Chris Rumenda is not your ordinary employee; in less than three years, he has managed to rise from a school uniform dealer to managing over 8,000 Jumia vendors.
Although job hopping appears to be the new normal for millennials according to the 2017 BrighterMonday Job Market Report, the story is different for 30-year-old Rumenda. He is the head of market at Jumia - Kenya's leading online retailer.
He has managed to scale up the corporate ladder despite report findings that 80 per cent of young people within his age bracket intend to leave their job within one year.
On arrival at his office for this interview on the sixth floor of Kaka House in Westlands, we find him on a Skype call with his Nigerian counterpart sharing the latest trends in the market, a ritual he says has contributed to his fast rise in the corporate ladder.
He is a finance graduate from Egerton University, but just like many millennials today, he ended up in the e-commerce world as a marketer because his passion was in IT. He has never practiced banking.
With no experience in market place management, Rumenda joined Jumia Kenya as a buying operations associate in 2014 after distributing school uniforms from Eldoret to learning institutions in Western Kenya.
“I learnt most of my skills in the school uniform startup firm Zaritext through juggling numerous roles ranging from sales roles to transport management. I had to literally fit everything in a small space,” Rumenda said.
After two years of dressing students in Western Kenya, he fell out with his partners at Zaritext and left Eldoret for greener pastures.
Jobless, Rumenda went to Nairobi in 2014 and immersed himself in the online writing space, while at the same time making upto 10 job applications daily until a doors at Jumia opened.
Six months into his new job, his boss relocated to Europe and he was picked as the acting vendor performance manager, leading a team of six people. He was confirmed as the manager in 2015 and his team expanded to 12.
While in an acting position, his skills and abilities were put to test. At a point, vendors started pulling out due to weak processes at the e-commerce platform.
“I felt like giving up. There was a lot of work, our processes were not optimal, we lost lots of vendors due to the difficulty of working with us,” Rumenda said.
He overcame the challenge by consulting strong senior managers who showed him how to come up with an action plan to handle the situation.
Rumenda prides himself in what he describes as making people prosper by moving them from vendors making zero sales to making upto 40 orders or Sh10,000 a day.
Also, he emphasizes the need to keep family close, saying they are a key influence in job performance.
“My family gives me a reason to work hard. I ensure I am a role model to my family. My mom encourages me daily and plays an integral part in my decision making both in life and in my career”.
KPMG management consultant Mercy Mugo said most millennials unlike Rumenda would chose to hop betweenjobs when they fail to achieve targets.
“Some view job hopping as a great career move since it is an opportunity to grow their career, attract a higher salary, change locations or find a better cultural fit,” Mugo said in a statement published on the KPMG website.
Although the base of the corporate pyramid is usually crowded with competition heating up as you rise through mid-level management and gets lonely at the top, Rumenda hopes to one day become a CEO, if not in Jumia then in a different firm.
So what tips would he give to those who aspire to achieve similar levels of success?
Rumenda says patience is a value. It allows one to learn the ropes and be able to use the skills acquired at a higher level. “Patience enables you to learn a lot and grow if you stay in one company”.
In addition, he calls on millennials to take feedback and criticism positively, prioritise their time and work hard if they want to succeed and stay longer in their jobs.