I believe one of the most defining decisions a young person makes in their 20's is the choice of a career. Many are sadly hampered by many distractions and thus spend that time merely choosing between jobs.
Several other writers have done a better job splitting the hairs on the difference between a job and a career.
For me and quite simply, a career is a series of jobs, experiences and projects that reflect a coherent theme and are usually aligned to a specific industry.
This post is to help shine a light for many young professionals just starting out in the world of work. Hopefully my story can serve as lighthouse as you make the right choices along the way.
While in the University of Ibadan, I decided I wanted to be a consultant. Don't ask why consulting...it just happened to become a dominant theme in my thoughts at the time. So i researched the leading consulting firms....Phillips Consulting, Accenture, Price Water House, Akintola Deloitte etc
I found out that most of them required at least a minimum grade of Second Class Upper to get you in the door. To be honest my first year in school was spent shooting the breeze..i was just taking life easy and didn’t realize the heavy lifting required to be an outstanding student. When my grades came in they were mediocre to say the least.
I thus began the valiant effort to redeem myself from my 2nd year. By final year, I was a straight A's student in Psychology, earning a nick name and an award as Class Professor for leading discussion groups, managing research projects and all what not.
Alas I missed a 2nd Class upper grade by .5 .The CGPA system allowed my 1st years mediocrity to limit the redemptive work of 3 more productive years. Oops...down went my consulting dreams or so i thought. This was 2002
I spent my 1 year of National service as a children's missionary in Benue state Nigeria after graduation. It was hard work. i was teaching little children bible stories and traveling different towns in the state to help churches and ministries.
Language barriers aside, teaching children anything is a job reserved for saints. I shouldered on to the end. Just before I finished my service year though, my fiancee (now wife) told me about a great speaker and consultant Fela Durotoye who had come to speak in UI.
I went on the internet to research about him and his company and stumbled on an interview that just blew me away. I determined to cut my consulting teeth at his firm. I got his phone number and requested a meeting. He obliged
After some chit chat, he asked pointedly why I had asked to see him. I told him I wanted to learn consulting at his firm. He declined. He wasn't looking to hire anyone more as he believed in a small firm of competent hands and his team was complete at the moment.
He saw my dejection and asked me to tell him what exactly i was doing in Benue state. Feeling all hopes were lost in getting a job at VIP Consulting, I simply went on to tell him about all my adventures teaching kids, organizing meetings and starting bible clubs across the state and north central zone of Nigeria.
Unknown to me, my account left a lasting impression on him and he asked me to give him a call when I returned after the service year. I returned February 2004 and immediately called him. He offered me a job on the phone and I started work the Friday after i returned from Benue.
I would need a separate post to tell all I learnt at VIP Consulting - how to facilitate strategy sessions, present to a management team, craft a consulting project and execute it, how to bill for consultant projects etc. My first project was a telephone culture assessment project for a mid level bank. After 10 months at VIP though, I was feeling restless.
We were consultants on customer service excellence projects with an industry focus on the banking industry. We did great work but I knew this wasn't my sweet spot. The subject matter didn’t get my mind blazing. I decided to resign and seek for what I lacked through some time introspecting.
Fela wasnt pleased, none of my colleagues were but I insisted and they wished me well. For 6 months I was job hunting and trying to understand what exactly my field should be. I guess I left thinking an “aha moment” would hit quite quickly and a job would follow immediately. I was wrong. Thus begun a long period of soul searching and kicking myself in the foot for resigning a good job.
Eventually i resolved that I was a communicator at heart. Explaining and selling ideas and products got my blood racing. One of my best courses in university was consumer psychology and this was one of the insights that led me to settle on the marketing communications industry. I started applying to advertising agencies, fast and furiously.
From a 2 month contract job as a training consultant on the Lagos Lottery Project, I eventually got a job as Public Relations executive at DDB Lagos a leading advertising company. I was like a fish in water! Crafting key messages, writing press releases and interfacing with clients, journalists etc was like the best thing ever. My first boss Akonte Ekine remains one of the finest minds in PR practice in Nigeria and he taught me everything he could for as long as I could seat still.
Little did i know then that another change was near. DDB had been invited to pitch for the MTN Nigeria advertising business and the Strategic Planning manager of the agency invited me to join the pitch team. This was pure bliss, my consulting skills and my newly appreciated love for communication found harmony in that pitch process.
To cut the story short, DDB won the pitch and i moved from the PR team to the Strategic Planning unit. My new boss Bayo Adekanmbi took me under his wing and showed me that communications was only a small part of marketing and I must prepare to expand my capacity.
In this new role I was using studies of an industry, insight about a product and analysis of the motivations of consumers to brief the creative teams to come up with winning communication campaigns. In this hot matrix I discovered my career.
From that point on till now, I have been expanding my capacity in the marketing industry. Going on courses, enrolling for CIM programs and taking on jobs and projects that have made me more and more of a marketing professional.
At my core i remain a consultant in orientation, my degree in Psychology has guided my lifelong curiosity about consumers motivations and my choice of marketing as a career has led me on a path of professional fulfillment.
Choosing a career is a tricky business and must be done not only with an eye on how much money you can make on that path but also how engaging the chosen path is of your unique talents, your interests and motivation.
Finding and listening to mentors to help guide your decisions is also very important. I thank God for the quality of leaders/managers I have had all through my career.
I learned early in my career not to make decisions based on just salary but on the path which, if taken would make me a better marketing professional. So far its been profitable.
Its been 10 years now since my first job, i can only hope that the next 10 will be even more exciting.
Have a great weekend.
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