Paradigm shift

“Ask not what your country [read employer] can do for you; ask what you can do for your country [again, read employer]”.
John F. Kennedy – Inaugural speech 1961

This was how I was welcomed by Andrew Hoffmeyr to the WoW programme – and what a wake up call! You see, I had previously imagined that my core duty as a prospective employee was to throw out as many applications to as many prospective employers as I could. I figured that my qualifications could “do the talking for me”, but alas!

Hoffmeyr made it abundantly clear that the notion that “good things happen to those who wait” does not apply to candidates who are serious about pursuing careers in their chosen fields. He said employable individuals were those who took the initiative to do research on specific companies, identified threats or opportunities in specific areas and then tailored possible solutions to address these “gaps”. His parting advice (and challenge) to us was, “Go ye therefore and create jobs for yourselves”.

Bottom-line: Employers are interested in solutions and our employability is determined by the value we can add to any organisation!