Nurturing a Young Career

Script of Talk delivered by Daniel Mutuku on 10th February 2011 at the JKUAT Nairobi Campus

Thank you.

Good morning all.

Im very much fortunate to have university students once again as my audience because, as you know, the only people who get this chance are either lecturers, or others who students have found to be worthy of their attention. I hope to fit the bill of the latter, not just by words, but also by values and virtues.

My name is Daniel Mutuku, as you have heard and I serve as an Actuarial Assistant at Pan Africa Life. In short, everything that happens in the actuarial department, I assist! This includes printing and photocopying

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papers, serving tea, and filing documents. For my undergrad course, I studied Actuarial Science at JKUAT Juja.

Turning to todays meeting, you will all agree with me that our career choices started being conceived when we were very young. I remember I wanted to be a number of things when I was young. My appeals were more on the public careers and ranged from being an evangelist to a reverend. Then I visited parliament in 2001 and then I wanted to be President. I also hoped to be a surgeon, and for a short while dreamt of being a lecturer. My decision to join Actuarial Science was arrived at in my third year in high school. This is just an example of how important and early this decision is made in life.

And truth be told, we have hopes, aspirations and dreams, and then reality comes knocking. I scored an A minus in my KCSE therefore ineligible to do Actuarial Science through the JAB route. As my parents were retired and the parallel course fees were high, I contemplated to settle for the course that would come my way. However, I was urged still to apply for the course here at JKUAT. The rest is history. My case shows an instance of the routes that one takes and the places one reaches as they progress towards the career of their choice.
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To me career is more than a job. I like it when in some quarters they call it calling. Career is your life. Career will describe who you are. Society will call you doctor, driver, pilot etc. because of what you ventured into. Most of us will get fulfillment from our careers. This is where we apply our skills, talents, passions, and abilities. If you read many biographies, you will also realize that many people also found their darlings while pursuing their career. Now, because university is at the academic peak of career decisions, this choice needs be carefully taken.

While doing this, it needs to occur that there is that thing that makes your eyes sparkle. It makes your face shine and become bright. That makes you feel excited and gives you a promise of fulfillment. I am reading this biography of a lady called Corrie ten Boom, a survivor of the Holocaust. When she went to Germany to assist those ravaged by the war, she led this elderly weak woman to the tool that ignites her passions the piano. She says that this lady played it with such passion that everything else did not matter anymore. This is what we need to pursue at very high costs. Let alone getting rich, in pursuit of this thing, if we do not make it, we should at least die trying! I am convinced that each one of us knows their unique mission, or if not, have come across it and have not yet realized. It is inborn

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and God-given. It always presses you to follow it. It is nowadays called a dream and lifes purpose. And many books have been written on it.

So, what attributes are required for a purposeful and fulfilling career? Ill mention just a few that I think are pertinent in this regard. Integrity, compassion, scholarship, loyalty, reason, courage, and God.

Ladies and gentlemen, integrity is a word that has been derived from the word integer, meaning whole. I understand this to be the wholeness of character, and avoidance of any flaw. It directs to the idea of saying what you mean and meaning what you say. This means that you do what you profess and profess what you do. It just means that you are one and the same thing. See, we need a consistent person to trust with a certain job, for instance, in a workplace. If at all we have a suggestion of dishonesty or contradiction in this persons conduct, we will be very restless and anxious. What if this person does this or that? What will happen to this place if this person takes a wrong turn? Everyone becomes apprehensive and insecure. One becomes a peril in himself and a walking time bomb waiting to explode with whoever is around. No. No. No. This cannot be said of us, especially as university students. Najua mwaks bado ni issue hapa uni na ma-uni mob around Kenya. Manze tulenge hiyo stori! You see, when you
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lack in integrity, even the whole idea of career is not applicable, as you will not experience the best that your career has to offer.

