Tips for Graduates with Maiwand Kakar

EP #003


In this episode, we're speaking with Maiwand Kakar. He lives in Trabzon city, on the black sea coast in Turkey. He has a degree in civil engineering and has experience in construction. He's also taken online courses from the university of Maine. This program is for intensive English language. It's for eight weeks long. His goal for now is to pursue his master's degree in construction management.

We discuss:

*Living and working away from home

*Networking and other useful tips for Graduates


You can connect with Maiwand here:

Instagram: @maiwand_kakar / @eng_arc_1

LinkedIn: Maiwand Kakar | LinkedIn

Clubhouse: Maiwand Kakar Clubhouse Profile, Followers, Statistics (@maiwand-1) (clubhousedb.com) (He  is also the founder of the Eng & Arc Club)

EVERYDAY DETERMINATOR PODCAST

Website: Podcast – Construction Cheer Leader (anneokafor.co.uk)

Linkedin: The Everyday Determinator Podcast: Company Page Admin | LinkedIn

Instagram: Everyday Determinator Podcast (@everyday_determinator) • Instagram photos and videos

Twitter: @DeterminatorPod

Support Us: The Everyday Determinator Podcast is Creating opportunities for Everyday Determinator’s to thrive. (buymeacoffee.com)

Transcript

https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/nWIpSoCLJ_Pt0A8IKYr1bJFr-COVTMYqZaBqY5qB-eLVSxlIJFyVIkU8DA221U45TyYYvx5Khdc60ALwLdKZDPg8Fbk?loadFrom=SharedLink

Intro (00:00):

Welcome to The Everyday Determinator podcast with your host Anne Okafor, founder of The Determinator Collective. We want to help you get off that hamster wheel of life and turn you into an everyday determinator by sharing stories from our guests who have overcome variant challenges in life and careers, and by reviewing and signposting you to helpful resources to start you on the journey to achieving your goals. For more information on The Determinator Collective, please visit www.anneokafor.co.uk. Thanks for listening, determinators.

Anne Okafor (Host) (00:50):

Hello determinators. Today, we're speaking with Maiwand Kakar. He lives in Trabzon city in the black sea coast in Turkey. He has a degree in civil engineering and has experience in construction. He's also taken online courses from the university of Maine. This program is for intensive English language. It's for eight weeks long. His goal for now is to pursue his master's degree in construction management. Hi, Maiwand.

Maiwand Kakar (01:16):

Hi, how are you?

Anne Okafor (Host) (01:18):

It's good to have you here with us. Look forward to listen and hearing more about your journey into the world of work from graduation. So I understand you're a recent graduate. Can you tell me a bit about that, bit about your course?

Maiwand Kakar (01:32):

Sure. I studied civil engineering in Turkey for 4 years. I took different subjects. For example, reinforcing concrete structure and analyze and static that belong to civil engineering. One of my favorite subject was planning and because of like, I want to be a planner, this subject, give me the idea, what is planning. I was really good at planning.

Anne Okafor (Host) (01:58):

Good.

Maiwand Kakar (01:59):

Yeah. I just graduated from university, five or six months ago.

Anne Okafor (Host) (02:03):

Okay, cool. So you studied civil engineering, who, or what influenced you to pursue that route of study?

Maiwand Kakar (02:13):

When I was a child, I used to have a subject. My subject main wasn't English and there was a photo of Burj Khalifa in Dubai. When I saw this photo, I was so curious how human can build that building that much high. I start from there and then my mother influenced me to do what I love doing. She encouraged me all the time to go forward and keep working on my dream and what I love to do.

Anne Okafor (Host) (02:42):

That's really good to hear. So we have your mom to thank for you being in the construction industry now. So that's great. Did you have any other mentorship when you were doing your program, during your program? How did the role of a mentor impact you or if you didn't have any mentor, do you think it would've helped?

Maiwand Kakar (03:04):

For sure. I had two mentor and one personal mentor, my mother, all the time encouraged me to go forward. If I talk about program, that mentor that I have for civil engineering was a professor of Maine. He keep encouraged me to go forward and do my best in my subjects. She showed me how to be a better civil engineer and what I need to be a successful engineer in the future. It's very important to have a mentor in your life. Life is not, it will not go at same level. We have up and down point. If you need to, sometimes we will not keep continuing and mentor will help you to encourage you to go and keep continuing what you want to do and yeah, mentors is very important in our life. I'm happy that I had such amazing mentor in my life.

