TAKING CHANCES, FAILING AND GETTING UP

I like to share my career journey especially with those just out of high school or college. Hopefully they can learn one or two things and also avoid the mistakes I made along the way.

In July 1997 I was teaching Building Studies to Forms 1 and 2 students (grades 8 and 9) at Kambarami Secondary school just outside Murewa less than 90kms from Harare. I had started my temporary teaching in September 1996 in Mudzi closer to the Mozambique border about 200kms from Harare. My O’ Level class mates will be surprised that I ended up teaching the subject to high school kids given how bad I was in the subject in form 1 and 2. My distant uncle Itai Mavhunga was our Building Studies teacher at Nyameni Secondary school and he could not hide his frustration with me. That all changed towards O’ Level as I had my sight on getting at least 5 distinctions and hopefully enrol at Fletcher High School and study Mathematics, Biology and Chemistry at A’ Level. I had to concentrate on all my 8 subjects including those I did not like such as Shona and Building Studies.

At O’Level I got 4 distinctions and during the sixth form selection, I did not make it into to Fletcher High School nor Gokomere High School my second option and instead I was selected by Mutambara High School in Chimanimani. The day I got the acceptance letter, I boarded the overnight train to Mutare and took the B&C bus to Chimanimani. The school reminded me of Nhowe Mission closer to our village in Mukarakate communal areas in Murewa. I knew there and then that I would not come to this school. After about two hours at the school, I got a lift back to the main road to Mutare and got transport back to Mutare just in time for the night train back to Harare. I then enrolled at Marondera High School instead.

When my A'Level results came out in early 1996, I did not make it to the University of Zimbabwe. During that time the government was fully sponsoring university students and giving them generous grants. Getting into UZ was a ticket out of poverty and for most students it did not really matter which program you pursued at that time. It was prestigious just being accepted into UZ. My choices included joining civil service, apprenticeship, joining private sector, going to Hillside Teachers' college and train as Science or Mathematics teacher etc. I never wanted to be a full time teacher so I never applied to any teachers' college. During my temporary teaching years, I met many people who had completed Bsc degrees in fields such as general science subjects as well as agriculture ending up teaching and this pained me a lot. My A’ Level Mathematics teacher had graduated with an Economics Honours degree. I had set my sights on pursuing studies with the Chartered Institute of Management Accounting (CIMA UK). After I started working as a temporary teacher, I enrolled for the course and bought study materials.

In January 1997 I got a year contract to teach at Kambarami Secondary School and I elected to rent a room with electricity at Murewa Growth point so that I could study. During the weekends, I would go to CIMA library in Harare. I knew I needed to get a job in Harare. I got a job as an apprentice at NCR Systemedia in Southerton Industrial area next to CAPS Pharmaceuticals. My salary as a temporary teacher had been $2 600.00 and now as an apprentice I got paid a stipend of $840 per month. I got slightly more as I worked overtime. Luckily I stayed with my aunt and uncle Mr and Mrs Maphosa in Sunningdale and I would walk to and from Sunningdale through Mbare and Ardbennie to work. By the end of 1997, the Zimbabwean dollar fell against major currencies and I knew I could not afford to continue with my studies. I really regretted the decision I had made to leave temporary teaching. One of the jobs we were working on around the Heroes day holidays in August 1997 was printing the prospectus and share application forms for Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe. At that time the government was now privatizing CBZ and the bank was going to list on Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. Mr Gideon Gono then heading the parastatal CBZ came in to our printing section and spoke to my printing supervisor.

Fortunately, since I was in Harare I could respond to adverts and attend interviews. I responded to an advert in The Herald newspaper for Trainee Underwriters. I nearly missed the opportunity. I was interviewed by the Employment Agent on his way out of his office and he gave arranged an interview for me with the human resources manager at Eagle Insurance Company (then a subsidiary of South Africa Eagle Insurance). I arrived for the interview around 4pm and I was interviewed after 5pm. I was then called in for a second interview with the head of departments. I went to the library at the Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe old offices at the First Mutual Life building in down town Harare. I learnt all I could about Insurance. On 1 December 1997, I started work as a trainee underwriter. The irony is that if I had not taken the risk to come to Harare for a much lower salary, I could have missed this opportunity.

