By Juliah Karimi.
When someone hears of the word ‘chama’, I know the first thought that comes into your mind is of a group of women sitted in someone’s house gossiping and basically chattering about their husbands and at the end asking each other for a ‘kasmall kaloan’.
That is the old school of thought. There was definitely some good that came out from such groups if only you took a closer look. Consider this; your mother goes for a ‘chama’ and on coming back she tells you that this and such a firm are looking for and Information Technology trainee.
The lesson here is that, from that little meeting, a job was advertised although in a less formal manner.
My question is what can we learn from these informal groups and how can we advance our careers through these groups. Joining a ‘chama’ is not beneath you. A ‘chama’ is an avenue to not only develop your career but also learn some new skills in the process.
These are the groups that mould our leadership skills. Note that certain jobs require at least some form of leadership roles that you may have performed or may be performing. If your chosen career is accounting, why not take up a treasurer role to enhance your accounting skills and also applying those accounting procedures and principles you learned.
The same case applies for a Business Management graduate or professional. The managerial aspect in maybe being the chairman of the group would add a feather to your cap.
Too often I hear people say that the gossip in the ‘chama’ is what they want to avoid. If indeed the gossip is too much, then probably you are in the wrong ‘chama’ and you need to re-evaluate your options. Join a forward thinking group that would get you links to various people in your chosen career.
More often that not word of mouth of a certain multi national firm looking for creatives’ would be first circulated within the company and who better to be in the same group than the director of creatives in the firm. joining a group that comprises of creatives would not only enhance your skills and knowledge but you would learn new and innovative ways of handling situations and also brainstorm and get criticism in the ideas that you bring to the table
What else can we learn from the chama? Our communications skills are one thing. If you are a member of a chama and you could be struggling with how to express your self in interviews. Why not try and address the group members first. That way when that dream job finally materializes, not only will you have added skills but communicating those skills will be a walk in the park.
A marketer needs to have excellent marketing and customer realtions skills, if your chama mainly deals in selling eggs in the nearby, why not be the marketer and enhance those skills that you only learned about.
My main point is that the chama is not a gossip group as we all thought and not only can they be of help when we are searching for jobs but the skills we get from either the leadership or just the interaction with like minded individuals is enough to set us off in the right career path armed with all the necessary armor.
It not only applies to the 55 year old retired civil servant but to the 25 year old recent graduate looking to achieving those lifelong dreams.
Establishing contact is important, organising events through your ‘chama’ can be beneficial. The contacts from these events can act as a link not only within but outside the group. Most importantly, go and join a group, ensure you have skills, knowledge and possibly hold a leadership position in that group. I hope a light bulb just went on in your head.
A warning though, if you decide to join the group, get like minded individuals and possible the larger the better with a variety of fields to represent the group.
Juliah is HR Officer at Corporate Staffing Services. Reach Her at Juliah@staff-kenya.com Website. www.staff-kenya.com
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