An individual’s career decisions reveal a lot about their values, commitments, and long-term objectives. Just like when we are in search of partners, love plays an equally important role in finding the right career fit.
What it means to love your career
Unlike traditional relationships, relationships with careers are unique. Loving your career starts with knowing your strengths and making the decision to leverage them.
If you approach your career consciously, there will be many aspects of your career that you look forward to. You will feel tremendous satisfaction when you reach your objectives or broaden your skill set. You will love your job and regard it as a choice, something that you like to do rather than a burden on your time.
Naturally, there may be aspects or tasks that you feel less excited about or not exceptional at but, you can learn to enjoy the challenges and rewards of overcoming the tough parts of the role when you love what you do.
We spoke to three finance leaders to better understand how love can drive career success in finance and accounting through their personal experiences.
Saheed Olalekan Olorunnisola FCA, MBA, DipIFR(ACCA), CISA, ACTN, AFM
With the required level of determination and passion, you can get to the epoch of your career.
“To me, love is what you think about yourself. In the early stages of my career, people thought I was going to be a partner at a Big 4. However, I knew what I loved was solving problems, consulting, and business development, and not necessarily auditing. This self-awareness has helped to shape my career, and my love for what I do brings out my passion and determination to succeed. But I think love is not enough, it should breed something; for example, the fact that you love football does not make you a footballer. It requires some level of hard work, discipline, and determination.”
Bamgboye Adeniyi Emmanuel MBA, FCTI, FCA, FCCA: Similar to business lawyers, finance and accounting professionals deal with confidential information, make important business decisions, and cannot be misled.
These are some of the things that I love about my profession as well as the networking opportunities.
“For me, it has always been accounting or nothing. I have been very good with numbers right from secondary school and this helped me to choose a path. Love for your profession starts from understanding your interests and then building skills around them for your personal development. Yes, I love my profession but the love would not be there if I do not have the technical and soft skills to get things done.”
Samuel Olayioye, FCA: People do things not necessarily because they love them, but whatever you do, you have to do it 100%.
“I love my profession because of the value it adds. Seeking facts and providing insights, helping investors understand their business’ valuation as a finance function. I enjoy telling the stories behind the numbers and loving what I do allows me to bring my whole self to work. I have been able to align my passion and profession by choosing a career in finance. I am interested in numbers, people management, learning, and development; I work as a people manager and I work with some mentees, my profession allows me to marry everything.”
Why doing pure transactional work might be dangerous:
People who enjoy their jobs are more likely to be optimistic, motivated, learn faster, make fewer mistakes, and better business decisions.
Learning to work hard at a job you don’t like is hard enough, not to mention being the best at it.
Without the necessary passion or determination, it simply doesn’t come naturally. The likelihood of being optimistic, and motivated, learning more quickly, making fewer mistakes, and making better business decisions are all higher in people who enjoy what they do rather than working for pay.
“Love is critical for career success. Without love, you will stop being the best at what you do and get frustrated at some point.” – Saheed Olalekan Olorunnisola, FCA, MBA, DipIFR(ACCA), CISA, ACTN, AFM
Want to know if you love your career choice? Ask yourself these – Am I excited to work? Do I get to use my soft skills in my role? Do I look forward to a work day?
There, you have your answer!
