Gloria: Self-belief is key to achieving your career goals

Dar es Salaam. Serving people, being part of the team, making sure that things keep moving, is something that has helped Gloria Mushi to achieve a leadership position.

Ms Mushi, the country manager for an international engineering consulting company dubbed Khatib & Alami Consulting Engineers Offshore, stressed that seeing positive and negative results has been another aspect that helped her.

“When you believe in yourself and believe that you can achieve anything in life it is possible to hold a leadership position. This has made me what she is today, she says.

To be honest, it feels so good to be the first woman working for a construction organization, though she was a bit scared when she went through a company profile to see the managerial structure in other countries. She got more nervous because she believed would be the only woman hold a higher position.

Explaining by giving an example, she said at first it was difficult for her to accept the position as “country manager” though she did well when she appeared for a job interview but then told herself that she had a leadership within her and she needed to see the new company grow.

Gloria, who worked for a certain construction company before joining the current one, said that in her previous position she worked as a human resource manager, but she got interested in project management and business management.

When she saw an advertisement by Khatib & Alami Consulting Engineers Offshore seeking for a country manager to establish the respective company she thought it was an opportunity that had come to her.

She was responsible for the setup of the company’s office in Tanzania back in 2018 and has since been managing the office. As the first employee and person responsible for its operations in Tanzania, Gloria has played a significant role in the growth of the company in the country, both in terms of the number of staff and business development.

In her role Gloria has managed to expand her experience in business operations and development, Project Management, People Management and Stakeholder Engagement.

Before assuming the role, Gloria had served as a Human Resources practitioner with two Tanzanian companies, where she was instrumental in the expansion of human resource departments in both companies.

Ms Mushi holds an MBA from the University of Dar es Salaam Business School and Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Administration, specialising in Human Resources Management from Mzumbe University.

She is currently pursuing a Project Management certification course, which she hopes will help her to serve better in the current role.

Outside work, Gloria is a fitness enthusiast. She is an active runner, a hiker and regularly works out. She also meditates to relax her mind.

She believes there is always something to be solved despite the challenges of working in a male denominated industry in different projects. As long as she understands the construction industry, she always finds a way out to overcome some challenges or something new on the market.

Working in various projects works hard to bring values with stakeholders, in meetings though sometimes it is overwhelming but she always finds a way out.

Speaking about how the company has groomed, she says the company has transformed and increased her professional network adding that she would not have appeared in The Citizen on Rising Woman page but she is grateful that her company has helped to expose her.

Though she did not have a career mentor growing up, she says it is always something very good and important for young women to have a career mentor to help them pass the right direction. A career mentor also helps young women to gain confidence, expand network and help women realize their dreams.

Having women in top management helps represent other women in all aspects, when more women are in leadership position it gives trust to company and the society in general.

Gloria further advises fellow women not to wait for appointed position, saying that they must brand themselves and believe that they could be anything they want.

According to her, if got an opportunity to be young, she would work very and use every opportunity in front her.

She stressed that sticking to her guiding principles, reading books and listening to a lot of inspiration materials on YouTube and being prayerful has helped attain her goals.

She said the number of number of women in leadership position is still low. Women should aim high and brand themselves so that they can grab any available opportunities. She urged various organizations and the government to recognise women who work hard to bring change in various sectors.