Jimoh's Hierarchy of Career Personalities

Trying to figure out how to build your career? This might help.

Hello guys,

Hope you are doing well. I am doing okay, Alhamdulilah. The last few weeks have been pretty crazy but now I have a bit of a break. The funny thing about breaks is that they are worth more in anticipation than in reality. Tempted to explain, but ah well.

Okayy, now to the newsletter.

Anybody that knows me well knows I talk a lot about careers. Understanding them, finding patterns, learning from people, optimizing for them, etc. For someone who cannot relate to these things, I am probably quite a pain.

But why do I consider it so important?

I genuinely think very few things will impact your life as much as the work you choose to do. Let’s start by stating the obvious. The vast majority of us will work, hustle, or be in some active professional capacity for about 40 years, say age 20 to 60. If you live in Stockholm, Sweden, you would probably work 8 hours a day for 230 days a year. That’s about 73,600 hours of your life. If you live in Lagos, Nigeria, you would probably work 13 hours a day (traffic inclusive) for 280 days a year (assuming you work or face your side hustle half of the Saturdays in a year). Fair to say about 145,600 hours of your life would be spent on work-related activities. This is a lot of time to not make any plans for.

Now, some of the less obvious ones. The type of work you do will largely determine the friends you have. We can argue otherwise, but it’s mostly true. Doctors tend to marry doctors because their network is full of doctors. Oil industry staff tend to stick together because nobody else can relate with their struggles. They live in the same estates, send kids to the same schools, etc. The easiest way to have ifokanbale about your safety as a Nigerian oil worker is to live, interact, and socialize with other Nigerian oil workers.

The work you choose to do would largely impact your thoughts outside work as well. Therapists might find it difficult to stop thinking about the problems of their clients. Even if they are usually able to separate work from personal time, one phone call from a depressed or suicidal client will throw them entirely back into work mode, regardless of whatever else is going on. I was on a phone call with a McKinsey Consultant recently, and I was surprised at how structured he was. We were talking about personal things and he was being MECE!

Hopefully, you get the point by now. Our work impacts just about everything else so it’s super important to plan for it.

But how do we plan for it? I don’t have an answer to this question. But my personal approach is to learn as much as possible. Reading books, listening to podcasts, talking to older people who have had fascinating experiences.

Somebody once told me there is no such thing as an invention. Everything we bring into the world was proposed by someone else, and we have only adapted it to our use. I think this is largely true.

I had a random shower thought a few days ago. Could there be such a thing as Maslow’s hierarchy of careers? Were some careers (or career needs) more important than others and thus more likely to give long term value?

The correct thing to do would have been to look for research that has been done to find the answer to my question. Haha but where’s the fun in that? Instead, I have decided to invent my own.

Caveat: This is entirely subjective. Anything I say is based on my own biases and perception of the world. Also, this has not been well thought out. I’m literally figuring it out as I type.

Now let’s dive in!

Jimoh’s Hierarchy of Career Personalities

This is what I have come up with. Jimoh’s hierarchy of career personalities ranks popular career activities in order of the long term value creation.

Second caveat: Nothing in this model is meant as an insult or degradation of any career path. It is simply for storytelling purposes.

1. The Adam

The Adam refers to a career personality of doing what everybody can do. Basically, skills Adam was created with. Common examples of Adams are laborers and gatemen. Anybody with hands can open and close a gate. Anybody can carry bags of cement from one end of a site to where construction work is ongoing (not all of us have the strength, but you get the point). Of course, I am saying this from a place of privilege because nobody elects to be an Adam. People just need to eat. The problem with being an Adam is that there is typically no skill or value creation. You don’t become an expert at gate opening because you have opened gates for 15 years. The process does not evolve and you are no better for it. As much as possible, you want to avoid being an Adam.

2. The Titi

The Titi is a career personality of being what anybody can become. The difference between Adam and Titi is that everybody is an Adam already (as per having hands), but you need to put a bit of effort to become a Titi. Common examples are hair-dressers, call center staff, etc. A hairdresser might spend a couple of months working as omo ise to learn the trade. A call-center agent probably went to secondary school and has a basic understanding of the English language. The problem with Titi type skills are two. One, you are usually easily replaceable. Most people don’t care too much who plaits their hair. If there’s a slight inconvenience, you would be replaced. Two, it is difficult to command a decent income in such professions. As far as you have become what anybody else can become, there is no reason why you should be paid a premium.

