For the next installment of this series I talked with Caitlin Craig, a founding member at UNPITCHD.
UNPITCHD is a community of independent consultants, freelancers, designers, developers and entrepreneurs that form the UK's first Corporate Ventures Builders platform. They are here to shake-up the traditional consulting model and support corporates looking to build the future.
I was introduced to Caitlin through a friend I work with at HubSpot. Caitlin and I talked on the phone for a bit as an intro call, and I could immediately tell why she was recommended as a person to chat with.
She has a fascinating way of approaching decisions and risks. She went to University in Scotland. She has lived and worked in Nigeria, London, and South Africa.
Oh, and she's done all of that in her 20s. She has seen a lot in the first quarter of her life, and her perspective on that pursuit is a must-read.
In the interview below, we cover: her work in innovation consulting, her mindset coming out of university, how she approaches decisions, her relationship to her career, and her definition of success.
Thanks, Caitlin, for your time and wisdom.
Can you describe what happened when you looked for/how you landed your first job out of school? Do you remember your mindset at that time?
University can be tough. Especially when you're in school with people who know what they want to be (often that is doctors or lawyers), it can be tough if you're stuck in the void of NOT knowing that. I had been lucky enough to secure a few internships in wealth management and had a job offer coming out of school. But I knew in my gut that it wasn't what I wanted to do because I was nervous that I'd get caught in the golden handcuffs and never do anything different.
Towards the tail end of school, I attended a conference called the St. Andrews African Summit. There was a woman who got on stage who was supporting women entrepreneurs in Africa. I thought it was amazing, and practically attacked her after her talk and told her that I loved what she was doing, and I asked if they were hiring. They were - and I went through the interview process for an Accelerator Program Manager for that company. I got the job, but the twist was that the job was in Nigeria (Lagos). It was a pretty hectic time convincing the family that I should go to Nigeria for my first job, but it paid off and was an amazing experience.
What were the most important skills you learned in your first job that you hadn't been taught in school?
The first company I joined was a startup. A startup environment forces you to learn a lot, and a lot quickly. It was a slim team, and I was coaching businesses right out of Uni, I needed to find a lot of answers for myself. Google quickly became my best friend. As much as you learn a bit of self-sufficiency in school, you don't really learn it fully until you're in your first job, especially without the lack of structure that school provides.
The second part was that I found a lot of confidence in my skills. Everyone feels those different complexes of not deserving to be where you are, and in my case, I was thrown right into the shark cage and had to figure out how to swim. My boss told me to trust my background, and that I deserved to be there. At some level, she was telling me to "fake it until I make it," and that's an amazing thing to learn in your first job.
After your initial work in Africa, you mentioned you moved to London for Innovation Consulting. Can you describe what that is for people who don't know? What made it appeal to you?
Innovation consulting is quite a funny thing. I got a job for ?What If! Consulting in London and it took me about six months to be able to describe it. But I'll give it a shot here.
Innovation Consulting is working with large corporations who want to grow by offering new products or services, rather than traditional consulting that instead looks to cut costs or restructure. It generally follows a two step process. First, we take a look for Opportunity Areas: we dive into an industry and figure out where the gap in the market is. We spend hours speaking to consumers and industry experts. Next, from what we learn speaking to people and hours of desk research, we figure out which products and services should be built for growth. What they should look and feel like, and more importantly what problem these new products and services should solve for people.
The work is very human-centric, I spoke to amazing people all the time and talked about what was missing in their lives, and what they were looking for to make it better. The people who work in Innovation are also incredible. They are wacky, weird and super outgoing, while others are not as extroverted, more analytical, and tend to ask the best questions.
What criteria went into your decision to leave your job in Africa for the new job in London? How do you tend to look at/process life-decisions like that?
I had spent two years in Africa and felt as if I had hit a learning ceiling at my company. I didn't have a huge host of managers, and everyone was working in their bubbles, getting their jobs done. I wanted to be closer to home (I'm from Canada). Most importantly I wanted to broaden my skill set, I wanted to learn more about processes and other tools of the trade.
