Yoli's World

Approaching the end of my internship

2006-08-03T00:34:00.000-07:00

It has been two months and couple days since I started my internship at the AICC. I have learned so many things in such a short space of time and I can safely say I was destined to do my internship with the AICC. I feel as though the time was very short for my stay because there are projects that I am involved in that I would like to stay till the completion of the projects. I have only four weeks left and I already feel sad because the AICC is my second home.

Taking full responsibility for my actions

2006-07-31T06:55:00.000-07:00

Lat week I was asked to send out the AICC with another intern whose job is to send out the mailing list. I told myself that it was her job to send out thing like invitations, newsletter reports and so on so let me let her do her job. After a couple of minutes I am called in to the CEO’s office and get reprimanded for doing sending out a cover note without closure.

I was very upset and not to mention embarrassed because in the first place it was my first time sending out the Newsletter and I did not know how it was done. I apologised to my CEO and promised that it will never happen again. I kept telling myself that it is her fault because it was her job to send out things to the clients who are in our mailing list and she should have known better. When I got home I reassessed the situation and discovered it was really my fault because I am the one who is responsible for the Newsletter and I should have made sure that it was sent out the proper way. Besides I also have to find out how our database works so that in future when I am asked to send out something like an invitation and so on I know how to do it. Therefore I am taking full responsibility for the carelessness.

Research about the DRC

2006-07-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

These days I feel as though I have purpose in life, compared to six months ago. My CEO asked me to put together a research about a mining company that was involved in aiding rebels in DRC. I am very pleased about this challenge and I have already started reading extensively about the situation in the DRC. My challenge is to produce a properly put together research that will impress my CEO. By the way I have received a good response about the AICC newsletter and I am very proud of myself.

Stupid mistakes

2006-07-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

Finally the newsletter for July is done and completed, but this does not lighten my work load, especially now that one of our interns has completed her internship and went back home to Canada. It was a pleasure knowing her, she was a hard working person who strived for perfection and I must say I learned a lot from her even though I worked with her for only six weeks. I must say I am enjoying the challenges that I get here at the AICC even though sometimes I feel like most of the mistakes I make are very stupid and unnecessary. For example I was supposed to send out the newsletter as an attachment, at the end of the email I forgot to put the closure in or should I say the AICC signature I was very upset with myself for being so careless, but hey the damage is already done.

Honoured

2006-07-06T05:29:00.000-07:00

I was very honoured to attend the workshop on Sustainability Reporting with my CEO. He subsequently asked to write a report on that so that it can be sent to the relevant parties. I was nervous because I don’t trust myself; I guess everybody knows that by now.

In any way the workshop went fine and it was very interesting. The report is not out yet but any one who is interested in the outcomes of the workshop or the report should email me and I will send it to them.

Short cuts

2006-06-27T06:41:00.000-07:00

The news letter that I was working on got sent back in order for me to make corrections. I had left out some stuff because it was beyond my control, I could not get much information on the issues I was suppose to report on and my deadline had arrived so I decided to leave that few information out. Now I am back to being under pressure because I still have a few deadlines in addition to the correction that I have to make. All in all, the newsletter is not bad for a first timer like me, I was expecting a lot corrections that I needed to make but to my surprise it was just minor issues. I think that next time when I am required to make another newsletter I will do a better job because I know what I have to do and I know my colleagues a little better so it is going to be easier to request information from them.

Relief at last

2006-06-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

Finally I completed the newsletter that I had to put together, I feel so relieved but not completely. I am not completely relieved because my supervisor has yet to look at it and I hope that she likes it because I worked so hard on it despite the fact that I had no experience in putting together a newsletter before. Whatever happens I told myself that I am hear to learn so I have to take whatever criticism she is going to give me.

In the meantime can any of you assist me with a list of NGOs from Johannesburg and Cape Town? I am assisting someone to put together an n invitation for the workshop of corporate social responsibility. Your input will be greatly appreciated.

Meeting deadlines

2006-06-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

I am starting to settle at AICC and already feel like I am part of the family. I was told today that I’d have to put together a newsletter (AICC April –May issue) news letter. Fear came took over me instantly, I have never done newsletter before in my life where am I going to begin? Then I remembered that I am here to learn new things and this is part of my education. A young lady by the name of Laurel gave me a guide to follow and she also advised me to look at the AICC past newsletters so that I can have a clear idea as to where I am going.

At the moment I am trying to put together articles that I can use for newsletter, this means asking colleagues if they have contributions that they wish to see in the April – May issue. I am still waiting for their responses. Some of the colleagues I have not met because they are in Malawi. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have something to work on because the newsletter is due on Friday. If you want to view our previous newsletters you can log on to www.aiccafrica.org.

