HUMHR Career Insights

Why so much financial literacy advice is built for somebody else's country What a scarcity mindset actually costs you Why he says the companies that grow will make their existing teams better with AI, not replace them The one thing he is proudest of, after the degrees and the portfolios CHAPTERS 0:00 Money is our economic lifeblood 3:41 On awards, and the speech he made for his late mother 5:47 Th...

Most people cross a border chasing opportunity. Jonathan Thompson crossed one to build it. He grew up poor in America, selling door to door at eleven to pay his own way. He trained as a minister, married a Zimbabwean, and moved to Chipinge in 1999 to pastor a church and work with an orphanage. He stayed through the land invasions and the hyperinflation. Then in his forties, in a city he had only j...

She started running in 2012 to lose weight. Her first 10km took over an hour. In April 2026 she crawled across the Two Oceans Marathon finish line. Two months later she became the first black woman to stand on the Comrades Marathon Up Run podium in the race's 105-year history.  Nobukhosi "Buhle" Tshuma grew up in Makokoba, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Orphaned young. She moved to Swaziland at 10 and to Sou...

She wrote her first novel at 13. One handwritten copy, passed around her class at Girls' College - and nobody ever lost it.   Fourteen years after self-publishing The Polygamist, it became a Netflix series - number one in 16 countries around the world.   In this episode of HUMHR Career Insights, Batje Chibafa sits down with Sue Nyathi in Johannesburg - the first stop on the Africa Across Borders T...

For the Season 4 finale, Batje Chibafa sits down with a guest unlike any she has had before. No flight to catch, no green room. Her guest is Claude, Anthropic's AI. They talk about whether AI is coming for your job, what it means for humanitarian careers, why entrepreneurship is not the answer for everyone, the recruiter double standard, and the question that stopped the whole conversation: Is AI...

I posted a reel about 172 job applications and 3 responses. The comments did not say "wow." They said "me too." Person after person. Different country. Different industry. Same silence. When that many people recognise themselves in one experience, you are not looking at a bad day. You are looking at a broken system. In this Batje's Take, I dig into the trust that has broken down between those who...

Be a Pioneer. Be a weed. Weeds survive where other plants cannot. Dandelions are food. Being a weed is not a consolation — it is a strategy. In Part 2, Elizabeth Mhangami goes deeper on what it really means to build a career on your own terms: entrepreneurship as a mindset, the donor consulting model that works without a pocket of donors, why return-to-office mandates are a career equity issue, an...

She sent 172 job applications. Got 3 responses. Not because she wasn't qualified — but because the AI screening systems never read her CV.   In this episode, Elizabeth Mhangami (Principal Consultant, NDISU) joins Batje Chibafa in studio to talk about what is really happening in hiring — the ATS arms race, who AI was designed for, and whether the tools shaping the job market were ever built for the...

What keeps you grounded when the title disappears? In this deeply reflective episode of Batje’s Take, Batje Chibafa unpacks one of the most powerful themes from her conversation with humanitarian leader Rudo Kayombo, faith as an operating system, not a performance. From leading humanitarian work across 18 countries to navigating life after executive leadership, Rudo’s story explores what happens w...

She left Africa Vice President at Habitat for Humanity and the most overwhelming feeling, she says, was relief. This is Part 2 of Batje Chibafa's conversation with Rudo Kayombo. If you missed Part 1, start there. We walked through the twenty-five-year humanitarian career, the lawyer years, the saying-yes-in-tears moment, and the faith thread that pulled her from World Vision Zimbabwe to World Visi...

Leadership, humanitarian strategy, and career reinvention - Rudo Kayombo spent 25 years building other people’s missions before one morning in October she signed her own name. In this two-part conversation with Batje Chibafa, Part 1 traces Rudo’s formation arc: the lawyer years, UNHCR, The Musasa Project, saying yes to roles she felt unqualified for, and leading major NGO operations across Africa....

Are we going backwards on women's equality? A 20-year educator's concern about his daughter's future sparked this deep dive into the gender pay gap, Emma Grede's controversial remote work comments, and why the corporate ladder might be the wrong fight. With women holding only 22% of AI positions while a $10B African AI initiative launches, Batje explores whether entrepreneurship is the new career...

