It was a great honor to have a conversation with Mekonnen Kassa on Habesha in Tech club. We spent close to 3 hours talking about his personal & professional journey. It was an eye opening session where we learnt how he was able share us his personal story starting from his life in Gondar, Ethiopia.
Mekonnen left Ethiopia during the Socialist Derg military was leading the country. He was young & ambitious so he and his friend together walked to Sudan, yes WALKED TO SUDAN. He was able to escape the suffering in Ethiopia but the suffering in Sudan was there waiting for this young new Refugee. After few years in Sudan living as a refugee, Mr. Kassa was fortunate enough to come to the US with his partner. That's where he was able to start his English language class. He also started working as a taxi driver.
Mekonnen is polyglot. He speaks Amharic, Tigrigna, Arabic, English. He loves learning new languages he tried to learn Afan Oromo too, he probably need some course - feel free to give him tips ๐. While he was attending his language class he was able to learn about his deep interest about education, therefore, he went to University of Washington to study Mechanical Engineering.
While he was attending school he also works as a cab driver. The conversation he had with one of his frequent customers was the one that changed his life. His customer was kind enough to tell him what his job. Mr. Kassa used this opportunity to pitch what skills & trainings. His customer supported Mekonnen by guiding him to prepare his resume and get him an interview at Accenture (then Anderson Consulting). That how Mekonnen's Tech Journey was launched. You can call it fate, opportunity or luck: but Mekonnen was able to capitalize on what he was given. After he joined Accenture, his career took off and still going strong. He is currently a Senior Director of Cyber Security Engineering at Microsoft.
Mekonnen told us that he struggled to move up the ladder at Microsoft. But he wasn't able to understand why. He was doing everything right and was a successful tech leader but that wasn't enough to get him promotion. But one day he insisted to get the right reasons so that he can improve & move up the management ladder. That where everything changed: he was able to change course and made changes on his communication, leadership & interpersonal skills. That changed his career.
He is now a leader, a mentor, a coach.
It was an honour to have a chance to chat with you. I canโt wait to listen to our conversation again. It was very rich with your personal story and tech Journey. Thank you ๐๐พ so much for sharing us your journey.
Please listen to our conversation and share it with your network.
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