Finding your way in the world often involves learning through experience what you don’t want to be. This philosophy hit Craig Jordaan in high school and has had a continuous presence throughout his life.

‘Children aged 17 or 18 don’t yet truly know what they want and cannot grasp the massive variety of professional fields in the work environment,’ he says. ‘Proper, personalised career guidance and information sessions are crucial to finding your professional interests.’ Craig – who initially worked in recruitment and selection after obtaining an honours degree from Stellenbosch University – moved into IT as a business analyst when he realised that human resources (HR) is not his calling.

By being in a small school with diverse classmates, Craig was exposed to a myriad of personalities often bordering on the extreme. His creative personality and wide range of interests, from gaming to music and sport, made it difficult to find a specific direction early on. ‘Although I was always interested in IT, I didn’t see a future for myself in programming and I wasn’t aware of any other IT fields.’ Only after he entered the workplace did he realise how varied the IT field is.

His favourite school memories include being allowed to have long hair (for a while), wearing casual clothing before uniforms were introduced, the final matric Economics project where his team created a themed African restaurant – and received 100% to their surprise – and how interesting sport at Curro was back in the day. ‘Boys and girls of different ages played together just to make up teams and we practised on muddy fields – we lost most of our games against more experienced schools, but it was so much fun!’