Failing in Time Management

2006-06-12T06:02:00.000-07:00

Since I have arrived at AICC I have been busy hence I have not been blogging. Things at the AICC are hectic and I am learning new things every day. On my first week I was helping with the team who are working on the Novib project. And I must say that I was very excited to be told that I was going to be part of the project. So at the moment I am busy with the project and the news letter. Seventy percent of my work is the Novib project and thirty percent on the AICC newsletter.

Since I have never been involved in large projects before, I must say that during the first couple of days I felt nervous as I always do when I am faced with unfamiliar projects but it got better with time. The project that I am doing requires me to be able to multi task, which is something I thought I was able to do. But lately I have discovered that I was fooling myself because I find myself trying to catch up with my tasks, which are my blogs, trying to finish the AICC newsletter and work on the project at the same time. I find myself neglecting something else which this time is the Novib project and blogging.

I am trying to practice time management which I was taught at the internship training but I keep on failing. Clearly there is something that I am doing wrong and I am still trying to find out what is it. My answer to this problem is that I am trying so much to do a perfect job that I end up wasting time on one project, which in turn I end up concentrating in that one thing and neglecting other things.

Yoli's resume online-- Updated 18 April

2006-04-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

Yoliswa Mawela – Curriculum Vitae
No. 90-9th Avenue, Mid-Ennerdale, 1830
Home tel: (011) 211 2165 Cell: 073 198 4261
Email: mawelay@hse.pg.wits.ac.za or mawelayoliswa@yahoo.co.uk

Career objectives
To gain a challenging entry-level position in Social Sciences that utilizes my analytical, research and communication skills. I aim for a career in the field of diplomacy.

Education

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (2004)
Bachelor of Arts Honours (Forced Migrations)

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (2000-2003)
Bachelor of Arts
Majors
Political Studies, International Relations
Other courses
Psychology, Information Technology, English Literature, Applied English Language Studies

Gamble Street Uitenhage (1997-1999)
Highest grade passed: Grade 12
Subjects
English (2nd language), Xhosa (1st language) Biology, History, Biblical Studies (all Higher Grade), Business Economics (Standard Grade)

Special achievements and honours
Head Girl and award in Biblical Studies

Employment

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (2001)
Organiser of (SRC) Elections
Tasks and responsibilities - Office work, filing, data capturing

Metro Cash and Carry (1997-1999)
Tasks and responsibilities - Stock taking

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (2004)
Researcher at Home Affairs at Rosettenville (Refugees Reception office)
Finding out if the system used at Rosettenville for refugees was efficient.
Tasks and responsibilities - Compiling research, analysing data, writing reports

Skills Windows 2000, Windows XP, MS Word, MS Front Page, MS Power Point, Internet Explorer, report writing, interviewing skills, web designing, research

Languages English, Xhosa, Zulu, Setswana

Interests Reading and sports (netball, long jump, athletics)

Referees details are available on request.

Interview

2006-04-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I went for an interview at National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) Http://www.nedlac.org.za/ . It was very nerve wrecking and as result I messed up the interview. I could not string a sentence together and I spoke very fast because of the nerves. When I reflect back on the day of the interview, I realize that my nerves were based on fact that I did not trust my self enough to do my best in the interview. Also I do not think that I prepared my self enough for the interview because I only had half a day to prepare for it, and I started preparing only after the (CSVR) presentation.

I know that this was not an excuse for messing up the interview but I feel that, had I had enough time to prepare and do mock interviews on my own I would have been fine. And also, the fact that I wanted to do an internship at DeBeers so badly did not make it any easier in calming down my nerves.

One thing I learned from this experience is that nerves are a good thing because they keep you focused and show that what ever it is that is making you nervous you take it seriously, and you want to prove yourself badly that you are the best person for the job. However, too many nerves are destructive because you can’t concentrate and you end up destrying your performance abilities. I received advice from people such as Roy on how to deal with nerves and it is working already, and hopefully I won’t mess up the next interview.

Internship opportunities at CSVR

2006-04-11T05:08:00.001-07:00

A representative from Centre of the study of violence and reconciliation (CSVR) www.csvr.org.za came to speak to us about internship opportunities in their organization. Most of us as internship trainees were interested since most of us are post graduates and have a background in research and social issues that deal with different communities.

The lady from CVSR spoke about different researches that they have conducted, the area that I was interested in, are issues that affect refugees in South Africa. Since I have done refugees studies in an Honours level I think I can do an internship at this field in CSVR. But I do not think I can only add value in the refugees’ issues only, I can do research in every aspect of social issues in order to broaden my knowledge and my skills.

