Navigating a global career from graphic design to consulting
The third session of the Female Leadership Academy last May had me reflecting on my career path and decisions. We were asked what it is that helped us make the right decisions in our career, our strengths and what we should do to get to where we want to be 5 years from now. Having done so many coffee meetings and interviews, I have my elevator speech about my unconventional background down to a tee. Since I have added new connections as well, I thought it might be a good idea to share my story on how I ended up working in Denmark.
The inspirational Lene from Novo Nordisk shared the defining moments of her career, indicating which had the most positive and negative impact. It shows that staying in the same company for decades can still lead to quite diverse experiences while having the deep knowledge of one business. She shares a key piece of advice — if you get the chance to do an executive assistant position, go for it for access to top management and what their daily operations are. Although she enjoyed a lot getting to know all the C-suite inner knowledge, she knew she had to start at a position with lower access again in order to get to the top of the organization.
In this new millennium where the definition of success is more freely defined, the metaphor of the ladder is a bit outdated. Careers are more like jumping from one lily pad to another across a pond. I see it more and more like a sea, you could be swimming from a big ship, to a yacht and floating on a life raft the next because of all the uncertainties. There is no safe career anymore. Sometimes it even feels like you just have to build your own boat while you’re drowning. I almost miss having a normal career ladder to climb.
I have been jumping sideways for a decade. I blew up my life to move to a new country and worked my way up from the bottom again, feeling chronically behind my peers both in Denmark and in the Philippines. Despite all of that, I do feel like all my decisions have led me to the right place even though it doesn’t seem like it in the beginning. The first few months were spent regretting my choices. It’s only when I look back when I see that I did the right thing.
In the same vein as Line, here were my top and bottom career moments that my CV doesn’t show (presented in a millennial/Gen Z friendly format)
Finishing what I started
🙌 Staying in Computer Science to finish the degree instead of shifting to Information Design or Fine Arts. I wasn’t happy with it but I was raised with the Asian mindset of finishing things.
💔 However, I failed to win a design award I really wanted to get so I thought I had a rough start to my career. It turns out that it didn’t have a negative effect at all.
Passion over money in my 20s
💜 Taking a lower paying and more demanding job in advertising instead of programming because of passion
✈️ Moving to Singapore for a web design position and to grow from international work experience.
💔 Quitting that job without anything lined up. I would not do this again in the future, unless it was to protect my mental health.
🙌 Failing to find anything in branding or advertising and ending up in UX instead which worked out in the long run
💔 Impulsively moving back to Manila after burning out from working freelance on top of my job in addition to personal reasons. also something I would not do again.
🌍 Effortless digital nomad/freelance career on the surface but I wasn’t actually managing it as a business well because I was inexperienced. I also didn’t want to exploit others as I saw some of my peers did.
👻 Ghosting a bad client was a mistake that I learned from and something I am ashamed of doing in my freelance work.
Full circle
🙌 Quitting my freelance career and pivoting to data science meant sacrificing the digital nomad lifestyle. I got a full time job again so that I could work on bigger projects. This was my peak in my professional career in the Philippines and had I not left I probably would have a really high position at my age now.
🤖 It was only at this point, several years later where my CS degree started to make sense and it still does today when AI is more and more of a hot topic.
Starting over again for the nth time
✈️ Moving abroad for personal reasons had me saying goodbye to my perfect job. It was one of the hardest decisions and I was second guessing myself until the day before my flight. But I couldn’t look back after that.
🙌 My first choice program actually rescinded my offer to study in Helsinki/Berlin and redirected me to my second choice degree in Salzburg/Copenhagen.
💙 Ending up in a student position in consulting. I didn’t work on my portfolio enough to land a decent design role. I embraced the new business skills I could learn from consulting.
💔 Not getting a full time role in the team I wanted. Being unemployed for almost 4 months and all the rejections especially from QVARTZ (now Bain) took a toll on my self-esteem and confidence.
Shifting priorities in my 30s
💛 Getting into the EY graduate programme and going all in with consulting instead of going back to design. Aiming for permanent residency in Denmark had me making different less risky career moves that I otherwise would not have chosen in my 20s.
💔 Effects of COVID recession: my full-time start date being pushed back, being threatened with zero income for 6 months with almost no savings due to living paycheck to paycheck on a student salary. I still suffer from PTSD from this time period. My brain goes into survival mode whenever I feel a whiff of another recession coming.
🙌 My promotion to senior consultant was the first promotion I’ve ever had in a decade of working. I had only been moving from one job to the next in adjacent fields.
What’s next: Finding purpose and balance
🌱 Consulting continues to put me in the most difficult career situations and experiences. I will stay here as long as I am still growing.
⚖️ One of the biggest challenges in my career is avoiding burn out as I tend to overwork myself. I am also still finding more ways to integrate design in my life and in my work.
💚 What you won’t find in my CV is that one of my favourite achievements was winning over support from junior colleagues. They wanted to work with me because they believed in the work rather than just because I had a higher rank than them. It made me realize that what makes me most fulfilled is giving back to the next generations and making it easier for them. Therefore I am strategically focusing my time more on sustainability/ESG, DEI initiatives and women in tech mentorship. I find that even more motivating than extrinsic rewards.
Although my career hasn’t always panned out as planned, it somehow led to new paths I never even considered when I was younger. You can never predict the future and you can only make the best choices out of what you know at the moment. Be ready to pivot, or know yourself well enough when you are willing to commit to a path.
