In 2008, after finishing matric and spending six months working in a hotel in England, Matie alumnus and upcoming Careers Café speaker Philip Parrock, realised one thing – he was not prepared to slog away at a job that was not fulfilling him.

After travelling more than 13 000 kilometres from South Africa to England to see the world, discomfort with where he found himself pushed him to return to Cape Town six months later. Back in Cape Town, he took up a full-time job working as a care assistant for a local retirement home.

“I spent a lot of time in Stellenbosch over weekends, because a few of my friends from Pretoria were studying there. That's when I first started thinking about studying at Stellenbosch University (SU)."

“I actually applied very late, on 28 August, with only two days left before applications for degree programmes closed on 30 August," he adds and laughs.

Philip enrolled for a BA in International Studies in 2010 and upon completion of that degree, finished an Honours and Masters in Political Science at the university as well.

“By February 2015, I was working on the last draft of my Masters and getting ready to start looking for permanent work. I sent out 60 CVs to a number of companies in South Africa, but received no response from any of them. It's at that point that you realise you don't have the experience to compete with other applicants and that you need to gain that somehow."

When he spotted a seasonal job advertised by Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud computing service (it has 65% market share) in the world which is owned by Amazon, he submitted a CV, not sure where it would lead.

“I specialised in risk analysis during my studies, and without me enquiring about it Amazon Web Services offered me a permanent job as a Technical Customer Service Associate. I started working in their global customer service department training new staff recruited to the company a few days after submitting my Masters thesis."

Today Philip works for Amazon Web Services as a Technical Team Manager. On 18 October, he will be sharing more with students on the soft skills he learnt as a varsity student, employee, and student of life during Alumni Relations' Careers Café. The TedTalk-styled event will take place between 13:00 and 14:00 in Room 230 on the second floor of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences building on the corner of Merriman and Ryneveld Street and is open to all students. 

The Careers Café series was launched in 2016 by the Alumni Relations Office to provide a platform for alumni to engage with the university in a different manner by offering their time and skills to help current students prepare for the careers they want. Through this interaction, current students are able to learn from the real-life experiences of Matie graduates in the corporate world and benefit from advice and tips from them as well. Other career development opportunities on campus are also promoted through this event, encouraging students to further improve their work preparedness.  

If you want to attend this free talk, you can RSVP for the Careers Café here.

• For more information about the Careers Café, follow the Alumni Relations Facebook page at www.facebook.com/stellenboschalumni and the SU Facebook page at www.facebook.com/stellenboschuniversity. 
• Two students can also win a seat at the dinner table with Philip on the evening of the Careers Café by entering the Careers Café Facebook competition that will be advertised on the Stellenbosch Alumni page. 
  
• Photo: Philip Parrock