People have this opinion that if you didn’t study Engineering, Medicine or Law, whatever course you graduated with must have been given to you by your university of choice.
While the educational situation in Nigeria is an infallible proof to this hypothesis, I still don’t quite agree with it. I chose Microbiology and I graduated as one.
The sad thing is, I never really did any #career profiling or had any career counselor before making my choice. I simply made the choice based on my prowess in Biology, Chemistry & carrying out experiments in the lab. I excelled at these things in my high school and I wanted it to continue.
But during my internship period in a prestigious private hospital in Port Harcourt, I got disillusioned. Why? After a few weeks of learning everything going on in the lab, the remaining months were full of repetition of same things we were doing.
I had no room to explore, no opportunity to see new things, no case of even encountering new microorganisms. For several months, we only cultured a fixed set of organisms. And that was totally off my personality. I obviously wanted more.
Looking back at the experience in school, there was no record of anyone who had started or founded anything after graduation in my department except for those who come back to lecture.
I was getting so depressed about it that I had to meet my HOD with my concerns. And after listening to me, he said something I will never forget. He said (and I paraphrase), “The essence of these things we do here is not necessarily for you to be a practitioner. It’s mainly to open your mind up to think, see life with an educated mind and chart your own course afterwards.”
He finally added, “with this kind of inquisitive mind you’ve got, I even doubt if you will practise anything close to Microbiology.”
It’s more than 5 years down the line now and truth be told, he was right. Immediately after my school, I wasn’t going to look for job. I picked up my talent and I began to fan them to flame.
I’ve got my foundation in visual designs, but today, I’m far more than a visual designer. Mr. Leke Alder said, “our God-given gifts are always in a conceptual progression and not a mechanical progression.”
Understanding this has helped me to follow my journey in a way where I’m more concerned about getting to the highest expression of my truest self, than just being labeled with something simply because I displayed some dexterity at it.
Our life is a journey and purpose is time-sensitive. Even the Bible says, to everything there is a season, and a TIME to every PURPOSE under the heaven.
Right now, I’m growing in leaps by following my inner compass. I’m making impact, building #reputation & increasing my capacity in the area of #brandconsulting.
On the 1st of July 2021, I became a certified #management #consultant & specialist. Of course, this is just a phase in the journey. It’s not the destination.
Let’s keep building.
Your BrandCore #Strategist.
