In a recent interview with Marie Claire NG for The Table Community, I told Chiamaka that as a child, I wanted to be many things. I had a new career ambition every week. This is true. My parents and friends, who are the primary audience of my passionate speeches about each new endeavour, can testify to this. I will forever be thankful for their support in helping me achieve each new goal without judgement. Because of them, I have lived many dreams.
Almost 3 months ago, I left one of my dream jobs — a fraud investigator — in one of the best places to start one’s professional career — KPMG. When people ask why I left the certainty of a partner track without an offer lined up, the best I could say was that I needed to rest. The deeper truth is, while I was great at my job (as evident in my performance reviews), I felt constricted. I’ve never fit neatly into a box and I wonder where I got the idea that finding a career path would be any different. I needed time to find out what it is that I really want to do “with my one precious life” (Quote from The Summer Day, a poem by Mary Oliver).
After 5 years of providing forensic services, I have decided to step out of the box — self imposed and otherwise. I love learning. I want to learn a new thing every day. I want to be challenged with big ideas and new ways of thinking as often as possible. I still want to be many things. I want to be an accountant, a risk manager, a creative thinker, a writer, a teacher, a product manager, a project manager, a fraud and compliance officer, an economist, a poet, and every new thing I dream up, all at the same time. The world offers itself to my imagination (also paraphrased from a poem).
I’ve struggled with a lot of self-doubt in my life. Writing this, I realise that I am absolutely terrified of failing, especially failing publicly. And perhaps, it is this fear of failure that has taken me this long to realise my many strengths. I have a unique ability to understand why things work the way they do and question the status quo, where the status quo can be improved. I know how to hold multiple perspectives and contexts without losing my mind and I know how to communicate these complex thoughts in ways many people can understand. I am insanely curious. Insanely quick at learning new things I’m interested in. I know how to get insight from data. Inspiring and bringing people together comes naturally to me. I’ve never struggled with organising and ironing out the details of what is required to achieve an objective. My background in accounting makes me a good budget planner. My work in risk management helps me to identify the risks in an endeavour early on and find ways to mitigate them. My background in fraud investigation has honed my analytical skills and taught me to pay attention to details. My experience in leading teams has helped me to identify people’s strengths and harness them to achieve the group’s objectives.
Being a specialist is great but our world also needs people who own their curiosities. People who have acquired and are willing to acquire knowledge and experience in a wide range of areas and can glean from all that knowledge and experience to support a new vision.
Therefore, if you’re building something exciting and you need a support/operations person who is not afraid to challenge ideas and who knows how to get things done, please view my profile and skill set at mercyore.com and let’s work together.