Anne Okafor (Host) (04:04):

That's good. I'm glad it made a big difference to you as well. I understand now you're recently graduated and you've entered the world of work starting onsite as an engineer. How did you find the transition from study into work?

Maiwand Kakar (04:22):

Well, during a university you'll learn more academic things and that will be not... I just had two time chance of internship, but I didn't learn that much. It is a lot of different between academic and practical. When I start my job [inaudible 00:04:40] and onsite, it was very difficult for me and very different like I just learned academic and I didn't know that much current practical and construction site, but by keep going again, by learning, by asking questions from other people, from liberals, from subcontractors, from general contractors, from supervisor of the construction site, every day, I just learned and learned, and then I took notes. At the same time I had conversation with amazing people like you and encouraged me to do better in my construction site.

Anne Okafor (Host) (05:14):

No, that's kind my one. I'm glad that our conversations helped along the way. I'm glad that there was other people that you were able to ask and get information from. I think asking questions is very important when you're early in your career, would you agree with that?

Maiwand Kakar (05:29):

Yeah, totally agree. We don't need to be shy and just be open mind and just, we need to be open for learning. If you don't like, if you don't ask question, it's not that much helpful, like by asking question, by doing your research, it's very important and every major, but in our major, it is very important and it helped me a lot to learn more about construction.

Anne Okafor (Host) (05:56):

That's great. How did you find that your role actually compared when you got onto the site? How did you feel that actually compared to what you thought working might be when you were at school or at university? What was a big difference? Was it what you expected or what you didn't expect?

Maiwand Kakar (06:17):

In university, there was all the time paperwork and you need to just study in the... In construction, you need to go on site, you need... There's hot weather, there's cold weather. You need to be there. It was really difficult for me at the beginning. I didn't know how to manage people. I didn't know how to submit materials. I didn't know how to have a better communication skills with people. At the beginning it was really hard for me, but working with such amazing people, I let learned and I just like, I become better. Yeah, there's really difference between studying a civil engineer and working construction as a civil engineer. You need to keep going and you need to keep learning,

Anne Okafor (Host) (07:05):

Learning. Yeah. That's definitely something that we all need to do as well, isn't it?

Maiwand Kakar (07:09):

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Anne Okafor (Host) (07:10):

So I understand as well. In addition to all these challenges, you also studied and worked in a country that's not your home country. So you're working away from home, away from your friends and your family. How did you find that experience?

Maiwand Kakar (07:24):

Well, I'm multicultural person. When I was a child, I used to live in Pakistan for four years and that we moved to Afghanistan and now we living in Turkey. I think that one of the biggest obstacles for me was learning language at the beginning. I didn't know language and I don't know friend. My friend was in Afghanistan. At the beginning you will feel more like, you'll not feel that much good, but to keep making friends and just the open mind and just try to different with other people. Then the language, respect their culture, respect the other people culture. It's really important if you're living in another country, that's not your culture. I'm sure after that, you all have a better experience living in another country. Yeah, for me, it was language at the beginning. It was really hard for me to learn Turkish, but I did it. I'm very happy that I learned Turkish. Now I can have a speaking with Turkish people very easily with up very well confidence and yeah, that's...

Anne Okafor (Host) (08:36):

Amazing. That's really good to hear. So would your talk up tip for someone who is looking to study in a different country? Would that be your advice? What would be your advice then? Would it be language or would it be something else?

Maiwand Kakar (08:50):

As I mentioned, they need to be open mind person. They need to learn about other country culture. They need to respect to other country culture and they need to be respectful person. At the same time they need to be open for networking. They need to be friend with people. If you friended person, I'm sure you will learn language easily. You'll learn our culture easily. You'll learn a lot of things by... Yeah.

