Making it Beyond the first day of the job: 5 Tips for slaying at your new job

The exciting moment for any job hunter is getting the first call or email announcing their success in an interview! All the hard work and toil has finally paid off. You are so proud of yourself considering the difficulty in getting a job nowadays.

You tell family, friends and bae of course. They all congratulate you and wish you well. You are told the day to report to work and as it fast approaches, it dawns on you, how am I going to do this again? How am I going to survive the first day? Endless questions keep roaming in your head and before you know it you drift to sleep and its D-Day. The day has come for you to begin your journey at this unfamiliar place you have no other clue about apart from what you read on their website.

Surviving the first day: First Impressions count 

This is the important day of your journey with the organization/company so hell yeah you better make it count. People are different but I believe most of them will remember or forget you after the first encounter. When am talking about remembering you I don’t mean by name but at least something about this new person who has joined their firm. One thing to note is that you may not have much control over how awkward or weird your first day will be so you better just let it sink in. However, you can decide how you want to make your first mark at an organization. I have always tried to be 15-30 minutes early, have a notebook with me to take notes, put my phone on vibration and of course where my best outfit and smile. I do this with the hope that this coupled with my nods and questions during the orientation sessions for that day makes me seem like a cool addition to the club, which I am but they are yet to find out.

Bottom-line is first days are unpredictable so don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t do your best, you have the rest of your employment period to prove them otherwise. However, how you are going to do this may not be covered in one of your orientation sessions during your first week. Well at least in my experience.  While the orientation may cover what the organization is about, how you are going to do what’s expected for your position and take you through the required documentation before joining, little may be done to tell you what to do too well on your job. However, this has led to many new job entrants to underdeliver or fail to utilize their potential as they may not have prepared well about how to stand out and perform on their job.

One of my mentees asked me to share some of the things that worked out for me over lunch but we ended up just eating and taking photos so I thought it wise to compile something which she can also refer to from time to time. So herewith some 5 tips for adapting and shining at your new job:

1.Understand your assignment

I know you may be thinking this maybe common sense but I thought I should still re-emphasize the importance of understanding your expectations. Before a soldier is sent on a mission they make sure that they have understood the mission. This is done I believe to ensure that they don’t come back without completing what they were supposed to do. I believe this is the same for a job. Make sure that you read the job description again to get a sense of what you are supposed to do and start conceptualizing how you are going to execute your small tasks which shall contribute achieving your big outputs.

Set your own small goals or expectations for the role. Many are the times when people finish an internship or fellowship and state that they never learned anything. I somehow find this to be absurd, you are telling me that for the 2-6 months you were at a place you didn’t gain anything? I feel that this always happens to be the case when you don’t also didn’t make any personal goals. Jobs should be about professional and personal gain.

2. Establish work relationships creatively  

Work settings are very different, there are some places where you are going to meet people who will just embrace you and do whatever it takes to make you feel at home and then there exist other places where you will have to do some work to establish working relationships. Unless teamwork is not among the values of the organization then you can ignore this, which is highly unlikely. If you happen to end up at a place where everybody seems to like to be about their business, then this is where the creativity has to come in. In most cases, people haven’t warmed up enough to you because you are new and they think you need some time to find your feet or maybe they are just not in your face type of people. However, when you creatively reach out to them you may be surprised at how nice they are.

I can tell of a time in 2017 when I had the opportunity to do a 6 weeks professional development experience at Atlas Corps in Washington DC, US, as part of my Mandela Washington Fellowship. So this was an American institution full of Americans and interns as well as fellows from all over the world and there I was a girl from Malawi trying to find a way to adapt in the littlest time as much as I could. The team was not in your face people so I had to think of creative ways to make them warm up to me.

Let’s take for example the interns, these were mostly about my age or younger and doing the same tasks as me to support Atlas Corps fellows and volunteers. One of the funny ways I did this was going early to the office most of the times. There was no key to give to interns or short stay staff so when one got to the entrance of the building they had to ask on the GroupMe (like a Whatsapp group) if someone was already inside the office to come with the elevator key to open. I would always be grateful when somebody did that for me, which made me realize I could also do the same for the interns and while waiting for the elevator to reach our floor we can spark a short conversation. Before we knew it, they were inviting me for lunch and we were exchanging tips on how to use the printer and execute other tasks. This was very important for my happiness at the workplace, as they say, happy employees entail quality work outputs too (I might have just coined that! lol).

