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I was born in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya but I am Ethiopian by nationality. When I was eight years old, my family and I moved to a small town in Norway, where we were lucky enough to be part of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees program. That’s where I grew up.
After getting my bachelor’s degree in business administration in Oslo, I decided to do a management degree abroad. I was looking for universities with practical courses, and I fell in love with the program at ESMT Berlin on social impact projects, projects where students travel to another country for five weeks to make a difference.
I started a six-month internship at a recycling company called Penda in Addis Ababa. It was my first time living in Ethiopia. My experience at the company, which collects and recycles waste paper before sending it to local paper manufacturers, helped me understand the business in the country.
It was a bit challenging at first: Internet and power related issues and other issues we had to deal with in Ethiopia, but the support from ESMT’s career services team helped. Fortunately, I also speak the native language.
In the year I worked as a consultant in an Ethiopian company called Taskmoby, which is a gig platform for all kinds of services. I have always liked the vision of the company. Almost three years later, I now run the operation. I am the Ethiopia Country Manager for the parent company of 118 Taskmoby in Nairobi, Africa.
In addition to its high ranking, ESMT has a reputation for helping graduates find jobs quickly. A few classmates are working in the same company that ESMT helped them find a position. Alumni stay connected through LinkedIn and WhatsApp, especially about career opportunities. A classmate joined me on Taskmoby.
The masters have been around for a couple of years and are very current, covering the latest trends. ESMT works closely with large German companies and hosts master classes for CEOs, who come and tell us about the specific challenges we are trying to solve. We have a very good understanding of what is happening in these companies.
We had about 80 students in a class with more than 40 nationalities, so we got different perspectives in the workshops and discussions. For example, people from Germany tended to be more direct, while people from Asia tended to communicate more easily. It was interesting to see how this developed over the course.
If you want to work internationally, these kinds of discussions will teach you how to communicate with people from different parts of the world. Meeting people who lived and worked in different countries helped me when I came to Ethiopia where my culture was different from what I was used to.
My favorite course was on strategy. He delved into what makes certain companies stronger than others and how they should best position themselves within the market or industry in which they operate. That understanding and the problem-solving skills I gained at ESMT proved invaluable at Taskmoby. Working with real companies and real challenges. The program has strengthened my ability to adapt quickly, which I have never done before in Ethiopia.
Although Ethiopia is not an easy place to work, there are many opportunities. My plan now is to expand Taskmoby to neighboring countries, bring it to more people and make it the number one gig platform in East Africa.
Security situation [there is conflict in the north of the country] Although the impact on our activities in the capital Addis Ababa is small, it has delayed our expansion plans. We will, however, continue to train service providers and conduct market assessment studies. Now we are working to launch TaskMobi in three more Ethiopian cities.
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