1. So my experiences will be divided into 3 parts. First I will talk about my academic journey/career; Second I will talk about how I then accidentally discovered another career option in Consultancy work and lastly my very interesting accident with Investment banking/brokering. https://twitter.com/mentorshipzim/status/1321924214429904896

2. Growing up, I wanted to be a lot of things, I just loved information and trying to master different trades. I initially wanted to be a lawyer but in the end biology won so I ended up taking a route towards medicine. To be honest, I was just an average student until I turned 1

3. Life became very real at that point, I was not performing well in Mathematics so my dream of becoming a doctor was not going to be a reality. Biology was a total breeze for me, I was top of the class in most assessments so the math had to be pulled up so that I could excel.

4. I can testify that New General Mathematics Book 3 and 4 saved my life and I got into A level sciences...everything looked like it was coming together. I had read ahead at least 5 topics in A level Maths during the O level holiday ...yeah I’m ambitious like that.

5. Sadly, I did not get enough points to make it into the medical degree(11), so I had applied for Occupational Therapy instead and somehow I was given Agriculture. I spent the first semester not attending classes and trying to switch degrees to no avail, so I withdrew!

6. I spent the most painful year at home waiting for my reapplication to go through and when it went through I was relieved. So I started my journey in Occupational Therapy(OT) which I must say is a very very good degree to pursue. I found it fascinating and really exciting.

7. It was during my time in OT that I discovered my love for Anatomy*. I just poured myself into trying to understand and master the human body. I would spend extra hours voluntarily dissecting bodies every free time I found. OT was fun, but anatomy just sucked me in.

8. The UZ has a special program called Intercalated Human Anatomy, which is a special degree one can get to pursue after their 2nd academic year provided they pass Anatomy in their first or second year with good grades.

9. After my second year I enrolled for that degree and thus began my career as a university instructor. I assisted in teaching a few courses at first and then later on when I enrolled for my Masters in Anatomy the course load and responsibilities grew.

10. I can tell you it wasn’t all rosy, it was hard, fees, work politics, personal issues etc but I just tried to keep focused on the ultimate goal at the time which was to be the best that I could, measured against myself. You need to compete against your own levels!

11. After my Masters I began to search for PhD programs to pursue. I graduated in 2012 and between then and 2016 I applied to more than 30 different universities and scholarships and jobs as well. I felt that I could not keep forcing the system to give me what I wanted.

12. Applying for scholarships is an extreme sport guys, but my advice is to never ever give up. I have some very beautiful letters of regret that I have kept to this day just as a reminder that your value is not determined by those who said No, but by what you did afterwards.

13. The second thing I would like to emphasize as someone who has been caught in a degree program I didn’t want to pursue is that do everything with an attitude of excellence. I was not super excited about OT, but during my time there I really worked hard. I put 100% into it.

14. Between 2012 and 2016, whilst trying to get into the UZ PhD program and facing many obstacles due to gatekeepers of all things education, I wrote 3 different PhD proposals. I mention this to encourage any1 to keep at it, exhaust a system by your desire to progress.

15. The silver lining in this is that the same proposals which were facing a lot of resistance became part of my CV. This is an important lesson, your efforts will be recognized some day. In 2015 one of the proposals I had got me an interview with HIV Vaccine Trials Network.

16. HIVTN wanted to help me pilot one of my ideas on low cost detection of neurodegeneration in HIV. I must mention that for me to get to this level, Dr A Matimba and Dr Stranix-Chibanda helped me a ton! Sometimes angels disguised as humans help us to the next level.

17. Suddenly, the proposals that had been a source of frustration for me then helped me to write personal and professional statements for scholarship applications. The products of your suffering may be the keys to unlock the next stage. Tough times can squeeze greatness out of u

18. I applied for the Fulbright Scholarship in 2014 which is one of the most prestigious scholarships globally...that is another point go big or go home. The worst they could say is No and that wouldn’t kill me. And they said No hahaha, it was painful but

19. 2015 a couple of friends and a former Fulbright Scholar pushed me to apply again, this time they told me to redo everything that I had used for my 2014 application from scratch. They critiqued my application and motivational statements and how to include my previous work.

20. I was then selected for interviews and because I had a track record of having an interest in Neuroscience and had kept going at it for a while, I advanced to the second round of the process which was writing GREs and TOEFL.

21. I read for my GRE over about 3 weeks intense using online resources and practice exams and got good enough scores to get my application to US colleges considered. TOEFL was a real pain, but I dug in and pushed hard and passed and on the 23rd of August 2016 I landed in USA.

22. My PhD journey has been very interesting and enlightening. I was coming anatomy where everything was macro in size and suddenly I was thrown into molecular biology and genetics at a very advanced level. Coupled with this, I also needed to do experiments I had never done!

23. That first year was a baptism of fire! Coming from being a lecture to being a severely confused and underperforming student really hits you hard. During that first year, my daughter was also born...it was really tough. But there was no option, I had to keep at it.

24. After the first year of graduate school, I had mastered subjects that I had never thought I had the capacity of understanding. We always underestimate what we are capable of and overestimate our inability to conquer. I am now in the final year & plan to graduate by next June

25. PhD tips: 1. If it works once, do it 20X and get all the data you need.
2. Failure of an experiment must not be taken personally.
3. Pay attention to detail, it saves you time 2mrw
4. Move an inch every day on your overall project. Never stop moving!
End of Part 1...