In this episode of HUMHR Career Insights, we explore entrepreneurship as a career choice through the lens of problem-solving, purpose, and people. My guest, Daniel Maveneka, is a serial entrepreneur and educator based in Canada who builds businesses at the intersection of education, technology, and social impact. But what makes his journey different is this: he doesn’t start with ideas; he starts...

What if the biggest risks in your career are the ones you never thought to plan for? In this episode of Batje’s Take, I reflect on my conversation with Una Nyikadzino (Founder of StandOwt and former Executive Director at Schweppes Holdings Africa) and the powerful lessons on risk, resilience, and building something that lasts. From a small business owner losing everything because a fridge was swit...

Unaiswi (Una) Nyikadzino made history in 2014 as the first female Executive Director at Schweppes Holdings Africa. She named and launched the FarmStyle brand in 2017. She became Commercial Director at Beit Bridge Juicing. And then she walked away from corporate to build something of her own. In this episode, Una sits down with Batje to talk about 20+ years in FMCG, what it felt like to buy back a...

In this episode of Batje’s Take, I reflect on my recent conversation with Precious Nyarambi and what it truly means to talk about women’s empowerment beyond the language, themes, and moments like Women’s Month. We often celebrate progress and highlight inspiring stories and those are important. But if we are to move beyond conversation and into impact, we have to look at the realities on the groun...

Across Africa, women are among the most entrepreneurial people in the world. Yet despite their innovation and determination, many women entrepreneurs continue to face significant barriers — from limited access to capital and markets to broader ecosystem challenges. In this episode of HUMHR Career Insights, Batje Chibafa sits down with Precious Nyarambi, social entrepreneur and founder of Vessels o...

In this Batje’s Take reflection, Batje Chibafa shares her personal thoughts following a powerful conversation with Zimbabwean actress, playwright, and creative entrepreneur Chiedza Rwodzi. One idea from the discussion stood out: in a world where creative work travels across borders, identity becomes an anchor. As African creatives increasingly take their stories to global stages, the question of a...

What does it look like to choose art when you have other options? In this powerful Season 4 episode of HUMHR Career Insights, Batje Chibafa sits down with multi-award-winning Zimbabwean actress, playwright, and producer Chiedza Rwodzi to explore creative entrepreneurship as a serious and sustainable career choice. With a Business degree from Regent’s University London, professional training at Mou...

In this special catch-up reflection, Batje pauses to unpack three powerful conversations and the unexpected thread that connects them all. Over the past few weeks on HUMHR Career Insights, we heard from: • Rachel Mikanagu : humanitarian leader driven by faith and calling • Omar Chaudhry: cybersecurity specialist and technological ethicist exploring AI, digital overload, and responsibility • Hope M...

Most of us are unknowingly fueling a cycle that’s eroding our mental health, security, and humanity itself. Omar Chaudry, Cybersecurity Specialist and Technology Ethicist, reveals why today’s digital landscape might be doing more harm than good and how we can reclaim control before it’s too late. In this eye-opening conversation, Omar dives into how smartphones and AI have evolved from helpful too...

What does it really mean to choose music as a career, and can culture become a sustainable livelihood? In this episode of HUMHR Career Insights, we turn the spotlight on creative entrepreneurship and explore where culture, identity, and livelihood intersect. Through an honest and reflective conversation with a special guest, we unpack what it takes to build a career in the creative industries, the...

In this episode of Batje’s Take, I reflect on my powerful conversation with Wani Joana Kahasha , a story rooted in resilience, exposure, and growth in fragile contexts. Wani’s journey reminds us that a dream can turn into a plan, and a plan into a product but also that entrepreneurship and career paths are rarely linear. We talk about the importance of being “heavy on the roads,” and how physical...

In the middle of Season 4 of HUMHR Career Insights Entrepreneurship as a Career Choice we pause for a special bonus episode that takes us back to a foundational theme of the podcast: The Power of Storytelling. This episode is a throwback to Season 2, where we explored the human stories behind careers, the decisions, pivots, risks, and moments of reckoning that shape professional lives. And fitting...

🎧 Episode Description What does it really mean to choose entrepreneurship as a career in a fragile, conflict-affected context? In this episode of HUMHR Career Insights, Batje Chibafa is joined by Wani Joana Kahasha , an industrial engineer, social impact entrepreneur, and development practitioner working at the intersection of technology, women’s empowerment, and community resilience in the Democ...