PROFILE : My unconventional career - Gundo Maswime

Gundo Maswime shares HIS UNCOVENTIONAL career in Civil Engineering.

What was your 1st career choice in the Built Environment?

Civil Engineering Consultant

What motivated you to get into your 1st career choice?

My proficiency and liking for geometry made me think that I would do well designing bridges and structures. Of course this was partially because of my poor understanding of the civil engineering profession.

What makes your career journey unconventional?

The fact that after working for 4 years in the private sector as a consultant, I studied a B. Social Science (Honours) in public policy and a Master's degree in public administration there by making my move to the public sector. After almost 10 years in the public sector, I moved into academia whilst studying towards a PhD.

Give us brief history of your unconventional journey and the experiences you gained along the way

After matric, I studied towards a BscBotany at UCT. I dropped out after 3 years to raise funds for my shortfall. I worked for a year as a teacher. During that year, I knew that my dream of being a civil engineer may die of once I acquire a Bsc Botany. 

I then enrolled for a Bsc Civil Engineering with what was the University of Natal. While studying in Natal, I worked for Ethekwini Municipality that was when I developed my curiosity on the no engineering aspects of Civil engineering such as procurement. I completed my degree at the same time with a Public Policy degree. This made me very well prepared for public service. 

On joining public service, I was an executive director within 4 years. From Botany, I appreciated environmental implications of engineering decisions more than my peers. From public policy, I understood the ideological objectives of government, the structure and role of the state and such concepts as policy windows, agenda setting, incrementalism and rationalism. These put my engineering knowledge in context and checked my authority against public sentiment and input. 

Also read: Unconventional Career - Nomzamo Mlungu

Public administration deepened my understanding of systems, management approaches, new public management, public entrepreneurial management and many other concepts that an engineer may never understand. This is always the cause for engineers feeling isolated due to their unique training which is almost entirely technical without the community context.

What is your current role and what are you learning from it?

I am now lecturing Civil Engineering students on urban design and professional practice to prepare them for industry. I also do research on a discipline that reconciles policy, engineering and public administration. It is called implementation science. It is about optimising the implementation of infrastructure development plan using frameworks that are traditionally associated with medical practice. I now see that South Africa has great policy making ability, world class engineering capacity but poor appreciation or understanding of the science of implementation.

Looking back what has been key learning points in your unconventional career?

It is the fact that one needs to pay attention to their set of skills and interests within the profession and desist from forcing themselves into existing notions of what an engineer should be. If you're a gifted orator, be a spokes person for an engineering department or parastatal. You will do well being an engineer because you know what you're talking about. If your interest is legal matters, grow your knowledge by studying law as an engineer. Whatever it is, find a way of reconciling it with your engineering background.

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