Media Personality, Sangmorkie Tetteh has advised students and graduates in search of practical skills against long-term volunteering in a single company to avoid disappointment.
She emphasized that after one year of volunteering without a job offer, graduates should consider exploring other opportunities.
She said this at the Academic City University College during a round table discussion organized by the career services office of the students and community affairs department to connect students to key industry players.
“Move into other ventures as for that I must tell you and I don’t want you to volunteer at one place for 10 years….stop that, quit it…don’t be an intern at a station especially a media house for 3 years in the hope that they will pick you…. If they would pick you, they would have picked you after 6 months when you were done with your service or internship” she argued.
She refused to downplay the role of internship and volunteerism in molding her craft disclosing the she was still a volunteer for Corporate social organizations (CSOs).
“Always go and offer your services for free…we act as if the internship is just for everybody… to even get a slot is a problem because sometimes the company does not have enough sits for you to even come and intern, so I think it’s the best way to develop yourself, know your strengths and your weaknesses during the journey of internship” she added.
According to her, students could not run away from work politics after graduation but rather adapt to the temperaments of their superiors at the workplace to establish harmonious living.
“ Work politics comes with knowing what your bosses like, not going to bootlick but observing what the boss likes and doing just that”. he pointed.
She asked the students to take inspiration from her failures and successes and strive for perfection in life, as well as network and take bigger risks.
Award-winning author and consultant at IES Africa, Delasie Dogbey encouraged the students to seek mentorship from established individuals for their personal and professional growth
He also urged them to undertake personal assessments to aid in self-discovery underscoring that the career mentorship program was a good initiative to nurture the students.
CEO for Bonne Graine, Monica Addo advised the students to explore the world to develop the right career path adding that students needed to be intentional about personal development.
“Whatever we study in school is very different from the job field, so just be ready to learn, be ready to add value to yourself not just what you studied in school… aside what you learned in school… be ready to take a new challenge,” she said
Fashion Designer, Boatemaa Wiredu said networking was crucial in the success of every business hence she advised the students to take advantage of the school relationship to establish as many friendships as possible for future reference.
Human Resource (HR) Consultant, Sam Boafo said students had the opportunity of branching into entrepreneurship if they had commercial awareness to understand the nature of any business they wanted to venture to be productive.
Story by Edward Aggrey