Where’s the link?
Political Science & Spanish → Marketing & Communications
Intro
I often get questions anytime I tell people where I’m working. Whenever I say I’m with the UGBS Marketing and Communications Unit (MarComms), the first question they ask is “why there?” or “were you in the Business School?”. Some also say “but your course is unrelated”.
Yes, I know it’s not related, and I wasn’t a student of the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) either. Sometimes, I go all the way to explain to people why I am where I am now. Other times, I just leave people to wonder because I get tired of explaining.
There’s nothing wrong with moving to a new field or being in multiple fields.
How it started
This journey began in January 2020 when a friend offered me an opportunity to be part of his startup as a Content Manager, which I gladly accepted even though I had no experience. At the time, I had zero confidence in my writing skills, and the job title alone scared me (titles still scare me) but I still accepted because I wanted to learn.
When I started in that role, he’ll give me the topics, and sites to use for my research. However, as time went on, he left everything to me. I worked on generating content ideas, through to the research, planning and finally writing. So it went on like this. I was creating and managing content on the startup's Instagram page and blog. In 2021, I got a similar role in another startup and I’m still in that role.
National Service. Why am I even at UGBS?
I didn’t want a situation where the Ghana National Service Scheme (NSS) would post me just anywhere. This is mainly because I did not want to spend a year doing just anything. I wanted my national service to be an opportunity to gain relevant skills and experiences. Simply put, I wanted to add value and get value. Moreover, doing something I loved during service seemed like a plus. So even though I did not mind learning new things, I decided to take this into consideration as well.
Now, I knew what I wanted and I did not want to leave it to chance, so I had to do something. That’s why I applied to a few companies I was interested in working with, and UGBS was actually the last application I turned in (reluctantly).
I didn’t hear from the others but I got positive feedback from UGBS so I decided to stick with it when the placements were released. However, before and after the placements were released, there were times I felt like changing the place because I really wanted to work in a private institution. Anyways, I didn’t change my placement so here I am, at UGBS, a public institution, and taking a monthly allowance of GH¢ 559.04.
UGBS MarComms. What do I do here?
I really get this a lot. When I say “I’m with the Business School”, they ask, “so what do you do there?” I’ll try to talk about all I do in a paragraph.
When I applied to the UGBS Marketing and Communications Unit, I applied for a writer role but currently, I’m doing more than that. I write news stories, as well as scripts for some marketing and communication materials. I also offer customer support through emails and calls, and I do a bit of proofreading and editing. I’ve had the opportunity to work on generating content ideas, repurpose long-form content for social media, and write web copy. Additionally, I do transcriptions and serve as a rapporteur at some events. See? I’m adding value and getting value. This is what I wanted, really.
It’s surprising how almost all of these are somehow fitting into the maze, and I love to see it. For the news stories, it’s just a part of my duties, and I do my best with it just like the others. I actually do not plan on going into journalism (even though I’ve considered that before).
Okay, let’s wrap up
I’ll talk about my drift from Political Science and Spanish to Marketing and Communications. It’s not an entire drift though. With Political Science, I had plans of pursuing a career in International Relations (IR), so all the electives I chose in school were in IR. However, I found myself contemplating which aspect of IR I wanted to specialise in. So since I wasn’t certain about that at the time, I decided to put that on hold, while I pursued what I had some sort of clarity on. For Spanish, it was to serve as a support for my other careers, and that has still not changed.
So yeah, that’s that. I understand there’s no direct link between what I did at school and what I’m doing now, but I found another part of me that I needed to pursue. That’s why I am where I am today, and I’m glad I’m here.
Final words
I drafted this months ago and I just couldn't find myself publishing it for a lot of reasons. From that period till now, I can tell you that a lot has changed. I started realising certain things I never thought of or didn’t even know were possible (this is with regards to IR and Marcoms).
Mind you, I didn’t discover these things just by sitting and doing nothing. I was actually doing something, and I found these through that. It doesn’t even mean I have a clearer picture now, but at least some progress has been made. I’m not sure how everything is going to be in the end, and that’s okay. All I can say is:
- If you’re not sure of the bigger picture, just relax and focus on what you know and can do now. As time goes on, you’ll figure it out.
- Everyone’s journey is different so the fact that some people “have it all figured out” from the onset doesn’t mean you should too. Yours might take time.
- While you’re trying to find what it is that you actually want to do and be, don’t be idle. Do something.
Okay, done now! Thank you so much for reading till the end. Until your next read from me, bye-bye!
