'A career roadmap is key to success', says Hafsa Sasya

Dar es Salaam. When you have a vision on a career or life you want to achieve, creating a roadmap and working smart are what it takes to breathe life into your goal.

Before becoming one of the top lawyers in Tanzania, Hafsa Sasya, who is also a partner at Aloys and Associates, envisioned herself a lawyer from the time she was still a school student.

Her career journey began after she joined Tigo Tanzania as an intern. She was part of a team that conducted door to door surveys on internet connectivity settings in homes and offices.

Growing up, Hafsa used to look at lawyers with glowing admiration, while silently promising herself: ‘One day, I will be like you’. This was despite not knowing much about the profession and what it took to become one.

“Studying law and practicing it are two sides of a coin, one side can be shiny and the other can be rusty, but all sides form that same coin. In law, the theoretical part isn’t as hard as it is on the practical side. When I became a lawyer, I felt like I was starting all over again,” she recalls.

She says when she started practising, she had to unpack the lessons she proudly carried from university. She afterwards had to pack all the new knowledge and skills she garnered on the practical side.

Like many leaders, at the time Hafsa’s career was taking off, the challenges also became numerous, clouding her goals.

“I was lucky that I had mentors who reminded me that I should look at challenges in a positive way. They helped me to always face my challenges instead of running away,” she recalls.

Hafsa further says: “With that said, I live by persistence and faith. I’m firm a believer that people can reap the fruits of their hard work. They should be open to challenges because in them lies lessons and guidance of how to do it the right way and they should never run away from these challenges, nothing comes easily.”

In her career journey, Hafsa says she mentored by individuals in different developmental industries all of whom showed her the right path to take to attain competence.

According to her, these mentors let her wear their shoes as they unveiled their skills, knowledge and experiences, which made her envision the career from their perspectives.

“Being a mentee does not mean your mentor will massage your ego as they share their experiences. To me, I had to be honest with them about how the knowledge I had on things and situations so that they could properly guide me. Their encouragement pushed me to work on myself even more,” she explains.

Hafsa believes that despite career hurdles that arose when she was making a name in the legal profession, she knew that they would not blind her goals.

“Careers and life in general, are like ships at deck. For the ships to take off, there has to be directions that will guide them to their destinations despite of the wind and currents that are likely to push the ship towards other directions. You have to know your end goals so that you may explore ways on how to get there,” she says.

As her career took off, Hafsa says she had to navigate and gain confidence. At some point, she thought that the law field was a male dominated, this however, made her to want to work harder and smater to excel and build a name for herself in Tanzania and beyond.

In 2016, she joined Aloys and Associates and three years later, she became a partner after the law firm had a taste of her career capabilities.

“It is such a delightful memory. There was an unplanned meeting that was called at the firm. My colleagues and I thought different matters relating to work would be discussed. In a blur of a moment during the meeting, three of us were told that we had made junior partners due to our hard work,” Hafsa recalls.

As she speaks of women leadership, Hafsa admits that there is gender inequality, explaining that it is a product of patriarchy system and the Tanzanian culture.

“I like to believe that with the current societal advancement and the current leadership, we will shortly be speaking a different language when it comes to gender inequality. For instance, we now have women’s portal in the Ministry of Health’s website where women can upload their CVs and put their names out there,” she explains.

In spite of such efforts, Hafsa's advice to young girls is that theyshould be encouraged to push against all limits towards her career and life advancement.

“These teachings should start at family levels. Parents should make their daughters believe that they can change the world and become of anything they aspire to be. When these children grow up, they are likely to have a different yet positive perspective of themselves and life,” she emphasizes.

Reflecting on her career journey as she reminisces of different parts of it, Hafsa explains that if she were to meet herself 10 years earlier with the knowledge that she has attained over these years, she would tell her younger self that success is not customized for certain people, it is for everyone.

“I would tell her that she has to have a roadmap that will guide her all the way, I would also tell her that success is not a timely event, it is a process and she must be patient and work smart,” Hafsa explains.