3. Be proactive  

I feel like we were not taught enough how being proactive is very pertinent to excelling in life. Remember all those nice kinds of stuff you out on your CV or say in your interviews like am a self-motivated’ person, or someone who is a real ‘go-getter’? Well chances are you may not be asked to show what you said but if you want to increase your prospects of being hired after the internship or getting renewed after your contract you need to find a way to showcase this. I read in one article (https://bit.ly/2MKlKRP) that a proactive employee seeks out opportunities to get work done, whether or not it was asked of them. Going out of your way to complete projects and get work done is a great way to be recognized by your superiors.

So, don’t wait to be asked the progress of something before you check how the task is progressing, ensure that you are completing your tasks and even taking on other follow-up ones related to your position.

4. Use your other non-work related talents any opportunity you get to do 

Related to being proactive, I found that what also worked out for me in adapting to most teams at my new workplaces is my other non-work related talents. We always think about excelling in work to be determined by using our completing the tasks on the job description. However, for every job or volunteer role I did, I found adapting to the environment and being part of the team as a very determinant factor in a role’s success.

Key to this is utilizing other inborn or learned talents where I needed. I remember working with UNICEF, in the first few months I ended up being a Mistress of ceremonies or photographer for staff association events like a farewell lunch for staff and children’s day as well as facilitating the staff meeting when it was our section’s turn. Did I have an option to say NO? I did but NO wouldn’t have taken me anywhere, it would have been easy to say no am new or shy hence I can’t do that. However, I knew this was an opportunity to get to know more members of the big UNICEF team. This entailed that even if people wouldn’t remember my name it was easy for me to approach them when I had questions or there was a need for collaboration. They would remember the jokes I cracked or the task I was doing and that made it easy for them to embrace me.

5. Be observant and open minded

Every organization has a culture and system which keeps them going. The sooner you are able to learn the easier it will be for you to adapt and perform the expectations of your role. You are trained about this during orientation but I believe most of this is done through observing. How do most people in your section or team activities, how do they present themselves at meetings, the list goes on? You should be open-minded that work environments are different and what you expected may not be the case on the ground.

Also, important to consider is executing with finesse any task that you are given no matter how small. We tend to focus mostly on executing big tasks on our job description forgetting to do the same for those that fall within the AOB realm.

Be unforgettable 

All in all, I urge you to strive to be unforgettable. I believe that by ensuring that you understand the assignment you start orienting yourself towards accomplishing your goals and you will be remembered as a top performer. By establishing work relationships, you will be embraced as part of the team and if it’s an internship they will still remember you as part of the team such that if an opportunity comes they can recommend you also based on your performance of course. Being proactive will set you apart from the group of interns or newbies as you will reach out for opportunities to perform well and execute even other tasks outside your role. Reaching out for opportunities to mix with the team using your talents will help you adapt well to the team. Being observant and open-minded will also enable you to embrace faster the work environment and many setbacks you are going to meet along the way.

I hope these 5 tips were helpful, you can also add some tips in the comment.

Mandela's legacy, inspiration enough to create mine!

Today marks 100 years since the birth of Nelson Mandela (18 July 1918). The Centenary is an occasion to reflect on his life and legacy, and to follow his call to “make of the world a better place.” The Nelson Mandela Foundation is dedicating this year's Mandela Day to Action Against Poverty, honoring Nelson Mandela's leadership and devotion to fighting poverty and promoting social justice for all.

A lot has been said both good and bad about Mandela’s impact on humankind but as someone who believes in the power of words I choose to focus on the things he said that are inspiring and worthwhile for people hungry for creating change in their communities. More importantly I reflect on how I sought inspiration from Nelson Mandela's wise words to create my own legacy as a Mandela Washington Fellow!

Finding my Ah hah moment!

When I was selected for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, my first resolve was to find out something about Nelson Mandela worth taking on this journey of inspiring change. I read his biography, watched his interview with Oprah, reflections and articles about him until I had a sense about the person. One thing that stuck to my mind was his quotation which goes like, “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead!” This was it, my light bulb moment or like I love to call it, my big Ah hah moment!