3. The Personality

This is my personal favorite. The Personality involves using your personal interests to make regular skills more interesting. Examples include blog contributors, photographers, and DJs. People in this career bucket usually have high levels of job satisfaction because they spend their time on what they really want to do. In all honesty, anybody can learn to write a blog, mix music, or use a camera. But most people have neither the interest nor dedication to put effort into these things. Those who do though, find them very rewarding. And if you hone your craft well enough, your music, pictures or articles might give you a shot at superstardom. I stan you creatives abeg. 👏🏿👏🏿

4. The Braniac

Book people, this is for you. This is the most common career type for ‘high potential’ kids. Their uncles, parents, siblings, and neighbors push them there. Common professions include Lawyers, Doctors, Engineers, and Professors. Braniacs typically spend a lot of time in school, acquiring specialized skills that are in high demand. These careers have a lot of societal prestige and achieve fairly decent middle-class status. Upsides? Decent money, high demand, respectability. On the flip side, these careers typically lack individuality. It is a ‘follow the crowd’ model guaranteed to ensure societal progress. Standing out (in terms of finances, achievement, etc) is reserved for only a small number of people in this category.

5. The Star

This category is for the Davidos and Ronaldos of this world. The Star combines the personalized skills of the Personality with specialized training and effort of the Braniacs. Think about it. To become Cristiano Ronaldo, you must genuinely love playing football. But on the other hand, you probably spend 10 years (age 9 to 19) in intense football academies, getting better and better at the game. You spend 5+ hours on a football field in practice every day of your life. It is intense. Musicians definitely love to sing, but they also spend dedicated time in vocal classes, understanding pitches, writing lyrics, etc. It is also a very risky career, in the sense that unlike Braniacs, you don’t necessarily get better with time. A professor of 30 years would probably be crazy good, but there is no guarantee that a footballer or musician gets better or sells more albums 30 years down the road. The opposite is usually the case. For those that make it though, they make it bigger than a Braniac can ever hope to achieve.

6. The Oprah

I consider this the highest level of career achievement. People in this category do not gain income or respect based on the skills they possess, they gain it because of who they are. It is a highly personalized approach to a career, where there is no line between your personal life and your source of income. Think of Oprah. Oprah is not a billionaire because she is a talk show host or writes a magazine. Oprah is a billionaire because she is Oprah! If Oprah starts an airline, people would fly that airline. If Oprah starts a clothing business, people would buy those outfits. Because she is Oprah. The highest level of career achievement (in my subjective opinion) is being genuinely intentional about working on things that are true to you, and creating a personal brand. If that brand is successfully created, it almost doesn’t matter what you choose to do. Success will knock on your door.

So there you have it. Jimoh’s hierarchy of career personalities. It clearly requires a lot of refinement, but I consider it an interesting approach to evaluating career paths. Let me know what you think so we can make it better. 😄

By the way, where will an entrepreneur fall in this model? I would say anywhere between The Personality and The Oprah, depending on what type of entrepreneur.

But does any of this matter?

In 70 years, almost everybody reading this would be dead and buried. Many of us saw what happened to Jimoh Isiaq. What does it matter whether Jimoh was an Adam or a Braniac or an Oprah?

What matters is the goodness you’re able to do in your time here on earth. In Surah Al-Baqarah (Chapter 2), verse 177 Allah says:

It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces Towards east or West; but it is righteousness- to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfil the contracts which ye have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, it is those who are righteous.

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If you found this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends. Have them read it and subscribe. I like to share personal stories and life lessons I am learning. They will be super random, but common themes will include business, personal development, human relationships, and Islam.

Gracias, and see you around.

Hameed

*** side note:

Come come, you no do well at all. You read all the amazing content I put out regularly and don’t share? Rubbish and nonzence. Forward this link to your friends.

Haba.