From the moment I experienced the hectic traffic faced by my aunt, Flowstar Zintle Mtyeku, on her way to work each morning I knew I was going to have an interesting day. Like anybody should, I had some expectations – some realistic and some not – but in the end my job shadowing experience turned out better than I’d hoped.
From L-R Khanya Nyimbana and Flowstar Zintle Mtyeku
At first I was nervous, not knowing the working environment I was going to be a part of. Upon arrival, my aunt started by introducing me to entire Jo’burg Flow team. I quickly learned that Flow specialises in journalism, design for print and web, programming, e-marketing and media training.
What I found interesting was how different each department – or “studio” as they are known at Flow – was. It seemed each section had a different vibe and personality, but they all knew how to come together and produce a project.
There were the design, writing and programming studios, the PR division and Collective Cow, all of which form part of the Flow group.
Immediately I found myself gravitating towards the design studio, which seemed to be the most easy-going and interesting as most people were laughing and enjoying the background music that was playing.
My aunt, who is a junior project manager, sits in the programming studio, which seemed to have a very serious atmosphere at first. But that soon changed as the studio came alive with the team members chatting about projects they were working on individually or collectively.
The traffic in the studio increased as the day went on, with writers and designers coming in to consult with developers on the web projects on which they were collaborating.
As the day progressed, Zintle took time to tell me about her job responsibilities and to explain what a project manager does. Simply put, project managers are like the glue to any project. They help to coordinate the elements of a project, participate in client liaison and make sure that all tasks get done in order to deliver to the client.
Zintle’s main projects are Collective Cow, a daily discount site featuring deals to popular restaurants, activities and holiday spots in Jo’burg and Pretoria, and media training, which is all about helping company executives to deal effectively with the media, be it through print, radio and TV media interviews or press releases.
Zintle helps to get the trainers and clients to agree on a day of availability, sources background information about the client/delegates to help the trainers prepare, and customises each session to make sure it is a success.