Personal development and desire to get better is always close to my heart and as accounted in an earlier post when I wrote about my passions which you can access here, I’ve kept on with this. This evening I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a colleague, friend and inspirational young pharmacist, Dr Cohen Andove where I had a moment to reflect on my professional journey. It was an insightful evening with recollections on how our journeys have evolved starting from our campus days where we actively invested our time and energy in championing for students’ affairs through professional associations and students’ unions. As we transitioned out of school, there are different dynamics but some key insights we recollected on are worth sharing. I hope these will inspire, enlighten and encourage a young professional somewhere to give their best to realize their aspirations.
- Extracurricular activities you engage in during your school years expose you to the industry helping you learn and network. These networks become critical in your days after school especially with dwindling opportunities.
- Once you graduate, job search starts. It is a challenging experience but you’ve got to keep your pursuit. In every room you get into, have it in mind that your employer might be in the room and the only way to know is by expressing you are job hunting and open to opportunities. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye. shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you – Mathew 7: 7.
- Give yourself time and keep pursuit of your aspirations. I earlier wrote about this here. As much as we aspire to be successful in life, we need to acknowledge that it takes time and those people we aspire to be like, are almost double our age if not. Take time and keep on keeping on it will one day come to be.
- Being proactive is a skill we need to master. As much as opportunities open up, it’s about the people who go for them and make the best of them that get to reap the fruits of such. How are you putting to use the opportunities presented to you?
- Build those networks of peers. People you can call on to bounce ideas, hold each others hands and invest with banking on a long term vision of what you aspire for. It’s doable but you have to master the art of staying still, pragmatic and collected.
Such moments help us reflect on our journeys and some of it is outlined in this article I wrote about awhile back. For all that we aspire to and hope for, we must work to make the difference and as we do that, collaboration is our silver-bullet.