When I have huge decisions like this one to make I tend to ask myself: What option would I regret the most if I didn't choose it? If I don't go to this school, will I regret it? If I don't take this job, will I regret it the most? This tactic has really worked out for me with most of my decisions, you can usually feel in your gut what the true answer is.
Now, you're working to build something in South Africa. Can you talk about what it is past the blurb in the intro and why you started it?
The founder, Steph, started UNPITCHD and almost two years ago and I jumped on the bandwagon in the first 6 months.
We started as an innovation consultancy, much like my job in London. And that's still very much part of what we do, but in most innovation consultancies you only play a role in the opportunity area spotting, and not much hand in who executes on those opportunities.
At UNPITCHD we do all 3 stages: unlock, discover, and build. We unlock growth for businesses: from the discovery of new opportunities to their delivery to market. How we do this is through a model that allows us to bring together unique teams of independent (freelance) consultants and entrepreneurs, to solve business challenges.
For example, a tech company comes to us and we discover a potential new product they could offer. We'll bring in developers and strategists who are experienced in that type of project to help build it. Whereas other consultancies mostly have generalists working for them, we bring in specialized expertise. Because of this, I get to work with some of the greatest strategy minds out there!
Although I am based out of South Africa, a lot of our projects are in the UK and Europe.
Starting a company has to be intimidating so early in your career. What types of initial fears did you have about it? How did you overcome them?
Building the business has been incredible. I’ve been so lucky to be surrounded by the incredible minds of our founding team who I learn from every day.
To talk about my initial fears, I'll start by saying that I had tried to start a hydroponic farm in South Africa when I left my job in London. That is an indoor farm that uses no soil and is incredibly efficient in both water usage and space. I spent a long time trying to make it work, but I just couldn't get it to be profitable. It's a pretty tough industry and it's typically investment heavy in the beginning. When I was building out the models, I had a constant fear that it wasn't going to work. And I was right - I eventually had to close that chapter..
When I joined Steph the difference was that I truly believed (and still believe) in what we are doing. That fear that I mentioned earlier, the constant fear that it wasn't going to work, is never there with UNPITCHD. I get to work with the most amazing consultants and there is a clear gap in the market for this business. I’m able to push away any of those fears that I had with the hydroponic farm.
Of course there are the typical startup fears: selling enough work every month, keeping clients happy, etc. But I believe so deeply in what we are doing that it overcomes the smaller fears.
In my opinion, fear is the thing that hits the hardest out of college. Your whole life is structured and then boom - void and opportunity. You've managed to craft a fascinating career path for yourself. What advice do you have to someone who is early in their career - uncertain and afraid of what's next?
Haha. The void is definitely there. We are so lucky to have that structure when we are kids. It is such a great part of being in university and being in school.
The best thing that you can do, in my opinion, is to take the chance to do something interesting early in your career. Take that startup job. Move to a new city. Bootstrap yourself. Move out of home and live in that tiny apartment. You learn the most from the risk-taking scenarios in life... I truly believe that, because I wouldn't be where I am without those early risks.
Now I'm 27 and have lived and worked in 4 different countries. I was willing to dive into the unknown early. Don't be afraid of what's next because no one ever knows what is next. Who actually knows what their five year plan is unless they are in an industry with a set timeline? And even then, you can change your mind!
Go into everything with an open mind, and when something goes wrong, it's actually a benefit because that means there are new opportunities that you didn't know existed.
Final question - how do you view your relationship with your career and what does success look like to you?
I actually love what I do, and I think my life is pretty integrated with my career. My career is such a great part of my life, and it's such a big part of me, but I also don't think it defines me. I've met my best friends in life through the chances I've taken in my career.
And when I think of success, I believe success is being proud of what you've built. Whether it's a business, career path, or product. Also, being happy in your job. I know it's cliche but I went through a period where I wasn't happy with what I did, and it didn't feel like success when I didn't want to open my laptop in the morning.