Fiercely determined

Mariselle StofbergThe most important lesson that life has taught Maria Haufiku is that it does not owe you anything. “You must constantly strive for greatness in life. It does not matter how many times you fail, what matters is that you do not give up and remember that you shape your own destiny. We must learn not to judge others’ circumstances, because our journeys are different and each one of us will walk our own path to become who we are today.”Growing up, Haufiku always wanted to become a dentist, but life has given her the opportunity to branch out and explore a new side of herself. She believes her corporate superpower is her fierce determination. “The road success is not an easy one, and will often come with a number of failures along the way. To succeed, you have to be determined. If you don’t have a positive and determined attitude, it might be hard to truly reach your goals.”Haufiku has been working at Green Enterprises for two years and is currently employed as a business analyst.The main purpose of a business analyst is to help facilitate solutions for stakeholders. When a business needs to solve a current or future problem, it’s the business analyst’s job to help facilitate a solution by working with stakeholders to define their business needs and extract their requirements for what must be delivered. “We gather the business’ required conditions and capabilities, documenting them in a consistent, complete and, above all, useful way for the team that will eventually design and deliver the solution.”In the nutshell, a business analyst’s responsibilities include analysing business needs, defining a business case, eliciting information from stakeholders, modelling requirements, validating solutions, project management and quality testing.“The most challenging part about a business analyst role is that there is no typical day in the job. Every day you are faced with new challenges and new problems to solve, which makes it a perfect job for someone that values a dynamic and challenging work environment.” Haufiku believes that this career path allows one the opportunity to continuously develop their problem solving and critical thinking skills. “I have always been driven by the need to succeed and make a difference in other people’s lives. So I decided to take up the challenge to study IT.”She encourages young people to always choose a career that allows them the opportunity to follow their passion. “Choose a career that would complement your passion in life, because you will have to live with this decision for the rest of your life. Choose something that makes you happy.”“One of the main reasons I wanted to be a business analyst is because I measure the success of my work through the positive impact I leave on the company's goals and client's needs. Therefore, when working to improve a process, whether it is related to a functionality of a specific product or to the internal operations of the production team, I always think of how many people I am able to help through my work.”Haufiku believes that making a product or a service more efficient gives her the opportunity to interact and help teams internally to get the job done.“Another thing I love about being a business analyst is the chance this role gives me to work with people from different organisations, who have a variety of great expertise, and always have interesting perspectives to add to the table.”Haufiku completed high school at Lüderitz Secondary school in 2010. In 2011 she came to Windhoek to further her studies and was admitted in the school of IT to study information technology. In October 2019 she obtained a master’s degree in informatics from the University of Science and Technology. “One of the main issue students might encounter at university is peer pressure. If you're lucky, you'll make many new friends at university. Establishing connections and spending time with classmates and roommates is important for building community. However, spending too much time together can be challenging, and conflicts can arise. Social relations can become a distraction. Therefore, it is of outmost important to always remember your goals in life before you engage in destructive relationships.”If she could change one thing about the world, it would be to eliminate human greed. “Human greed is at the core of most of our world’s biggest problems. Greed is like a new-born seed that grows into a poisonous vine, eventually dominating the human soul like an infectious disease, spreading to every corner of society.”Haufiku uses music, walking, conversations and laughing as a way of dealing with stress, but also believes in the importance of surrounding yourself with the right type of people. “To succeed in life you have to work hard and surround yourself with the right people. By the right people I mean, people with positive attitudes, dreamers, people who support and encourage you to reach your goals.

Fiercely determined

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Namibian Sun 2025-03-07

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Fiercely determined

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Namibian Sun 2025-03-07

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