When Schooling Ends, What Next?
I have finished education and i feel lost in the world of work i don’t have 1 main idea that i want to go on and pursue in my life.
~ posted on The Edge Forum website, August 2008
When I graduated from university back in 1999, I had one overriding concern — I supposedly was now about to embark onto the real world, yet I had no clue how the economy worked. I had no clue how money was created, or circulated. But I was expected to head out and become a participant in the economic system.
This situation is more poignant because I had studied economics in secondary school, was good at it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had even had a bet with my teacher that I would make an A grade in the Leaving Cert — he believed nobody could do better than a B/C. When I showed him my A3 grade, he instantly reframed the challenge to say that he meant no one making an A1 grade.
So I had a notional handle on what the economy was about, but no specifics on how to engage in it, or contribute to it, other than passively going to get a job.
So, based on that overriding concern, I decided I was going to spend my early career learning about the economy in practice. So, even though I had studied geology, I spent my time applying to banks and other financial institutions. That culminated in a success when I landed an entry-level role in one of Nigeria’s premier banks, Diamond Bank, and when I got the opportunity to specialise in loans booking and electronic funds transfer.
That one overriding imperative shaped my career. While I did subsequently go into the oil industry to presumably practice what I had spent 5 years in college for, I eventually left after 3 years to pursue an MBA and then go on to work in electricity trading, economics and regulation, experiences that form the bases of what I do now in leading the energy transition strategy for Enel X in Ireland.
But that has been an entirely different path from what my childhood passion had portended. As a 6-year old standing on the veranda of our family flat in Enugu, Nigeria, staring up into the clouds to glimpse the shiny, cigar-shaped tubes traveling through the tropical sky, I wanted nothing more than to be a pilot.
Unfortunately I don’t believe I ever communicated that explicitly to my parents, and I don’t believe they ever knew I had such a passion — child-parent relationships didn’t work that way in those times, in those climes. We did get taken to the local airport to observe take-offs, landings, and other aircraft maneuvers, but that was just one of the novelty experiences families like ours offered their children. But in terms of career options, the pecking order was still doctor, lawyer, engineer.
I pined to get a model airplane — didn’t happen. I pined to attend the Airforce Military (Secondary) School — didn’t happen. The best on offer was flying a kite — no arcades, no flight sims.
Eventually my passion evolved into Aerospace Engineering, and a desire to work for NASA, but because an uncle of mine warned my dad that as a non-US citizen, I couldn’t gainfully deploy that degree, and recommended I study mechanical engineering instead, that path also closed off. My mum recommended electronics engineering as a brother of hers was doing really well at it, and frankly, the field was doing great as a result of the computing revolution, but I ended up taking a degree in geology, on the advice of another uncle. And ironically, even though I was recruited into an oil company as a geologist, and worked there for 3 years, I never practiced geology for one day! My advanced computing skills which I had developed outside and independent of my formal schooling, was discovered during my interview process and I was offered the option of geology or technical computing.
As a parent, the fundamental role I identify with is helping my kids identify their dominant, animating passion and to nurture it. It is a great pleasure of mine that all three of them have identified dominant passions, and working towards developing capabilities, and not letting their schooling interfere with their education, a la Mark Twain. Actually, their schooling is interfering, but that’s a discussion for another day.
Our oldest is animated by cars and car racing, the middle child by cooking, and our 8-year old by animation.
I will close out this post with a monologue our youngest developed with her mum for her acting class.
I love drawing, sketching and best of all — Animation! It starts with a pencil and paper and then I move to flipaclip.
It’s amazing to see a sketch come to life. From and 2D to 3D, A light stroke to a bold stroke.
I made a cartoon of everyone in my family using the app gachaverse. I captured mum’s braids, dad’s bald head and beard, my oldest brother’s smile and older brother’s frown. Unfortunately I couldn’t add my dogs as you can’t add props to skit maker.
I get some ideas from watching Anime cartoons like glitter force, glitter force doki doki and pòkemon. Other ideas come from watching YouTube animators like Jaiden Animations, TheOdd1sOut and Emirichu.
Drawing and sketching are fun but Animation is amazing! I can’t wait be an animator when I grow up!!
[This article was originally published, in its entirety, as a post on my personal blog.]
Update (25 Sep 2021): PlayWorx is currently on sabbatical.
At present, I am blogging exclusively at The Global Careerist.
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