My favorite Nelson Mandela qoute

This Madiba statement summarized everything that I stand for as a person. I don’t just want to live for myself. Whatever opportunity I am given, I want to make it count and use it to impact other people. Having found something I could relate to, I was ready to take on the mantle of Mandela Washington Fellowship.

Taking on the Mission 

The 2017 Arizona State University Mandela Washington Fellows

I took part in the 6 weeks Civic Leadership training at Arizona State University with other inspiring leaders from all over Africa. This was also a great reflection about leadership and through the rigorous sessions another big Ah hah moment happened. I discovered that I was a servant leader working to increase my skills and use them to impact young people. This self-awareness moment was very important as it made me realize who I am which entailed a better understanding of why I do things in a particular way. It’s so funny how we feel like we know ourselves, well from that point I also realized that life should be a journey of self-discovery. The more we know ourselves as leaders, the more we can serve better the people who look up to us!

We also took more time in reflecting about why it’s important to have values as leaders! We discussed about various values and we were tasked with choosing those that related to us individually and include them in our leadership development plan. You can just guess what hit home the most to me “LEGACY.”

Inspired to create my own legacy 

I felt that all the learning, site visits and interacting with fellow leaders doing great things to change their communities were all pointing towards creating a legacy. What will people remember us for or what do we want to be remembered for? It was clear, I may never reach Mandela’s prowess in impacting human kind but can surely be inspired to create my own kind through the work that I am doing. The plan is to gain as many skills and knowledge I can and share with those around me especially young people and also give back to my community!

Together with other Mandela Washington Fellows we put together some funds and run a community challenge to engage young people to start thinking about what they can do for their community. They got into teams and presented various ideas and we gave the cash prize to the winning group who presented a project to solve access to water in their community. We also provided additional prizes like computers for those who wanted to embark on an internet cafe business and technical support to those wanting to embark in rabbit farming. We are also training the young people in computer skills.

The winners of the Fellows Day Challenge 

I am doing this through training young people in various skills. Simple things like how to apply for opportunities (jobs, fellowships, conferences e.t.c) nail interviews and brand themselves. I do this under 2 youth organizations Youth to Youth Empowerment and Maphunziro 265.

During a training session on Cover letter writing under Maphuziro 265

I am also mentoring young people as individuals and groups. I am a mentor for young people living with HIV under Baylor College of Medicine. This has been very humbling as I am able to instill hope and be part of efforts of encouraging them that they can be whatever they want regardless of their status. I am also a mentor for young people under Youth Hub, a grouping of young people from Malawi working to advocate for improved sexual and reproductive health for young people in Malawi. Individually, I am also mentoring young people like Cynthia who look up to me. Its humbling!

One of my mentees, Cynthia Chithope Mwale

I am also creating my legacy through giving back to the community. Together with my sister, Mirriam Banda, we are working on various interventions to promote young boys and girls in our community, Area 36. We started with promoting girls menstrual health where we are teaching girls about menstrual hygiene management and working with mother groups to teach girls how to sew pads from locally available resources so that they can still go to school during their periods.

One of the girls from Mbuka primary school during the pad making training

Yes you can!
In his Mandela Day lecture yesterday, Barack Obama said he was one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela's life. If you can’t be inspired by Nelson Mandela or Obama because their work seems far-fetched as they are not from communities like yours, I hope you can be inspired by stories from people like me or those around you! You will meet hurdles along the way but don’t lose hope, Obama even said it better yesterday when ending his address, "Keep believing. Keep marching. Keep building. Keep raising your voice. Every generation has the opportunity to remake the world."




Hope you found the piece inspiring! You can also drop me some feedback: tendaibnd@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter

5 Tips for the Mandela Washington Fellowship Interview!

  by Tendai Banda, Civic Leadership, Malawi

Happy new year to you amazing young people in Malawi, Africa and beyond! The year 2018 presents us yet another chance to be the change we want to see in our communities! One of such ways of doing this is through pursuing personal development programs like the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. If you applied for the 2018 cohort, you should have gotten your invitation to a face to face interview by now, well at least this is guaranteed for Malawi. Congratulations on this big first step towards becoming a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow. If you didn’t then don’t feel bad as you can always try out again for the next cohort or other similar programs. To that end, I have been receiving inquiries from some fellowship applicants in terms of how they can handle the interview so I thought I should put this in writing in case somebody is still looking for a few pointers. On that note, here are 5 tips for preparing for the Mandela Washington Fellowship interview:  

1. Review Your Essays

It may look like the obvious step but reviewing your essays is very important as you prepare for the Mandela Washington Fellowship interview. They have allowed you to progress through this phase because of how you answered your essays and will build on that to establish if you are the right fit for the program or not. So, it is very important to read again what you wrote in your application essays, of course I don’t mean that you should memorize your answers.  

