Intern Spotlight: Sofonias Negussie

CoffeeChat Welcomes Its Newest Team Member from the African Leadership University

CoffeeChat
Nov 3 · 3 min read

Sofonias Negussie is currently pursuing a BSc (Hons) in Computing at The African Leadership University, and expects to graduate in January 2020. He is interested in how people and businesses can leverage data through technology to leap-frog on the African continent. Sofonias has explored these interests through past summer internships at McKinsey & Company and Mann Global providing insights for economic development and marketing-related projects. He joins CoffeeChat as a part-time intern in one of our Community Manager roles, through which he will support our coaches in Ethiopia and South Africa, along with other special projects.

Why is CoffeeChat’s mission to make 1-on-1 coaching more affordable, accessible and contextualized important to you?

: The world can often appear to be a big bad place that’s “out there” and filled with so much uncertainty that we don’t have answers for. However, there is a wealth of experience and skills that other people have accumulated and are surprisingly very eager to share. The impact that this kind of experience sharing has had on me, even informally, and on other people I know has been significant.

The possibility for these kinds of coaching opportunities to be more accessible the kind of impact that energizes me. Specifically as a Computing Major, the use of technology at the centre of all this was also an easy win in terms of why I think this is important.

How do you see CoffeeChat playing a role in shaping the next generation of professionals, entrepreneurs, and enterprises across Africa?

: It will promote Pan-African skills and experience sharing: the benefit of digital platforms is that they can be leveraged to transcend geographical barriers — making unattainable expertise fingertips away. Entrepreneurship will be the cornerstone to Africa’s economic growth and freedom — I there being massive potential for CoffeeChat to be the entrepreneurs “networking dinner a pocket”.

Especially considering that support for Entrepreneurs is across the journey that their startups will take — the platform will allow expertise on the continent to contribute to budding business operating on the continent. Professionals, especially young professionals, on the continent have so much potential but many are unemployed

One reason is usually the low-hanging fruits that traditional education does not emphasize or effectively teach such as CV writing, effective career planning, interview skills, etc. There happens to be a wealth of professionals with experience and ability here though. I see CoffeeChat helping bridge the unemployment gap by connecting these two players

The role it can play for coaches — speaker, trainer, digital marketer etc. — to be more visible to their client bases — especially in countries where coaching is not yet an established industry or is on the cusp of gaining traction.

In which ways will you contribute to CoffeeChat as a Community Manager?

: I genuinely enjoy interacting with people and their stories, bringing this engagement to the CoffeeChat community of Coaches and the startups, professionals and enterprises seeking to keep ahead of what our community is feeling and wants. I will contribute energy and creativity and a willingness to learn.

Having previously worked on a lot of strategy projects it will be interesting to explore that lens for a growing startup and how that can contribute to maintaining and growing the Community. As an African Youth and as a potential client for a lot of these services, I can contribute my point of view as a quick sense-check for ideas.


CoffeeChat is an online platform for finding affordable 1-on-1 coaches who are specialized in supporting entrepreneurs and enterprises across Africa.

If you’re interested in getting involved, please visit www.coffeechat.co to learn more and create your free account. We can also be reached by email at hello@coffeechat.co with any questions or comments.

CoffeeChat

A platform for finding affordable coaches and experts for entrepreneurs and enterprises across Africa.

CoffeeChat

Written by

www.coffeechat.co

CoffeeChat

A platform for finding affordable coaches and experts for entrepreneurs and enterprises across Africa.

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