Welcome to ‘How I Got Here’: a content series brought to you by Vamos Insights. We will be featuring inspiring students and young professionals across a broad range of industries, who will each share their career journey and provide insightful advice to help you navigate the big wide world of work.
Introducing our guest, Lola Olaore!
Hi, everyone! I'm Lola Olaore. I currently work in the technology industry as a senior digital analyst, where I focus on product development. Product development involves supporting my clients to build and launch products into the world. I’ve also worked at AND Digital, a digital consultancy, where I was a digital product owner. I've also worked at Accenture as a technology analyst.
In terms of passions and hobbies, I'm really passionate about inspiring the next generation of female leaders. I run a social enterprise called thinkHER ambition, which supports young women aged 14 to 21 by providing them with the right tools and skill sets to reach their full potential. We work with corporate organizations such as Unilever, we have different types of programs where we focus on mentoring young women, and we also go into schools to deliver our workshops. We’ll be launching a podcast soon, so make sure to tune in! Aside from that, my hobbies include baking (a hobby that came from lockdown) and yoga. I'm also a wine lover: I have a level one certification in wine education, and I’m hoping to do level two this year!
Why did you choose your degree subject? Were the reasons linked to your career aspirations at the time?
My degree is in Global Business at Coventry University London, but at first I studied Financial Services for two years on the Coventry campus. My first year was amazing, but in my second year I did not have a passion for it, which you could see in my exam results. So I decided to take a gap year, which I spent working for the Royal Bank of Scotland for a few months before I ended up jetting off to China to do a semester abroad on this programme by the British Council called Generation UK. I was on the first ever cohort back in 2014, where a bunch of students from the UK went over to a province in China. So I studied Chinese culture and Language for six months at Fuzhou University, and I learned a lot about business because Chinese culture is super entrepreneurial – a number of students I was friends with had their own side hustle or were helping to run their parents’ business.
When I got back to the UK, I switched my degree to Global Business and I actually transferred from the Coventry campus to the London campus because I wanted to be in the city in order to go to networking events, panel discussions, and meet people in the business industry. And then, randomly enough, I got invited to an event that Accenture was holding, which was called the “Inspiring Women” event. As cheesy as it sounds, I was inspired to actually obtain a role in technology because there was this lady who spoke on the stage saying that, the statistics of women in tech are very low. To me, when I would think of a software engineer or a technology analyst, I would see a white male in those positions, but I was really inspired by her because she was an Asian woman who was in a very senior role within Accenture. So I decided to apply for the technology analyst role and ended up being on the graduate scheme. That was where I found my passion for technology. So as you can see, my career aspirations have changed over time: at first I thought I’d go into the finance industry but then I ended up in technology. And now I've fallen in love with product management.
So you started your career working as a technology analyst for a large consulting firm. How did you end up specialising in product management, and what drew you to this role?
When I first joined Accenture, I was in the business development practice, which involved selling a product to our internal stakeholders. And that's when I realized that some of my colleagues from the same cohort as me were doing really exciting projects, like building and launching new products. I wanted in on that fun and excitement, so I raised this to my career coach at Accenture, telling her that I want a more technical role. Then I was on different technical projects, where I started building proof of concepts alongside different teams. A proof of concept is like an idea that’s in its initial phase, and we need to see if it actually works and receive feedback from the client. So that's how I started going deeper into tech and eventually ended up in product management. I had never heard of product management before, I think it's still fairly new to the UK. When I was doing the role at Accenture I realised “Oh, you can actually build a product and develop it as a product owner”. So that's when I moved to AND Digital to further build the skills. But back to your question. I made sure to communicate that I wanted to be on a more technical project in order to further my interests and skills development.
Ah, okay, so what you’re saying is that whilst you were in your graduate job at Accenture you made use of the support and networks there in order to be able to move into a more technical role?
Exactly. It's all about building the network around you, and finding people who will be your tribe in the workplace. On a technology graduate scheme [at a consulting firm], you start off as a generalist which means that you work on multiple projects across different teams, and each project will build on a particular skill set. You basically have two years to navigate the company and get a feel of what you do and don’t like in terms of the industries and people that you work with. Then by the end of two years, you can say “I specifically want to focus on analytics, and I’m industry agnostic.” Or you could say, “I want to purely work in the consumer goods industry, but I don’t care what kind of project or skill sets.” It’s kind of like a matrix, where you can specify which industry or project type you do or don’t want to specialise in.
How did you develop your skillset to be marketable to employers?
I didn't actually do any internships during uni. In my first year I applied to Lord knows how many and I kept on getting rejected, rejected, rejected, and I was like, “I'm so done with this! I will try and find my own way to build my work experience.” And that's when I just worked normal retail jobs: Harrods, Selfridges, O2 Arena hospitality. All of those experiences have shaped who I am as an individual. Yeah, I went to some of those ad hoc insight days or three day work experience programmes. But I would say real life experience from actually working for a company really developed my skill set. So that's why I'm quite a confident person. Because of my experience in customer service, I can speak to any person and handle the situation. During these jobs I learned how to communicate to various consumers, how to empathize with them, how to understand their needs and wants.
Once I decided that I wanted to work in consulting, one of the questions I had was, “What key skills are sought after for a consulting graduate role? And how can I develop myself to demonstrate that I have these skills?” One thing that I always say is to have a hobby or a side project that you're working on as this helps you to stand out from the rest of the crowd during the application process. So take myself, for example. During my gap year, I worked at the Royal Bank of Scotland as a customer services operator. This involved customer service and managing clients’ transactions. Then I also travelled to China, where I developed my interpersonal skills, as I was able to really immerse myself in a different culture. This is relevant to consulting because you're not just working with people who look like you, you're working with people across the globe.
Finally, what advice would you give to students who have similar interests as you? Any recommended resources or opportunities?
Doing a Code First Girls bootcamp totally transformed my whole thinking of the technology industry, and the people that you meet on the program are second to none. So definitely try to get yourself on a free coding.
My second piece of advice is to work on your communication skills. Our generation is very used to communicating through our phones on Twitter and Instagram, which makes it easy to forget how to communicate to individuals. So one program that I was a part of is this initiative called Toastmasters, which is a public speaking group where you can practice speeches and learn how to communicate better. Learning how to communicate is key to help you do well in the interview process, as well as speaking to your team members and to your clients. Storytelling tells a big part in how well you can convey a message.
My third point is that it’s important to be able to understand a different types of individuals. Surround yourself with people who don't look like you and really understand who they are. This links to my earlier point about how consulting projects involve people who are from different backgrounds. So try and find an extra-curricular where you can meet people who are not from your area, or maybe study abroad! You can work abroad, study abroad, or volunteer abroad and the British Council has so many opportunities for young people to study or teach English in China, Taiwan or Vietnam. I could not recommend this more. There is also a programme by the University of Manchester called Study China, which is a partly government-funded three week programme for uni students.
My final point is about networking and building your personal brand. Try to network and reach out to people via LinkedIn to set up a call. In my early days, I would be at a networking event like minimum three times a week, even if I didn't know the industry or anything, I would go to the event to meet people, learn about the industry and understand how people communicate. Putting yourself out there and building your personal brand can tell a powerful story. For example, I got headhunted by my current firm through LinkedIn. So definitely try and build a personal brand around your passions and hobbies, whether it's social impact, sustainability, or you love baking and cooking -- all of those things can play a part in building your brand.
Here are Lola’s social media and the website of her social enterprise:
LinkedIn: Lola Olaore
Instagram: @Lolaaola
Twitter: @LolaOla_
Website: thinkHER Ambition
Linktree: @lolaaola