This is your story and you are the best person to explain from the heart how you are leading in your community or have the potential to lead. You may also want to think of other examples of how you are dealing with challenges in your work or solutions that you are offering to the community through your work apart from the ones you listed in your essays. This is to lookout for instances when they ask you to explain something different from what you already gave in your responses. Also expect follow-up questions from the panel to the responses that you will be giving. This is just to understand you better as a leader. 

2. Read about the track you applied for

At this point you already know that there are 3 tracks that are offered by the fellowship including; Business and Entrepreneurship Institute, Civic Leadership Institute and Public Management Institute. You are advised in the fellowship application instructions to rank the sector/track in order from the track that most closely aligns with your daily work, education, or community involvement. You are also advised that if selected for the Mandela Washington Fellowship you may not be placed in your first choice track but you may be placed in a different track that, based on your application materials, fits your profile. It then becomes important to remind yourself again about the track which you ranked high so that you can ably ensure that your answers reflect what they look for in fellows under the particular track and how it relates to what you are doing in your community. You may also wish to read on the other tracks in case you are re-assigned to another track or if you are me, revise the whole application pack to ensure that you are familiar with the fellowship expectations and requirements. If you lost the application instructions you can download on the YALI website (https://yali.state.gov/MWF/) or here.

3. Be able to explain why you want to be a Mandela Washington Fellow 

I remember my experience last year, walking to the interview room with a detailed plan of how I will attempt the usual first question about, “Tell us about yourself?” I had practiced the question and was sure that I would be fine to handle the interview after this ice breaker. I was in for a surprise as after the pleasantries by the panel the first question was, “So, Tendai, why do you want to be a Mandela Washington Fellow?”  

You can imagine how my structured plan fell apart! lol! I managed to put together a response but trust me it wasn’t an easy task. Of course by virtue of being selected to the 2017 cohort, we can assume that it wasn’t that bad. However, if I would do it again I would ensure that I am comfortable with answering this important question. Having an idea of why you want to be a fellow gives the panelists an idea of why you are a great catch for the fellowship. 

4. Link up with a Mandela Washington fellow

During the written application phase most hopefuls approached current or previous fellows to review their essays. This can also be helpful as you prepare for your face to face interview. 

2017 Mandela  Washington Fellows, Malawi

The fellows went through the interviews too and can give tips or address some of the questions you may have for a particular track or anything which I have not covered here. You can also ask them of the questions they were asked if you need to have an idea of what to expect. This can be over some lunch, coffee, whatsapp or Skype. If you can’t find a fellow, anyone who you look up to or who has undergone any similar program can equally be helpful. In my case, my friend Emily helped me prep. 

5. Prepare like you would for any other Interview

Just like any other interview, preparation is key in acing this interview. Ensure that you are well-dressed (suit up if you have to) and on time for the interview. This also includes knowing the interview location before the day of the interview (In Malawi, mostly at the American Embassy Public Affairs Section, Lilongwe). Most of the questions are going to be situational that is asking you to expound on different scenarios which can portray your leadership capabilities or potential. Ensure that you prepare to ably articulate the situation, task at hand, the action that you took to address it and the results that came out of your efforts. You may also want to anticipate being asked to describe your vision as a leader for example where do you see yourself in the next 5 years. Be open minded too as your interview may be different from the previous year which shouldn’t be a problem really if you are prepared. 

In conclusion, feel it in your heart that you are one step closer to an amazing experience that’s going to positively affect your path as a young leader as well as personal or career development. Be confident that if you have been shortlisted from the many applications you have the potential of making it to the final list and being part of the 2018 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African leaders. The panel is going to make you feel comfortable and you are going to do just fine. Otherwise, I wish you all the best, go and show them what you are made of!

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