How I moved from Pharmacology to Marketing; my growth story
“People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”- Steve Jobs
At a point I wanted to be a lawyer, then an engineer, a doctor, a pharmacist, a pharmacologist, a toxicologist, a lecturer, a CFO…you get the gist.
Fact is, I’ve always wanted to be rich. Simple. That’s my motivation. I go where the money is. If you stop reading here, that’s it. That’s why I moved.
But there’s a story behind every move. Growing up, I was never really sure of who or what I wanted to do, but I was sure of whom I didn’t want to become.
So I spent a major part of my life running away from a life that seemed like what I didn’t want without really knowing where or what I was running towards. My career journey wasn’t different.
I completed my NYSC (a faux military training every graduate must complete in Nigeria) in April 2017. One month after, I was already tired of staying at home, I wanted a job. So I wrote this tweet.
“Willing to move anywhere” so desperate!
Anyway, I got so many responses from that tweet. That was how I entered my first “one chance” in Lagos.
The manager of the company reached out and offered me a job as the Quality assessment officer with the company. All day, I uploaded products on the website. This was also where my social media marketing journey started.
It was an industry fit for my discipline but it ended in tears. Literally. The company couldn’t find a market fit, revenue crashed, salary hung, the job ended.
I was jobless again after three months of employment but I had learned a skill; social media marketing. Because the company literally sold on a website, I had to learn to position the brand on social media.
This was the beginning of my career, but I didn’t know yet.
Swiftmedical was over and I was back home; desperate and broke. After one month of aggressive online applications for a job, I decided to take my destiny into my hands.
I went to the streets. Literally walking on the road, under Lagos hot sun, looking for a job. And I found one, a pharmacist assistant.
My job entailed standing all day, selling drugs off the shelf, counting and reconciling stock. It was stressful, to say the least. But it paid the bills and I was willing to do it until I find something better.
I left after two months; I don’t even know how I survived that long.
But here again, I learned another vital skill; direct communication and negotiation. When you work in a pharmacy, you need to learn how to upsell and cross-sell. Yeah, this is why they ask you to buy an additional drug you didn’t come in for. Sometimes, it’s just a sales hack, you don’t need it. Emphasis on sometimes.
FundQuest Financial Services Limited
This was where my journey started. I joined FundQuest (FQ) as a Graduate Trainee immediately after Lydab.
“What was a pharmacologist doing in a financial company?”
She was looking for money and opportunity; FQ offered both.
As part of the trainee program, I had to understudy with all departments in the company. When I joined, there was no marketing department and the company was at the phase of expanding its products, so they hired an expert to train the trainees on Digital Marketing (DM)
After about three months of DM training and six months of understudy, I was saddled with the responsibility of creating the marketing department.
This was where the magic started. A career was born out of sheer luck and curiosity. I learned on the job and enjoyed every bit of it.
But I was scared. “Is there a place in the world for a digital marketer in a finance company who studied pharmacology?” I didn’t think so.
I went to LinkedIn and researched people in marketing; what they studied, where they’ve worked, courses they did, skills they have and all it takes to succeed in the career…
I saw that it was possible to succeed regardless of my background, I just needed to know more and do more. So I did a professional course with CIM and many other online courses.
After 19 months with FQ, it was time to move on and do more.
This was April 2019; I had created the marketing department, launched a retail product for the company, spearheaded partnerships that grew the portfolio and established the relevance of a digital strategy.
I left with my head held high.
I joined the Orange group with the intention of marrying my career with my academic background. Orange group is an FMCG company with products ranging from pharmaceuticals to personal and home care. Aside from this, I also wanted to learn. This was a big company with experienced people; I could learn from seasoned marketing professionals.
I took a pay cut just so I could return home (pharmacology) and learn. Well, I left, no sorry, I ran, after three months.
Orange was not a culture fit for me. I learned three major things during my stay there;
- If it doesn’t pay more, it’s not worth it. Forget the kumbaya of passion and dreams; your bills will wake you up! Always go for more.
- Culture is as important as money. Go where you can grow and thrive.
- Traditional marketing. Yup! Orange group is the king of grassroots marketing, they do it so well; activations, distribution, placement, and field. I learned how to market and sell offline. This made me a complete marketing professional.
There is always a good side, and this good side made me complete and ready for the next move.
Nuts About Cakes (NAC)
“Don’t bite off more than you can chew” African Proverb
Lol, this was literally how I felt when I joined NAC. I joined NAC as the marketing manager for the company, responsible for five branches at the time; I left it at eight.
I saw it as a small cake company. I was coming from a big FMCG, I had done things, it will be a walk in the park. Lol, e shock me!
This was where everything I had learned came to life. I was stretched, and every time I thought I will break, I grew some more. I had so many firsts in NAC; launched three new stores, implemented multiple integrated marketing campaigns, spearheaded partnerships, delivered a digital strategy that literally saved the business during COVI-19, created a data-informed culture, amongst others.
As Lewa (the HR) would say, “You changed the company’s perspective of marketing”
Now here’s the funny part, two months after I joined, I felt like an imposter. I was going to give up. I didn’t think I could do it. I wasn’t good enough, I moved too quick. I was failing and everyone could see it. I had bitten a bone too big to chew.
Or so I thought.
But, one day I told myself; “it’s either you get fired or you get it done. So, keep doing it until they fire you”
So I took one day at a time, and every time the CEO called me in for a meeting, I will prepare to be fired. But Nah, every time it was her bouncing ideas off me, and us making moves. After a while, I realised I wasn’t getting fired, I was making an impact.
I left NAC to become a tech sis. It was time to join the tech movement and there was no better place to start than Softcom.
This is a chapter that’s still open and my next article will be on the amazing product I’m working on.
So how did I move from Pharmacology to marketing? By looking for money, learning new things and staying open-minded.
“Society wants to put us in a box and say, OK, you do this and you do that and you do this, and I’m like, no, I like this, I like that” Pharrell Williams
You can be anything, at any time. Make your move, when you’re ready.