Secondly, compassion is what brings us to that point of feeling from within. Compassion tells us that you have a raw heart. A palpable one, as doctors would say. A heart that beats and that is moved. Compassion is one indicator, and a very key one, of where you need to be in the career world. Compassion implies passion and zeal. It tells you that something that is not kind is happening to someone, and because you are human just as your neighbor is, you feel him. You understand his situation and try to see how best to sort him out. I know that this attribute is needed in all professions. For if an actuary is not compassionate, will he deal fairly in his workings, knowing full well that someone is due to receive an amount that is rightfully his? I know that no accountant who is compassionate can engage in money laundering understanding that these are someone elses proceeds. A teacher who is compassionate will try as much as she can to help the student understand because she knows that this life will be shaped with the education she provides. I cannot exhaust the benefits of compassion and the ills that can be avoided in ones career if one is kindhearted.

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As one progresses towards their career, it becomes clear that one attitude you never lose is that of a student, willing and ready at all times to learn. And this is simply scholarship. I say this because your skills, and talents, and abilities needs to be nurtured and supported by other acquired pieces of information and knowledge of how to do things, and in a better way than before. When we graduate, we are given the power to read. Scholarship means that we look for relevant information, as well as that that seems not relevant, but might be relevant in future. And this implies consciously and willfully searching for this knowledge. It means researching in libraries or the internet. Asking colleagues and elders questions about a particular thing. Being more of a listener than a talker. Being the large dam that always has room for water, in this case, words of advice. Knowing that it is not in vain to look for this knowhow, as it builds you up. That is why I befriended my lecturers. Mr. Mungatu I believe can attest to that. Oh, by the way he lectured me from my second year to my fourth. Assignments give you this opportunity to be a scholar. They invoke you to be a researcher of facts and knowledge. Till today I download any file from the internet that I can acquire a piece of information as I know I may need it someday.

Your choice of career also needs to have reason attached to it. Sound reason. Sound purpose. What meaning do you see yourself portraying
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when you get into your career? How do you envision the role you will be playing in the outside world? Which specific problems in the society do you picture yourself solving? I know that we usually graduate from university into systems that have already been put in place and hence we might think, I just need a job, and thats that. Thats not entirely true. You need to know how you will define your position in society in a way that proves you will never at any point in time become redundant, and your job never becomes of no use. Society needs to appreciate you by an income and many other awards because it is clear why you have a career. Start thinking of the exact role you need to play. As time goes, you realize where your niche lies and when. You will also become loyal to your cause because you can vouch for it. You will not forsake your calling; rather you will defend it and continue working towards making that dream into reality.

Because you have set a goal, have nursed your dream, and worked towards it, you will need to be continually courageous, having faith that it will be fulfilled. As I alluded before, we do not always end up in the career in which we hoped to be. But we have our unique skills and abilities, and talent and passions, that we will always carry wherever we go. I enjoy working with figures. Whether Im at work, or at home, or at church, I can always employ these endowments and I will enjoy it. Please, I beg you, dont lose sight of your vision. Whether you land in a cash office and you
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hoped to do something else, see how you can be of good use at your station, while still looking for ways to reach your intended objective. There are always countless ways of reaching that end that you always dream about. Continue dreaming. Dont stop. While at that, continue finding out the way to get to your place of calling. Yes, seek for your calling, or die trying. Be faithful to it. Even if it eludes and escapes from your hand, try to catch it again. Push through that door and do not relent. Be skilful and tactful in doing this because once you find it, it is precious and can, almost surely, never be taken away from you.

I found my way into life insurance quite interestingly. I came in through an internship in 2009 and later on, an opportunity arose last year. Life insurance simply assures a life of a benefit once an unfortunate and uncertain event occurs. This is how we come in when an accident or a death occurs. Or even a sickness. We also come in when we provide a benefit for as long as you survive. As actuarial staff, we will assume a death distribution and later on adjust it as experience changes. We will assume that the rates will be this much and that the market will behave in a particular way. We will put in provisions for the risk of a different situation arising. The company will vet the risk that is coming in, therefore we will weed out as much as possible any very probable risk event.

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So I usually introduce myself in this way: Hi, Im Daniel and I work in insurance. Which policy would you like to have? The other person usually feels like running away :-)

Finally, that I mentioned God earlier cannot be a misstatement. Putting Him first and acknowledging Him in all we do is really the bottom-line of what a career should be. For there you find your purpose and your destiny. You will live a full life and be fulfilled.

Thank you all.

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