My Profile

Business Studies teacher & Foreign affairs coordinator

Guiyang Prime International Academy

February 2019 to December 2020

Work mainly consisted of preparing and teaching middle school classes, aiming to develop fluency and confidence. I taught in the following areas while working for Prime: ESL, IELTS, IGCSE Business Studies, Primary School Mathematics, Western Culture. I also started and ran a very successful international chess club and was looking forward to teaching swimming in future years, before the start of the global health crisis. 

Additionally, I provided a lot of administrative and strategic support, informing and developing the school's curriculum and value proposition. I was also responsible for overseeing other foreign teachers, ensuring that their lessons met required standards and were engaging for students. Furthermore, I also played an important part in corresponding with various foreign parties including representatives from sister schools and developing partnerships with various universities. 

Intern

JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange)

July 2013 to August 2013

A compulsory component of my business school postgraduate diploma. was to secure a two month internship at an appropriate employer. I was fortunate enough to work for the JSE - something I took with great glee and my peers took with envy.

I enjoyed great success, worked on interesting, challenging, and stimulating projects, and was exposed to a corporate environment. While my non-disclosure agreement with the JSE prevents me from divulging any particular information, I able to describe some aspects of my work.

I do understand the fundamentals of stocks and their trading however, my background meant that I could do more important work in the strategy department, particularly concerning environmental affairs. I was also exposed to some policy work for human resources as well as some work involving risk management. 

I was very successful. My business school gave my two awards - the "Internship of the year award for best logbook and journal" and 1 of 7 "Spirit of the internship awards".

While I learnt a great deal from my first exposure to the corporate world, had a fantastic and triumphant experience, as well as produced high quality work, perhaps my most important lesson is that working in the corporate world is not how I want to spend my life. I crave adventure, flexibility, and freedom - things which may be expected to be difficult for a corporation to provide. I took away positive memories, relationships with interesting people, and connected with several high profile South Africans.

One written reference is available.

Philosophy tutor for first-year university students

University of the Witwatersrand - Philosophy Department

February 2012 to November 2012

My favourite job so far! 

I was responsible for tutoring first-year university students enrolled for the "Introduction to Philosophy" and "Introduction to Ethics" courses, respectively in the first and second semesters. Weekly tutorials generally consisted of between 20-30 students, usually aged between 18 and 19. These tutorials served as a compliment to lectures and gave students the opportunity to learn from someone who they could more easily identify with than lecturers, 

I did very well in the first semester. The students liked me and generally engaged well with my then-novice approach to teaching. Their marks were good, generally ahead of other tutor's students and I like to believe that I created a positive environment that fostered their learning. The philosophy department seemed to agree with me because I was allocated an additional class in the second semester. While I do not have a reference from the department, I do have official results and feedback from my 3 classes. This feedback was complied by the university and I would be happy to make these results available to any potential employer.

Additional responsibilities included availing myself at least twice a week for private consultations. Despite tutorial classes being relatively small (30 students compared to a lecture hall of over 100 students), some students were still too nervous to speak-up and ask questions in front of their peers. Of course I took great effort to encourage participation and communication from all students during my tutorials however, I found that private consultations and one-on-one dialogues offered students the opportunity to raise their concerns and gain much deeper understandings of the source material than typically possible in either lectures or tutorials.

I had a fantastic experience tutoring young adults and gained several valuable insights and lessons. I would have cheerfully continued working in the department however, postgraduate students, who are currently enrolled in the department, are given preference for class allocations. Since I had moved to business school, and later environmental sciences, I was sadly unable to continue this work.

Tutor for young scholars

HireEducation

March 2008 to November 2010

HireEducation is an agency which connects university students with young scholars. I was responsible for 1-on-1 private tutoring sessions with scholars aged between 6 - 12. I tutored these scholars in a variety of subjects, fostered holistic development of reading, writing, arithmetic, and reasoning skills, and addressed any evident weaknesses.

Assistant Manager

DVD Nouveau

January 2008 to May 2016

The dream job for a student - I earned a small income for casual work with friends, and could work on university assignments at the same time.

I started as store clerk and was responsible for opening and closing the store, end of shift cash-ups, recommending films to clients, as well as ensuring that the store was neat, tidy, and the movies were displayed well. 

I was soon promoted to assistant manager and given additional responsibilities. These included drafting shift lists, updating the database with new movies, handling customer disputes, training new staff, and occasionally facilitated staff payments when the accountant was on leave or unavailable for any reason.. 

I became close friends with the store manager, a relationship that has persisted beyond the closure of the store. While we worked hard and ran a tight ship, changing demand and technology has resulted in closures of most DVD shops in South Africa. I am proud to say that we managed to keep our branch open for a couple of years longer than most of our competitors. I attribute this to our hard work, dedication to our jobs, and passion for the film industry and motion pictures.