I have heard that it is very competitive to be accepted at CSVR and priorities are given to candidates who have a masters and PhD’s. Beyond that candidates have to also convince them as to how good they are and what value they can add in their organization. I suppose that I do not have a chance being accepted because I only have an Honors degree. I would have loved to an internship with CSVR because it relates to the field of my study, and it is rare these days to work in your field of study.

Proffessionalism

2006-04-10T04:55:00.000-07:00

Tracy Rowe spoke to us about professionalism, and what I realized was that everything she told us we already knew, the problem is that I personally believe that I was to lazy to implement them. For example when I had to submit essays, I knew I had to have extra copies in case the essay went missing or something unexpected happens but I did not do it, because for me it seemed like hassle and too much work.

During Tracy’s presentation I realized that some of the things that I just mentioned are part of being a professional, and had I taken some of those habits with me during my varsity days I would be halfway to being a professional. Had she also came to speak to us about being professionalism during the first two weeks of the internship programme I think I would not be behind with my bloggs.

But the fact remains that I knew this stuff, but I was too ignorant to practice them, and now I regret it because of some of the reasons I do not want to through. But I must say it does take a dedicated person to commit to things that she or he passionate about. I am passionate about making myself employable out there and selling my skills, therefore I am going to change my mindset and start behaving like the professional.

More opportunities for interns

2006-04-07T05:44:00.000-07:00

A lot of companies have come to speak to the world of work trainees about possible opportunities of becoming interns in their companies, and suddenly it seemed as if there is a silver linning after all at the end of the tunnel. Because most of us have been looking for a chance of becoming interns in organisations or companies that are interested in giving graduates a chance of gaining experience and further develop their skills by being exposing them to the practicality of work. The first company to present in the mornig was Endevour, it was more linked to the entrepreneurship side of things.

The companies that were more interesting to me were IDT and and Social Surveys Africa. These companies were interesting to me, because for one, I liked the way IDT presented their organisation, they showed us their different departments and what their responsibilities entailed. That way we were all able to see whether we could fit into some of the different departments and what skills or ideas we could introduce to them. I was also interested in the fact that they were dealing with development in the rural areas, and this is my area of interest.

Social survey Africa dealt more about reseach, again this is my area of interest since I have done reseach and I think I would be happy there because they also deal with social issues that affect the community amongst other things. I am not implying that I am not interested in a corporate career, I am just saying that I am interested in the development field because I can relate to it much more easily as opposed to the corporate field. Hopefully the companies that have presented will be interested in us and be willing to give us a chance to become interns in their companies.

Entrepreneurship

2006-04-05T04:26:00.000-07:00

Since most of us not going to be employed, I think that Entrepreneuship will save us. Most of us have ideas but lack the confidence and the drive to do establish ourselves as enterpreneurs.
The presentation that we had gave us the correct direction in which we could take if we want to start our own companies. Since most of us have degrees in humanities or social sciences, I think an area we could focus on would be development.

What is most interesting, is that these days entrepreneuship invloves a lot of dimensions such as selling your self and your expertise by this I do not mean atttorneys, medical doctors and so. I am talking about my self as post graduate I can offer a lot expertise in many sectors such as conduct reseach, be a consultant, be a project leader and so on. My fellow coleagues and I are in the internship programme could open a company based on the differents skills and services that I just mentioned above. In the internship programme we have people who are qualified in communications, reseach, others are economist and the list goes on.

In the entreprneurship presentation I did not only gain valuable experience but I gained a lot of contacts who can help and advice about how to get funding on establishing a company. This will act as a support mechanism for me knowing that whenever I want to improve my services I will know what to do and who to go to, to help me come up with innovative ideas.

Development

2006-03-31T03:21:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning the World of work programme, I have picked up one theme which is development. Speakers who have talked to us have emphasised that development should be in the centre of our focuss, because we live in the world that is constanlty changing and chang in most cases change is part of development.

Speakers who mostly touched on development are the ones who spoke about entrepreneuship, and those who are governmental agencies such as NEPAD and IDT. Other speakers who touched on enterpreneuship stressed that in order for one to come up with innovative ideas one should look in their communites and try to look for loop holes. One could come up with a great plan which could also generate a lot money for them, that is if they are definately sure that they want to own a business. I think that these ideas could come in handy in a few months to come since most of us have been struggling to get jobs, this might the one options that is left for some of us if we do not get interships or jobs.