Anne Okafor (Host) (09:24):

I think there's some great tips for anyone at the start of their career, networking, be open-minded, be friendly, networking, getting to know people, learn new things. Regardless of where you're working or studying or learning, if you're a nice person and you're being friends with people and being open-minded, networking and learning. There's lots and lots of opportunities there for you to learn more and do more, isn't there?

Maiwand Kakar (09:52):

Yeah. You put [inaudible 00:09:53].

Anne Okafor (Host) (09:53):

So I know you said that you were considering pursuing further studies, is there a specific reason for this or a purpose? Do you feel like it's going to offer you better work options or is a personal ambition to pursue your master's degree?

Maiwand Kakar (10:10):

I think it's personal ambition. I really want to this specialize in one part of civil engineering. It is construction management. That's my first goal of the doing my master degree. The second one to find a job and a better level, but not at my main goal. My main goal is my ambition that I want to learn more.

Anne Okafor (Host) (10:34):

Excellent. So what sort of research are you doing then to find a suitable course that fulfills that objective in terms of your personal ambition?

Maiwand Kakar (10:44):

Well, it took almost a year to find a good university that I look for. At the beginning, I look for, does university have the specialization that I wanted to do? Construction management that was my first priority. The second was, the university that I want to continue my master's degree, that company, the university has a lab and does the company have a, does the university have a good feedback from all the students. Also the cost of the tuition of the [inaudible 00:11:21]. That's also was one of like, it was also for me important, can find a university with cheaper tuition. That was also one of my priority. Which city is located, how is the weather? For example, now I'm living in a city that's very cold. How is that teacher look like? That was main thing that I look for.

Anne Okafor (Host) (11:44):

Good. So lots and lots of different things to think about there.

Maiwand Kakar (11:47):

Yeah.

Anne Okafor (Host) (11:48):

So in terms of thinking ahead of the future, what is your ambitions for the next five years? Where do you see yourself?

Maiwand Kakar (11:56):

This is amazing question. Let me think. In the next five years, I'm sure I will finish my master's degree and I will have a better job opportunity and another country and you will see me and a really different level of success.

Anne Okafor (Host) (12:13):

Yes, I'm absolutely certain of that in my one. I can't wait for the update on that. So aside from your working and your studies, I understand you've set up the engineering and architecture club on clubhouse. Do you want to tell us a bit about that?

Maiwand Kakar (12:27):

Sure. I made this club a few months ago. I have weekly rooms hours there. Generally we talking about construction. Sometimes I'm inviting some guests from different field to share their experience with other people. Often I open rooms for networking. It's amazing place, clubhouse to build your network by joining clubhouse. You will never know who will you meet. I met you from clubhouse. I'm so glad I met you from clubhouse. That's one of the... Yeah, that's all about networking. Now we already have like 1,300 new person in our club and I'm very grateful about that.

Anne Okafor (Host) (13:17):

Well done. Yeah, no, it's been an excellent experience for me as well. Clubhouse met lots of people, like you said, that's where we met and I'm grateful for that. Meeting loads and loads of different people, like you say, you just don't know who's going to be in the room that day. You never know. It's a really great opportunity to meet people from all different countries as well, which is really excellent. So when can our listeners hear. Your sure thing, you said you had a weekly slot, is a set slot every week, a set time slot.

Maiwand Kakar (13:49):

It's three times a week for an hour. Sometimes if we have a lot of audience and people on the stage, we will keep continuing more than an hour. It's Monday, Tuesday and Sundays. We have this room, we open a room and our club name is E-N-G-A-N-A-R-A-C-E-N-G, stand for engineers and AR for architects and yeah, that's our...

Anne Okafor (Host) (14:19):

Perfect. We will share the line to that in the blog that will accompany this episode as well, just so we can point in, pull in the right direction, and we could list the times of those shows as well, so that people can know where to find you and engage you in those conversation.

Maiwand Kakar (14:35):

Yeah, for sure.

Anne Okafor (Host) (14:37):

So along the way, we've talked a little bit about your studies and your work. Are there any challenges you faced along the way and how did you overcome those challenges?

