Hello friends,

It has been a while.

Some of you have been here since the early editions when every newsletter felt like I was writing into a quiet room. Some of you joined last week and this is your very first piece from me. Welcome, and thank you for being patient with me. I have been building things in the background, but the writing desk has been neglected for longer than I like to admit. Let me change that today.

This morning, somewhere between my first cup of tea and the start of the workday, a post stopped me on LinkedIn.

A public health professional was reflecting on the interconnectedness of her career. How monitoring and evaluation taught her data discipline. How laboratory work taught her what implementation actually looks like on the ground. How stakeholder engagement taught her the quiet politics of programs and people. Her point was that every role prepared her for the next, even when she could not see it at the time.

I nodded. I paused. I nodded again.

Then I realized I wanted to add something.

For years, I have told people my own career was simply God ordering the steps of the righteous. Looking back, the thread runs clean through. Medical Laboratory Science. Commercial diagnostics. Market access. Consulting. Each role prepared me for the next, even when I had absolutely no idea.

But here is the honest truth I have been sitting with lately.

That frame of destiny arranging your dots was partly true for us because we did not really have another option.

We took the job that was available. We made it work. We trusted that one day the pattern would make sense. And for many of us, it eventually did. But there were painful detours. Long seasons of confusion. Expensive mistakes that better information would have saved us from.

Now, let me say something different to the two kinds of people reading this.

If you are mid to senior career, by all means, look back and connect the dots. Make peace with the zigzags. Your interconnected experience is your real currency now. Spend it with confidence.

But if you are in your twenties or early thirties, please sit down.

Do not let destiny toss you around if you have a choice in the matter. Map the path. Understand your interests. Know your personality. Study the terrain of the field you are entering. Pick a direction with real intention, then let serendipity happen inside that direction.

Here is the gift of this generation.

You can sit with an AI on a Saturday morning, cup of Lipton in hand, feet up, and ask it the questions that used to take us ten years of trial and error to answer. You can stress-test a career move before you make it. You can describe the version of you that exists in five years and reverse engineer the path back to today. We did not have that. You do.

So use it well. Please.

Your experiences will still connect in the end. That part never changes. But the connection does not have to be an accident.

Before you go, a small gift

Since I just told you that you can now ask AI the questions we used to take years to answer, it felt dishonest to not hand you the questions themselves.

Below are five prompts I have tested and refined. Copy any of them, paste into your AI of choice, fill in the blanks honestly, and see what comes back. Then reply to this email and tell me what you found. I read every response.

1. The Career X-ray

I am a [current role] with [X years] of experience in [specialty]. My strongest skills are [list three to five]. My energy goes up when I [activities]. My energy drops when I [activities]. Identify the three career directions that would maximize both my market value and my personal energy over the next five years. Be specific to the life sciences sector in Nigeria and West Africa. For each direction, tell me the salary band in Naira, the typical gatekeepers, and one risk I am not seeing.

2. The Alignment Check

Here are ten roles I find interesting: [list]. Here are five personal traits that define me: [list]. Here are three non-negotiables in my life right now: [list]. Tell me which two roles align most tightly with my traits and constraints. Then tell me which role I am fantasizing about that would actually make me miserable within eighteen months, and explain why.

3. The Market Reality Audit

I want to transition from [current role] to [target role] in the Nigerian life sciences sector. Who actually hires for this? What do they pay? What is the typical entry path? What certifications matter versus what is just noise? Give me a twelve-month plan broken down month by month, with concrete actions, not vague encouragement.

4. The Five-Year Reverse Engineer

Imagine I am exactly five years from today and I have just landed [specific role or milestone]. Walk backwards from that moment. What was I doing six months before? Twelve months? Twenty-four months? What conversations did I have? What skills did I build? What did I say no to? Write it as a reverse timeline.

5. The Devil’s Advocate

Here is my current career plan: [describe in three to five sentences]. Argue against it. Assume I am making decisions based on emotion, ego, or outdated information about the Nigerian life sciences market. Where are the blind spots? Who would push back on this plan and what would they say? Be ruthless but useful. End with the three questions I should sit with before I move forward.

Use them. Share them with someone younger than you who really needs them.

One last thing

If this piece resonated with you, you might like what we have been building over at BenchToBusiness Fellows (B2BF).

It is a community for laboratory scientists, public health folks, and other life science professionals who want to transition into commercial, leadership, and entrepreneurial roles without feeling lost or alone in the process. We share opportunities, host conversations, unpack career moves, and help each other map the kind of paths we did not have the tools for a decade ago.

The tagline is EachOneHelpOne, and we mean it literally.

If you want in, simply reply to this email with the word fellow and I will send you the details.

Until next time, please take good care of yourself, and remember: your next move does not have to be an accident.

With warmth,

Nancy