This could also work in the future, who knows? One might be earning a salary that is not enough for one to make ends meet. Additional income might come in handy by running a small business on the side to try and make up for the little they earns as a salary.

Presentation Anxiety

2006-03-29T06:48:00.000-08:00

Today my moment of truth was that I suffer from presentation anxiety. Presenting was never an issue for me because what I had to do when I was still a student and had to present, was stick to the topic that was given to me, list all the facts and I would have cracked my presenatation or pass it.

In the working environment I have discovered that evrything is presenting, when you enter your place of work you are already presenting your self, your body language, the way you carry your self, all account for presentation skills. Presention skills are skills that I did not think that I 'd have use to use in the world of work, because I am a social science student. I always thought that presentation was necessary if, one was mostly involved in the advertising indusrty or sales person trying to sell an idea or product to client. But I have realized that as a social sceince graduate I am also selling my self to the world, therefore presentation skills are very important.

Today I had a lot of practice and I think thay I have honned my presentation skills even though I can't rate myself ten out of ten (10/10) yet. With a lot of practice and confidence I will be perfect.

Interviewing skills

2006-03-29T06:38:00.000-08:00

The presentation for today (Which is 22\03\2006) was about interviewing skills. It was somewhat nerve wrecking because Wickus and Wilhemien conducted mock interviews, this brought me to the realization that I'm not quite clued about interviews as I previously thought. It also made realize that maybe I am not ready to enter the world of employment.However what I picked up from the presentation was quite valuable and I value the time that the two consultants spent with us. They were not lenient with us, because they also told us that they would not employ any of us after the mock interviews, because we did not sell ourselve to them. They also told us that we needed a lot of practice in conducting interviews. What I have learnt from them is that interviewers are harsh and expect high standards from all candidates but I guess we all knew that. Also the interviewers are aware that interviewees get nervours, and this results in them being unable to grasp the questions that are being asked to them, that is why most of them fail interviews.My question is why then haven't anybody tried to come up with better ways, whereby candidates are made to feel comfortable during interviews so that the candidates can perform to the best of their abilities. In my opinion this will make process run easily and smoother. I can't help feel that some of the employers have lost suitable candidates, because the candidates were nervours but were best people for the job. There are people who have the gift of the gab and can actually do little work, I know that there are psychometric test to prove that the person can do the job. What I am talking about here are resources to figure out if that person is lazy or not, or how commited are they to the job. I hope this question will give employers out there something to think about.

The Constitution Hill tour

2006-03-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Constitution Hill tour evoked a lot of mixed feelings, the prison cells were quite scary and caused some of us to become angry. It was also heart breaking and saddening to see where our freedom fighters were held. I think that it is good though, to be reminded of what our grandparents went through in order for us to be liberated.

The presentation about project management I found it to be way out of my league. I think I should register for a degree or diploma before I can even think of embarking on that on carreer path. However I found it exciting even though I have limited knowledge of project management. Innitially I had plans in doing another cause or something different in the future. I will reconsider doing something that has to do with project management since I think that it will go hand in hand with opening my own business.

I think that it was amazing seeing something like the Constitution Hill which was used to abuse the rights of our freedom fighters turned into a venture to attract tourists and venture to heal wounds that were inflicted to the people who were fighting for our rights.

Confidence in becoming an intern

2006-03-27T06:19:00.000-08:00

I think I speak for all of us when I say that we all have been waiting with anticipation for this afternoon session, of what do employees look for in interns. Some of the things I learned from the speaker is what I have known before the presentation, but the speaker was frank and concise about what he expects from the intern. http://www.career.uci.edu/employers/employers-internship-events.aspx

The presentation pointed me towards the right direction, of what I should expect from being an intern. Now I know that I just don't have to sit and expect the company to dish up whatever experience they think they can give me and from then, move on without gaining any anything I expected to gain.

At the moment I am reseaching companies that will help me utilize my skills, whether they are NGO's or government companies it does not matter as long they will help me gain the experience that I need. I am ready to face up to the challenges.

The issue of HIV/AIDS

2006-03-27T05:37:00.000-08:00

We all know that the issue if HIV/Aids has become a major problem in all spheres of life. Fortunately the government has taken in its stride to try and make life easier for people who are affected and infected. He has however failed in many instances to try and provide people who are infected with ARV'S, http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ip-health/2003-novemmber/005650.html . At the same time the Government has also been successful in implementing labour policies that protects employees who are infected by the virus.

