Episode 92: Bonus Episode - Toyin Oluwole (Alalade) - Opportunity Knocks on the Journey Home

Toyin Alalade's last role was as a Senior Strategy Manager with Royal London. She previously worked in a range of financial and marketing roles at Standard Life and Moody Monday. She recently left Scotland and  returned to her home country of Nigeria, and it was a moving Linked In post that she wrote that led me to her. 

Our conversation starts with Toyin's upbringing in Nigeria and what led her to university and the first part of her career in the UK.  She describes how she settled there and eventually made Scotland her home.  We talk about graduating with an engineering degree into a bleak job market and how she stumbled upon a career in finance and investing almost by accident.  We discuss the ups and downs of a career in finance, the importance of seizing opportunities and the need to be flexible and adaptable as the industry's opportunities ebb and flow. 

Moving then to what prompted her move back to Nigeria just this summer, we learn of the confluence of professional and personal opportunities that enabled it and Toyin's initial impressions of returning to Nigeria as a professional and her assessment of the opportunities in store. We take a short detour into another one of Toyin's passions - interior design - what sparked that and how it may be more and more relevant to how we build our workplaces going forward.

Finally we turn to what inspires her - to a discussion of her parents and other key people (including many women) who have inspired her in the workplace.  We refer to a creed, which is "whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might", which captures Toyin's commitment to doing her best at whatever she finds in front of her.  It is an uplifting and life-affirming message.