Being a journalist for us at FirstStep.co.za is a very romantic idea. The thought of visiting foreign countries, meeting new and exciting people and covering wars in far out places is a pretty cool one. The thing is, only the best get these sort of exciting assignment so unless you want to be reporting on firemen saving kittens from tree’s you need to work really hard to prove yourself.

The basics you require are a decent grasp of the English language. Being able to string a sentence together is a must and if your friends call you the “Human thesaurus” then you’ll probably be pretty decent as a journalist.

If you love food like we do here at First Step you’ll love the career for this week. Most people consider cooking an annoying necessity in life they don’t enjoy partaking in. For a small few though, the passion translates into a career. For those looking for an entry into the career creativity is key as well as a keen sense of taste and smell. If is important to remember that a chef is defined as a person who cooks professionally. In a professional kitchen setting, the term is used only for the one person in charge of everyone else in the kitchen, the executive chef. You might need to start off putting the sauce on a couple hundred deserts but if you’re good enough, you could be head chef in no time.

By Peter Gilbert
 
Mike X (a real person) earned R6.5 million in sales commissions in 2005 selling top end computer software. These spectacular earnings were based on hard work, a touch of luck here and there but, most important of all, unbelievable talent. To understand why the Mikes of this world have become so important, and so well paid, we need to understand how the world of selling has changed. Back in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and even part of the 80’s, selling was a relatively easy and carefree business.

Our latest voting poll suggests that the worlds greatest Investigator was found out to be Inspector Clouseau!
 
As he stumbled his way to the top of the list, Clouseau took out some major competition. Dashing the hopes of the CSI team and Magnum Pi! However Scooby Doo, Sherlock Holmes and Droopy Master Detective made a good go out of it! It was the surprising escapades of Jessica Fletcher who brought up the tail and actually got more votes than expected!

By Peter Gilbert
 
I recently met a university professor at a dinner party who summed up in one sentence what I call the South African Sales Myth.  His comment?  “Well, with most of my graduates who just scrape through … at least they can get a job in sales.”