The valuable lesson that I learnt from the presentation, is that South Africa has a long way to go when it comes to taking leadership and coming with policies that are consistent in tryong to combat the problem of HIV. I also realize that one has to become vigilant in order not to contract the virus, because in South Africa we are still dealing with the issue stigamatizing the virus, also not many hospitals especially, the ones in the rural areas have exparience in the rolling out of the ARV's.

One should also think of the future whereby one will be CEO of a company and alomst a quater of your staff is infected with virus, this means that one will be running his business on a loss. Many of your staff will be taking sick leave, and this means that one will have to hire out temporary workers who will repalce the sick staff. I think that This is one of many reasons why one has to take responsibilty when it comes to the issue of HIV/Aids.

Collaborating with fellow competitors

2006-03-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

The presentation on Friday was about competition, collaboration and coorperation, I must say the presentation was intense and complicated. Most of the terms which were used were Business Economics like, I struggled with Business Economics at high school that is why I didn't persue Business Economics at terriary level. Now imagine me in that presenation, I felt like I was doing an MBA course. I struggled to understand the presentation, but I did get the whole idea of competition, collaboration and coorperation.

I thought that the presentation was going to be about how to handle competion at work level, or how to compete for a position or promotion at work. never did I expect it to be about becoming enterpreneurs or how to compete in a business sense. However, the presentation as a whole was very enlightening, especially when it came to the discussion of clusters. I didn't know that many businesses were located at various places for reasons. I also did not know that it is not complicted to open a business venture that is similar to the one that already exist in the same location, what one needs to know is how to coorperate.

I always wanted to open a Bed and Breakfast (B&B) but, I was put off by the fact that many of them exist almost every where. I didn't think that coorperation could come in handy. All I need now is to come up with an innovative ideas and make my B&B fresh and out of this world.

Creativity and blogging

2006-03-20T02:09:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, the presentations were about creativity and blogging. I think that these two topics were somehow linked because they were done by the same person, and in order for a person to create exciting bloggs, one actually needs to be creative. I was hoping that my third blog would be exciting after the presentation about blogging but I suppose I am still struggling with being creative.

I want to create a blog that is controversial but at the same time, sells me to the potential employees out there. I am afraid that Roy Blumenthal really set high standards when it comes to blogging and I am even hesitant to go even further with blogging in case he declares me a waffler. To cut things short I am just going to describe the exparience I had in Roy's class. He is very active and full of confidence, which I think some of it rubbed off me. I am starting to like blogging since Roy outlined some of the issues we could blog about but I am still scared to do so, in case I step in some people toes.

Roy really boosted my confidence I have actually started writing poems which I think I might share with my fellow bloggers in the near future. I made an introspection about myself as to what kind of person I am and what kind of a job I want to do.

EQ

2006-03-16T03:14:00.000-08:00

I apologise that it took me this long to post another blog. I was trying to settle into the training first, things have been very interesting and hectic. On my fisrt day of the internship training I lost my brother and I got distracted a little bit. Then I realised that I had to be strong because I believed that this was my only chance of ever getting into the world of work.

The second day of the Internship training we did was Emotional intelligence, and that was the day that I thought of not coming because of the emotions that I went through, however my parents encouraged me to come because there was actually nothing I could do, my father also went to work. I am glad that I decided to come to the training because that was the day I got to learn how to use my emotions intelligently. It worked only for few hours and when I went to fetch a taxi to take me home I recieved a call from a friend who wanted to know how my brother was doing after that accident, I had to retell the strory to her that he didn't make it, he had passed on. I went through the emotions of grief all over again and cried.

I'm glad though that I attended the training on Tuesday, and others that came after that, I'm now able handle my emotions a little, by focusing on the presentations, it makes me forget of what I am going through.

My fears and insecurities

2006-03-08T06:21:00.000-08:00

Hi my name is Yoliswa Mawela I just got accepted into the scholarship internship programme. I have been nervous since I started applying for the internship programme, probably because I knew that this is one step for me through the world of work. The whole week has been filled with anxiety and nerve wrecking moments because of the interview I had to attend in order for me to be awarded the the scholarship training. Since the beginning of the week I have been doubting my abilities because of high standards and requirements of the internship.

The required tasks were were supposed to be accurate and very proffessional. Lesley Emanuel, my mentor demands professionalism at avery aspect of the programme. This is one of the factors that forced me to realize that, she meant serious bussiness by demanding accuracy and professionalism. That made me realize that in the world of employment there is no playing and lazying around.

My fear in the internship training is that I won't be able to excel in the tasks that I will be given to perform. I also fear that I won't be able to measure up to the standard that has been set for the trainees. I further hope that I am not the only one who is suffering from insecurities that I just described. Hopefully I will get the support that I need from Lesley and fellow trainees.