How a student turned a career mismatch into mentorship

It’s halfway through the year and the pressure on matric learners to pick a career and direction of study is intensifying.

Yet there’s no real GPS that automatically steers anyone’s rudder toward a magical future because, in the end, it’s up to the individual. Without a support system, it could send anyone in the wrong direction.

And whether your marks are good, like Tchissola Khumalo’s were, or even just scraping through, the gauntlet of a career mismatch levels the playing field.

Khumalo was a top student, and she had becoming a chartered accountant in her crosshairs.

Unfortunately, Maths Literacy was not exactly the right subject choice for a career in numbers, and with no career guidance available, Googling career options had her settle for a BA Law degree at Wits.

During law lectures, she said, when her classmates were daydreaming about their futures in silks, all she cared for was to pass.

“My goal was simply to get 50% and move on. Even to this day, I’ve never felt compelled to visit a courtroom just to experience what being a lawyer is like.”

The mismatch took its toll, and she failed a key module while battling depression.

Almost every night, she said, she would phone her mother and tell her how much she wanted to leave university and come home.

“There were many nights when I cried myself to sleep, especially when my roommate wasn’t around.”

Career mismatch can take its toll

What pulled her through was a residence advisor, who ran regular check-ins with first-year students.

“Sometimes what gets you through difficult periods isn’t a grand solution, it’s having someone who consistently reminds you that you’re not alone,” she said.

It’s a lesson that became a blueprint for how she would respond to her own conundrum.

After volunteering at the Wits Entrepreneurship Hub, a guest speaker put a question to her that she couldn’t shake. The kicker was simply, ” What are you doing about it?”

In March last year, while still in her final year, she put up her hand and registered Ignite Mentorship and Development, an initiative that offers township students in Grades 8 to 12 the guidance she never had.

The organisation’s first exposure programme brought 21 Mamelodi pupils, none of whom had ever set foot on a campus, to Wits. The second brought 81, and school talks have reached as far as Mpumalanga.

“You can only dream as far as you’ve been exposed to,” she said. “Growing up in a township, many of the successful people around me were those who finished matric, found work as cashiers, petrol attendants or in other entry-level jobs.

“There is absolutely dignity in that work, but when that’s all you’re exposed to, your vision of success becomes limited to what you can see.”

Vision is limited by environment

The memory of a particular learner stays with her. It was a young woman from Cameroon studying in Mamelodi, locked out of NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) funding as a foreign national.

Ignite couldn’t solve the problem itself, but connected her with an advisory organisation that could.

“Impact isn’t always about having all the answers yourself,” she said. “Sometimes it’s about knowing who can help.”

Building the organisation has come with its own lessons.

“Sometimes you’re seen as passionate rather than capable, enthusiastic rather than competent,” she said. “Credibility isn’t something you’re given; it’s something you build through consistency, results, and refusing to stop when doors don’t open immediately.”

She is now preparing for a funding pitch competition while writing her mid-year exams, with ambitions stretching to partnerships with at least five schools, annual camps, and eventually a permanent Ignite Academy under one roof.

All comes back to a chat she never had

Khumalo added that it all comes back to the conversation she never had the opportunity to have.

“If someone had taken the time to guide me properly when I chose law, maybe I would have made a different decision,” she said. “Sometimes a single conversation can change the trajectory of someone’s life.”