Finding Your Unique Career Path: Embrace the Wanderer Within!

If you want to know where your heart is, see where your mind goes when it wanders

Imam Ali (peace be upon him)

Published on 15-07-2024

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After graduating from university, I received a lot of career advice, such as:

• Specialize early. Get deep into that specialization and stick to it for a long time.
• Focus on your strengths.
• Who you know is far more important than what you know.
• Follow your passion, and work will be a play.
• Don’t follow your passion. Follow growth and money.

Some of these pieces of advice sound valid, while others are at least innocent until found guilty.
However, none of them resonated with me or collectively helped me find my place in this world.
I believe this is because:

1. They did not relate to the wanderer inside me. Too many things intrigued me,
   and I hadn’t settled on a home yet, so I wanted to explore more.
2. They lacked the context for me to grasp, validate, and act on them.

Despite having the grades to become a doctor like my parents, I chose a different path. Initially, I studied electrical and electronic engineering, leading to IT analyst and project engineer roles.

My career took a turn when I earned a degree in holistic nutrition. I started advising and educating people on healthy living and collaborated with an NGO to help refugees in Canada maintain their health on a budget.

Later, I pursued an MBA, which opened doors to various roles in product and marketing within multiple startups. Along the way, I explored diverse opportunities, considering fields like financial engineering, nutritional education, psychology, mathematics, and even coding.

This journey has been anything but linear, yet it has provided me with many experiences across different industries and disciplines.

Ever since, I have learned that some people are blessed with knowing what they should pursue from a young age, while others wrestle with this for a lifetime before they have a hint of what it should be.
I’ve also learned that both specialists and T-shaped/horizontal dot connectors exist. Both have their place and are needed in this world.

So, if you always feel the urge to change, experience enlightenment when you draw from different sources and apply it elsewhere, and are constantly curious to learn new things, then I hope this can guide you in your career and let you know that this is perfectly normal.

If you don’t aim to be exceptionally good at just one thing, excel in a few areas and then combine them to reach new heights.

For example, by blending storytelling with data proficiency, you can captivate audiences in a way that a mere data analyst or a storyteller alone cannot. 
By marrying your passions for art and science, you can simplify complex concepts and appeal to a broader audience. 
You may also leverage deep learning in an industry to carve out a new, unexpected role for yourself. Whether seeking a new position or striving to create your own, you can merge different insights and disciplines to create something new.

For instance, while studying nutrition, I used to conduct workshops, and my value to the corporate world stemmed from being a former engineer who meticulously managed projects amidst poor nutrition. I understand firsthand the toll it takes on the body and strive to reverse those effects without any additional cost.

I may not be a prodigy in any single discipline, but my proficiency in Product Marketing is attributed to being good at:

• Understanding products and speaking the language of my fellow product managers.
• Utilizing analytical skills (thanks to my engineering background) to identify root causes and comprehend why a product failed to resonate.
• Thinking holistically across the user, product, and market, understanding how systems work (inspired by holistic nutrition training).
• Collaborating effectively, a skill honed in the project management role at Saudi Aramco, and working closely with doctors and clinics.
• The empathy I gained coaching clients makes me connect with users and truly care about their experiences and interactions. 

My point is this: I've always admired singular-focused people, but there are other paths to success!

Don’t impress your entire network. Impress the person sitting next to you. 

As you move to a new place, you risk losing the network you have built and have to develop a new one. The connections you have made may go to waste. While this is partially true, you can always combat it by:

• Creating and sharing outstanding work so people can remember you.
• Utilizing your superpowers/insights as an outsider to draw unique conclusions. Sometimes, naivety is a blessing as you don’t necessarily see the limits others impose.
• Doing favors for people you want to learn from and work with without networking (e.g., offer free analysis, share similar work and lessons learned)

Change is brutal. Instead of focusing on daily progress, adopting a longer-term perspective is important

As a wanderer, you’ll always have the urge to evolve. Evolution requires change, which can lead to uncertainty and anxiety. Embracing change is important, but it’s only part of the challenge.
The other challenge is that when you take on something new, you may feel like you’re starting from a mediocre position while your colleagues have already advanced and gained knowledge over the years.

While working at Saudi Aramco, many of my friends settled down, bought fancy new cars, and some even bought their own houses.

Meanwhile, I was saving money because I hadn’t found my path yet and experimenting with small businesses.

Later, I was determined to start a marketing career after my MBA, despite not having a marketing background. I had to start from the bottom while my peers already had an advantage.

While climbing the ladder, I noticed that those who stayed for 13 years reached the top while I was still trying to prove my worth. It’s never easy, but these thoughts have always been helpful to me:

• You belong to a different world that requires a different approach and perspective.
• Your impact will be evident over the years, not just in months or days. It’s crucial to understand that progress takes time, similar to the concept of deferred earnings in accounting.

• We live in a rapidly changing world, which demands adaptability to capitalize on new trends and changes. The rewards will come later.

Grass often seems greener on the other side, but you never know the sacrifices others have made to get there. It’s a game you shouldn’t play, and you should let go of any comparisons.

Your journey as a wanderer is unique and valuable. Embrace your diverse path, knowing that your impact will be seen over years, not months. 

Your adaptability is your greatest asset. 

Don’t compare yourself to others; your unique path is just as valid and important. Keep evolving, and let your diverse skills guide you to success.

Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.

RUMI