At Eagle Insurance, I used the computer for the first time. We went through a formal training program and we had to write the Certificate of Competency Certificate in March 1998 and I passed it. The next stage was to study towards the Associateship diploma either through Insurance Institute of South Africa or Chartered Insurance Institute (UK). Most of us chose the South African route because the fees in Rands were more affordable than in British Pounds. At that time most insurance companies in Zimbabwe were controlled from South Africa and also we used the Multi- Mark Policy Wording developed in South Africa. The company extended study loans to us. The insurance Institute of Zimbabwe organised many courses that were taught by Associates and Fellows of the institute who were also senior managers in the insurance industry and I attended those courses. For me my A-levels Mathematics background came in handy especially probability that I had learnt in the Statistics option as I found it very easy to understand the concept of pooling of risks.

In mid 1999, I joined Diamond Insurance company by that time I was earning more than 3 times what I had earned as a temporary teacher, I was grateful that I had not made it to UZ to study for one of the B.Sc. degrees as chances were very high that I would have ended up being a teacher. Towards the end of 2002 I got my first management position at Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers. The month I joined ZIB they were preparing for their strategy session for 2003 and all managers went for a weekend strategy session 140kms away at Kadoma Ranch Motel. I saw the managing director and the three general managers taking to task every manager who had presented their strategy. I learnt the importance of being thoroughly prepared. I passed my Associateship exams in 2003 and got a job at Zimnat Lion Insurance company as an underwriting manager starting 1 January 2004. At Zimnat Lion management meetings and strategy sessions were quite intense. In the management team we had chartered accountants, insurance professionals, lawyers, human resources professionals, IT professionals, engineers etc. and you had to be well prepared and be able to defend your presentation and your ideas.

In 2005 I enrolled for the MBA and dropped out after completing one module. The same year, I completed my Fellowship exams. Beginning of 2006, I joined the Society of Fellows and we held our first meeting at Harare club. The same year, I was transferred to Bulawayo and became the branch manager. The economic environment in Zimbabwe continued to deteriorate characterised by shortage of basic goods and record inflation. On 22 August 2007, I collected my 5 year quota work permit at the South African Embassy in Harare. The following morning I left Bulawayo and arrived in Pretoria to start a new chapter. I responded to an advert in Pretoria News for a Business Claims Advisor at OUTsurance. I did a telephonic interview and the recruiter told me that I had not impressed her very much, what she did not know was that when I received her call, I had been driving back to Pretoria from another interview in Sandton and I had parked on the side of the road along N1 by the Buccleuch interchange and switched the car off and closed all the windows. She invited me for an interview at the head office in centurion on Friday 31 August 2007.

During the interview I was told I had got the job and I waited whilst the offer letter was drafted. On Monday 3 September 2007, I started my two months training and I did not struggle with the internal exams and I maintained an average of around 97% in all the tests I wrote. I worked at OUTsurance for 10 years and 1 month and left in 2 October 2017. I then came back on 1 April 2018.

I was fortunate to go through formal in-house training in most insurance companies that I worked for. The companies that I worked for provided study loans for insurance related courses and this was helpful especially with the constantly devaluing Zimbabwean dollar. At AIG Zimbabwe the incentive was even better in that once you passed the company would write off your study loans. Another very important plus was all the mentors I came across at all the insurance companies that I worked for. I wrote about these mentors in my previous blog in 2007 http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2017/09/what-i-have-learnt-in-my-21-years-of.html. That decision I took in July 1997 to go to Harare although it looked not very rational at the time. It opened many doors for me and I think the outcome exceeded my wildest imagination.