Career by Coincidence: Navigating the Business World with Curiosity
Personally, I’m not sure how much newly graduated business students plan their careers in advance, but because I was never one of those planners, coincidence has always played a major role in my “career planning”. In my case, being slightly adrift, being curious and seizing opportunities has eventually catered pretty well also to the needs of the ever-changing business reality.
As a newly graduated marketing student, I started my career back in 2018 as a Sales and Marketing Assistant in a small American pharmaceutical company called Biogen. It was a fixed 1-year position, and it had the word “marketing” in it, so I thought why not, let’s see what pharma has to offer and then re-evaluate after one year what to do next. This was coincidence number one.
I didn’t know it back then, but it turned out that I chose a very international, meaningful, and inspiring industry, which is also known for its high market volatility and a steady cycle of changes. I also didn’t know that six years later I would still be in the same company with tons of new skills, a lot more self-knowledge and countless of meaningful encounters.
After one year of working as a Sales and Marketing Assistant, my contract was about to end, and I was at a crossroads. Luckily, the company got just in time an open position in the finance department, and I was encouraged to apply to that. This was coincidence number two. However, my intuition pulled me in two different directions: on one hand the company was great, I had amazing colleagues and a very good manager, but on the other hand, I knew that my ambition was not within finance and procurement. Eventually, I decided to take the job and stick to it for a while. If nothing else, it would be much less stressful to search for a new job while being employed.
After a short while in the finance role, the company started to globally notice the need for in-house digital capabilities. This was coincidence number three. I had some experience in the area, but tons of willingness to learn more, so after a while, a new position was created. I applied and landed the job as a Digital Engagement Manager. In this position I felt like I was moving my career to the right direction again. I got to work with strategical high-level plans, but I also did tons of hands-on execution and learned lots of new things by doing. This was a mix I soon noticed I enjoy very much.
During my time in the digital role, I worked very closely with a colleague who was responsible for corporate communication, media, public affairs, and governmental relations. After some time, he found new opportunities elsewhere, and as the company was undergoing changes at the time, they didn’t fill the position immediately. Eventually, my position was transformed into a hybrid of Digital Communication and Corporate Affairs. This was coincidence number four.
By this time, I had imperceptibly gained experience from several different areas like marketing, digital communication, finance, procurement, media relations, stakeholder management, corporate communication etc. For a generalist like me, who is pretty good at many things, but not the best in anything, I noticed that this is a quite suitable way for me to develop my career. Deep-diving into a specific topic in order to become extremely knowledgeable about something, will probably never be my forte (although you should never say never).
I’m a strong advocate of taking also horizontal career development into consideration, when making career plans. It keeps things interesting (if you are a restless soul like me), you stay on a steep learning curve, and you gain tons of insights that help you figure out, what is it exactly that you enjoy doing.
Now, even though I talk about it a lot, I don’t believe that my career or anyone’s career for that matter, is just a series of random coincidences. In my case, it has been a mix of choices, hard work, open mind, increased self-knowledge, encouraging managers, and, well – luck. As I’m writing this, the company has recently finished (again) a major organizational change, where my job also changed, which means that even after six years, I’m still in the position where I get to do things for the first time and don’t fully know what I’m doing.
And to all of you who have a clear plan in mind already in university and you’re sticking to it after graduation – that’s perfectly fine as well. 😊
Writer profile:
- Name: Sara Hellman
- Job title: Omnichannel Excellence Manager, Biogen Finland Oy
- Role in Helsingin Ekonomit: Chair, Culture Committee
- Studies: M.Sc. Economics, Marketing Management, University of Vaasa. Master’s thesis topic: “Delicate pens and brawny toothpaste – Meanings associated with gendered products”
- Hobbies & interests: Good food & drinks, audio books, sports, traveling, flea markets, keeping plants alive.