Maiwand Kakar (14:47):

Life is full of challenges and you need to keep going. Starting when I came to Turkey, I just was 16. At that time I stopped working and at the same study, I finished my high school at that time, but I keep going and it doesn't matter how the challenge is bigger. If you keep going and if you focus on your goals and you put focus on your dream, just go ahead. There's an amazing thing all the time, my mother mentioned to me. Life is a like a tunnel. It's a dark at the beginning. If you keep going quickly going, you'll see a light at the end of tunnel. Life is like that. You need to keep going. I'm sure at the end of hard working and we will see success. I saw all of these in my life and it encouraged me to keep going and don't think about the negative thought, just the optimistic about your future.

Anne Okafor (Host) (15:45):

That's a really good analogy that your mom passed on. I think, it's very true that at the end, when we do work hard, we can see the benefits of those same efforts. Yeah, so that's really a nice thing to hear. Is there anything that you would've done differently along the way? Maybe something you think, oh, I wish I'd done that differently or wish I'd done something different.

Maiwand Kakar (16:08):

Yeah, I do. I wish I study more English to be better at English speaking. At the beginning I was a shy guy and I didn't good at networking. I wish I start networking at my [inaudible 00:16:27] age. It's very important. Network is your work. [inaudible 00:16:31], I have a lot of help from my network than my relatives, believe or not. I know people from around the world. I'm very happy that I build my network. I'm still building my network. If there is anyone that's on my age or they just need to keep going and just build their network. Network is everything.

Anne Okafor (Host) (16:54):

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Network is so understated. I mean, it's not something that a lot of people understand very well sometimes, but networking is so important and can really help you in your career with that learning more all the time element. So I'm glad that you're on that train to thought with your clubhouse, club as well. You'll have plenty of networking opportunities there so people can join in your networking clubs to try and do that, or make a start. Tell me about something that inspires or motivate you.

Maiwand Kakar (17:28):

At the beginning of my life. The second will be finding a way to solve problem and or overcome of challenging. Like my life, I had a lot of difficulties in my life, but I find a solution for that and I just keep going.

Anne Okafor (Host) (17:47):

Good. So what three pieces of advice would you give other new or recent graduates, something that you've learned? So three pieces of advice for someone who is in similar shoes to what you found yourself in recently starting a new job.

Maiwand Kakar (18:02):

They should be open for networking. All the [inaudible 00:18:06] that's my first advice for all [inaudible 00:18:08] and be open mind and be ready for challenge.

Anne Okafor (Host) (18:12):

That's a great three tips, Maiwand. Thank you. So we've been through a little bit of your journey. Please tell our listeners where they can connect with you online, if they want to hear more about you. Are you on social media?

Maiwand Kakar (18:27):

Yes. I'm using more LinkedIn and I will put my LinkedIn on a description part at the same time and Instagram and clubhouse is a better place that I am opening like weekly rooms. If you would like you can join our club. By this way we will keep in touch.

Anne Okafor (Host) (18:47):

Thanks, Maiwand. What would be your Instagram handle? Is it Maiwand?

Maiwand Kakar (18:52):

Kakar.

Anne Okafor (Host) (18:53):

Maiwand kakar, yeah. So if anyone wants to find you on Instagram, they just look up Maiwand Kakar and they'll find you there.

Maiwand Kakar (19:00):

Yeah, but I'm more on my own LinkedIn and more officially I am using LinkedIn. They can also me up from over there.

Anne Okafor (Host) (19:08):

Okay, perfect. We will include those links in the description...

Maiwand Kakar (19:10):

Sure.

Anne Okafor (Host) (19:10):

...that accompanies this episode. Thank you so much for your time, Maiwand. We're really happy to hear a little bit about your journey into the world of work and construction after recently graduating. We look forward to hearing more from you as you progress in your career. We'll get that update as to you getting through your masters, which I'm sure you will do. It's been great talking to you. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much for your time and thank you to our listeners for joining us on this episode. We look forward to you joining the next one. We will have more guests with stories of overcoming challenges and adversity and how those people have managed to get through their challenges and turn them into something wonderful. Goodbye determinator.

Speaker 1 (20:01):

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe. So you don't miss when new episodes are posted. We will continue to deliver real life insights on overcoming challenges, practical tips, and advice on becoming unstuck with a collective of people, just like you or everyday determinators. Until next time, take care of yourselves and your friends. Thanks for listening, determinators.