From medicine → chemistry→ content marketing
I wanted to become a Medical Doctor, but I ended up studying Pure & Applied Chemistry at the University of Lagos, and I’m now a Digital Content Marketer. I think I know what you’re thinking. How & why did I make the switch? Here’s the gist.
Medical dreams
I left high school with a big ambition — to be a medical doctor. I remember telling family and friends that I would become a “gynecologist and specialist obstetrician.” I had good enough grades and was in the final stages of processing my admission to a college in Canada. 🇨🇦
Everything scattered one fateful Saturday morning when during a chat with my father, he told me, point-blank, that I was studying in Unilag. He argued that to become a successful medical doctor, I needed partners and that the best partnerships are made in Uni “at home.” 🙄
One example of such partnerships that stuck is the famous “EKO Hospital,” which stands for “Eneli, Kuku & Obiora” — three friends who met in university in Nigeria and formed the hospital.
I cried and begged, but I decided to take the uni’s entrance exams when nothing worked. Sadly, I didn’t get good enough grades to study medicine, so I ended up in “Pure & Applied Chemistry.”
Who needs chemistry?
Studying chemistry was tough for me. I had no interest in the course, so I found it incredibly boring and stressful. Ah. It was bad. 😞
One fateful day in my 2nd year, I hung out with coursemates during a lab session when I met Ifeoma — a fantastic lifestyle blogger & digital marketer. We talked about her career as a social media manager, and I had so many questions.
“You have clients? Asper people pay you to post for them on social media?”
I had some interest in creating content and social media, but this was all on a very personal level. I didn’t realize I could make money off it. 💰
After the lab session, I went back to my hostel and began what I can now say was a life-changing journey.
In the days that followed, I spent hours researching content creation, digital marketing, communications— basically everything I could find. I found a suitable online course at Shaw Academy and enrolled. I asked my elder sister, who runs an event planning business, to manage her social media for free. This turned out to be my first job experience.
The age of content
I remember getting my first internship with a digital agency in Ogudu. My monthly salary was ₦20,000 and my transport fare to the office and back to school every month was ₦19,800. 😂 But I was happy. I was finally doing something I enjoyed.
Looking back at everything, you could say that my career journey has been interesting. I wasn’t always a content marketer. I started as a social media manager while learning about various aspects of digital marketing and communications. Back then, I used to think everything I needed to know was how to create text and visual content, the best times to post, and how to generate analytics reports. 😭
Four years down the line, I’ve learned so much more. I decided to specialize in Content Marketing and Communications for businesses, and my day to day now features a lot of Product Marketing, SEO, Crisis Management, Growth Marketing, and more.
I’m still as excited about my career as I was on the first day I heard about digital marketing, and I’m looking forward to the growth that is to come. 🚀
Fin.
My time in Uni was a wild ride because I wasn’t interested in my course of study. If you’re currently in the situation I was in (or not), talk to people, explore your interests, and be open-minded. You never know what you might find.
