Global Courant
For most of us, Google has become an active participant in our lives. We use it for productivity, entertainment, navigation, and most importantly, to search for answers. But for some others, like Taslim Okunola, Google played these roles more intimately. From random ventures in Akure to managing global strategy and operations at Google, here’s Taslim Okunola’s central diary.
How it started
My career started with uncertainty. I studied agricultural and resource economics at Federal University of Technology, Akure. But from the moment I started school I felt too young to understand what I wanted to pursue. I just wanted to go to university.
And so when I got to college, I started looking for the things that would interest me. In my first year I got involved in student politics, with the idea that I could become a politician. But that didn’t end well. I realized I couldn’t handle godfatherhood.
Then I tried stand-up comedy. My high school teachers used to say I was funny, so I thought I could make money doing that. I remember traveling to Lagos from Akure to audition for Standup 9ja. The experience was unforgettable as I was the youngest person at the event. Everyone around me was much older and many had been doing comedy for years. If you’re wondering how that went, let’s just say the judges were really nice.
Then I tried out a newsletter idea that seemed so brilliant when I started. It involved printing a newsletter on A3 paper and pasting it at school. So I wrote content, taught myself Corel Draw, and designed this poster. Then I went from one faculty to another at night to post my newsletter on their bulletin boards. By morning I saw people reading what I posted.
My monthly allowance was meager, so the plan was to eventually monetize these posters. So if the newsletter gets enough traction, I would start selling ad space. But again, that didn’t end well. Before the day was out, my newsletter would probably have been pasted or deleted by someone I didn’t know because I had no control over it in the first place. So what was next?
Revelation
One day I got a text that changed everything. I was at home in Ibadan as schools were on strike when I received a text asking me to come to school for the Google Students’ Club. It was a technical training program organized by Google’s student ambassadors. Before then, my only tech boast was installing Opera-Mini cheat codes on Java and Symbian phones for free internet browsing. And I wasn’t looking for a technical career because I knew almost nothing about it.
But after seeing the text message, I packed my bags and traveled that 4-5 hour journey to Akure. People thought I was crazy.
The training was basically about using the internet, but taught us several things we didn’t know. It wasn’t long before I started teaching others. And when the final exams came, my score was pretty high. Then I became a Google Student Ambassador.
Becoming an ambassador allowed me to meet people and access mentorship. But I noticed that the people I looked up to excelled in two ways: coding or digital marketing. I had no plans to reinvent the wheel, so I followed suit. It is true that you cannot imagine beyond what you have seen. But for me I had seen enough.
Taslim Okunola
Transition
I first started learning to code. But it didn’t take me long to know that this path wasn’t for me. So I went into digital marketing, starting with Google. For some reason, I focused my early learning on search engine marketing. And for the first time, I felt like I had a lot under control. Metrics drive everything in this area. This way I can see what works and what still needs to be done.
The next thing I did was start teaching other people what I learned. I wasn’t an expert and I didn’t even have any practical experience. The challenge with search engine marketing is that you can’t test your knowledge at will. It is expensive. I didn’t get much pocket money from my parents, so there wasn’t much room for maneuver. But I wanted to share what I knew with others: it was satisfying and helped me learn. I started posting pictures of those workouts on Facebook and gradually I got an identity.
One day, Mark Essien posted a Facebook post saying he was looking for a digital marketer. Then a friend of mine, whom I still haven’t met until now, recommended me for the job. I called Mark over the weekend and that was my interview. He asked me to start on Monday. Luckily my school was on break then, so I had free time. I packed my bags to Lagos to work on Google Ads for Hotels.ng. This was 2015.
Before then, everything I knew about digital marketing was theoretical. Hotels.ng was my first practical experience, so I still had to learn it on the job. Marketing was heavily involved in Hotels.ng’s growth strategy, so my month-long stay there was eye-opening. After I went back to school, I had much more clarity. Then I applied for the Google sales internship. It was no ordinary sales job. Instead of focusing on bringing in new business, I focused more on relationship building and analysis.
Since then I have discovered many things about the marketing world. The best practices of 2018 are not the best practices of today. For example, many people attributed a lot of confidence to it last click attribution. But nowadays the model is debated. Back then, most of our business was search engine marketing keyword targeting. But now there are different types of targeting and methodologies. Still, you have to stay ahead, know what works in the present and shut out the noise. This mindset has helped me make a lot of progress in my career and even transition smoothly between jobs.
How are you
Today the scope is a lot wider than when I started. I now work as a Global Strategy and Operations Manager at Google. Most of what I do is help marketing leaders run efficient businesses. But I also work on other special projects such as Android marketing and Play marketing. It took me over five years in Google to get here if you add up everything I’ve done since I was in Lagos. Last year I was a Product Manager for the Chrome Browser, working on the Discover page.
All of these experiences have changed my perspective. I learned to care more about the users than before, but I also learned to care about the business of the company equally. I used to be frustrated when we went to business leaders with big proposals, and they weren’t as enthusiastic as expected or suggested a different approach. But today I get it. And because I wanted to think and function as a manager, I made the switch to Operations. I was into it in my early days, but that’s not the case anymore. Whatever you see me doing right now is exactly what I want to do. I think of my career as a ladder, and it guides every decision I make.
Career Hack
Nothing beats plain old hard work. But the first real benefit you can give yourself is striving for clarity. Then optimize for happiness.
When I moved to Lagos after school I didn’t have a job or even the promise of one. I did a great job during my internship, but people don’t think about me all their lives. So I wanted to make sure I was around people who needed my skills or wanted to recommend me. It’s the same reason I moved to San Francisco. I want to be in places where I’m more likely to be lucky.
