if you want these “connections”, you need to atleast know for what profession you want connections in. I’m not going to tarnish my name recommending Sally May to a high-level connection when she doesn’t know what she wants out of her career. Because, guess what, if Sally May doesn’t do a good job, or goes into this job and starts behaving like a typical Gen Z, she’s going to be dragging my name through the mud.
This then begs the question… what kind of workplaces will we be having in the near future? Are Gen Z’s mature enough to handle the expectations that come with work? If we don’t intentionally build the muscle of resilience, who will do it for us? Does it mean our lives are worth nothing if we can’t secure jobs in prominent organizations? As entry-level, why are we so choosy when it comes to the type of work available (Yes, we’d all like to work at Safaricom, but we can’t all start from Safaricom). Why can’t we think of ways to create employment opportunities for ourselves? There’s a very big problem with Gen Z that can be traced back to the roots… poor parenting styles, under par level understanding of life skills, exposure to social media, and lack of proper foundations.
That said, here are 7 things Gen Z’s need to do better to thrive in the workplace:
🔸🔸🔸KNOW THE DIRECTION IN WHICH YOU WANT TO GROW YOUR CAREER🔸🔸🔸
For you to get the most out of your career path, you MUST know where you’re headed. Do away with those theories for “I want any job available” because if you’re entry-level, for instance, you want to build a skillset around a particular field so that it’d be easier to climb up your career ladder. If you are multiskilled, say you have different skillsets you can implement in different careers, you want to ensure you have two entirely different CVs. It’s okay to try your hand out in both fields of work as you ultimately decide where your strength and passions are. I’ll give an example… while in campus, I was skilled at both coding, but realized a passion in the digital marketing space. During my final year attachment, I tried out a software development company, and after the four months, I was confident software development wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. While in campus, ensure you try out opportunities in your different passions in order to narrow down and determine what career you want to identify yourself with.
🔸🔸🔸THINK OF WHAT DEFINES YOUR CORPORATE BRAND🔸🔸🔸
Remember employers and HR Managers will thoroughly vet you before accepting you into their organizations. Who are you as a brand? You don’t want to have a notorious history of quitting jobs after one or two months – that is a red flag to any employer. This is why Gen Z’s need to build their muscles of resilience.
Take care of your brand – both online and offline. Ensure you are not posting things on social media that may lock you out from opportunities that were meant for you. If you must, keep social media activity to yourself and those that know you from a personal level – you can set your accounts to private mode on platforms like Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram and Twitter.
🔸🔸🔸IDENTIFY EVENTS, CLUBS AND SOCIETIES RELATED TO YOUR CAREER🔸🔸🔸
The best thing about such platforms is that they help you network and meet new people who can be great assets in your career. Try to find communities and groups within your career that you can plug into. A good place to look for these would be Facebook, LinkedIn, and sites such as Eventbrite that have an entire database of all sorts of events. Create a calendar of relevant events for you, and come up with a plan to attend. Some events, clubs and societies require a membership or registration fee as well – it wouldn’t hurt to sacrifice some of your recreation budget and redirect it to club/event memberships. If you think long term – it’s a great investment to your career!
🔸🔸🔸LOOK FOR MENTORS IN YOUR SPACE🔸🔸🔸
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
(African Proverb)
Martha Goedert
Mentors are great as they help you scale your career, and they also guide you through not making the same mistakes they did as they were starting out in their career. A great place to seek out mentors would be LinkedIn. You could also meet people whom you aspire to have a mentor-mentee relationship with by attending in-person/physical events. Regardless, meeting people and convincing them to agree to such a relationship would require effort, commitment and willingness to grow and want to be helped as well. (Most) Mentors or people whom you look upto often have busy schedules, so you want to be sure you meet them knowing exactly what type of questions to ask – Youtube Academy comes in as a handy resource here.
🔸🔸🔸USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO FOLLOW INFLUENCERS THAT ACTUALLY ADD VALUE TO YOUR LIFE🔸🔸🔸
In this day and age of social media, it’s easy to get depressed and think you’re doing nothing with your life because almost everyone on social media is posting their wins. I think of the Gen Z who is a die-hard fan of Azziad, who aspires to live such a life but isn’t seeing any form of improvement in their lives. We want to be the next Azziad. Sadly, a case like Azziad’s is only one in a million.
Our journeys are all different – and it’s best to focus on your own journey as you trust the process. You can use social media to either make, or break you, depending on the type of content you choose to consume. In my previous blog post, I highly recommend that the types of people Gen Zs should be following are people who teach them what was never taught in schools. The people who actually teach you to use what you have in your hands, and grow that to become an overall better person.
🔸🔸🔸TECHNICAL SKILLS ARE GOOD, SOFT SKILLS ARE GREAT!🔸🔸🔸
Yes, Gen Z does actually come with new ideas and fresh perspectives in the work place… but guess what? “Employers rank soft skills higher than technical skills when hiring new employees. Knowing how to code may be critical if you’re a software developer, but those skills won’t matter if you can’t do the soft things: work well on a team, lead a project, communicate clearly, and think critically.” A recent Forbes Article clearly indicates that soft skills are particularly important if you want to take on more responsibility – they are the grease that allows you to successfully move from an individual contributor role to a leadership one. Gen Z, here’s some Food for Thought!
🔸🔸🔸UPSKILLING IS KEY🔸🔸🔸
You finally have the job, a wealth of networks and your career goals are aligning – what next? You need to continue learning. Employers want to attract skilled workers, but they also prioritize hiring for a cultural fit. When a job candidate shows that they’re open to changing, learning and upgrading their skills, they instantly become a better investment. When navigating your career path, demonstrate your willingness to learn so employers can see your growth potential. Find channels, blogs or sites that update latest trends in your industry, and see how you can incorporate that into your work. Don’t take too long to enrol for relevant courses or certifications that push you forward in your career. Always stay learning!
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