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How does a young man from Freeport, central Trinidad with “a love for rocks” become the Group Portfolio Advisor for a Financial Times Stock Exchange100 company and support the company’s leaders in defining the company’s future? Thirty-three year old James Derry tells MENtions how. James believes that at the core of it all, a career driven by your sense of purpose and passion will bring out the best “you” that the world can see and benefit from. This is how he started:

Growing up in Freeport, I remember a childhood filled with fond memories of neighbourhood play, school and church. My parents are Ministers of Religion, so I had a lot of exposure to church, which taught me many valuable life lessons. Outside of school, playing and church, books fascinated me a lot, particularly science books. I remember reading almost all of my science textbooks from cover to cover, many times over. I had no idea back then that in 2020, I would be a Portfolio Advisor for a Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE 100) company like Shell.

I started my career as a Petroleum Geoscientist. When I was growing up, I had never heard the term before. I would always hear geologist, geophysicist, or geochemist; a geoscientist actually encompasses all of these. While three of my main interests as a child were aircraft, rocks, and human anatomy, it wasn’t clear to me that these would form a major part of my life.

Upon entering Form Six at Couva Secondary School and acknowledging that self-funding a degree in aeronautics and flight training (which were not offered in Trinidad) would be difficult, I began to aim for an Open Scholarship.

I fell short of the Open Scholarship by a just few spots on the list that year, but I received a National Scholarship. I was incredibly grateful. This meant that I did not have to be a burden on my parents to fund this major stage of my life. I signed up for the Petroleum Geoscience degree offered by the Faculty of Engineering at The University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus. The late Patrick Manning and current PM, Dr. Keith Rowley both started their careers as Geoscientists. Apart from them, there weren’t many black men (especially in my age group) who pursued this field. This made me realise that I was on the right track. The added bonus to a career in this field was that I would be able to directly impact the national community, given how dependent we were on energy.

During my final year at university, I worked at bpTT to complete my thesis project and graduated in 2007. Soon after, I began looking for opportunities aligned to my career path and passion.

I thankfully didn’t have to search for long as in that same year, I began my long-term professional relationship with BG Trinidad and Tobago, now Shell.  Fate has indeed determined my path and I am grateful that I have also been able to impact the energy landscape in other countries as well, while having an absolute blast deploying expertise on ‘rocks’.

Thirteen years later, and I’m currently working in strategy, as Group Portfolio Advisor. In my role, I support the leaders and the executive in helping to define the company’s future and manage our global portfolio of assets, thus effectively helping to ensure our resources are invested in the right projects and assets across the Group in line with our strategy, and in response to the Energy Transition. A major switch from geoscience, I know, but as I matured in my career as a Geoscientist, I realised that I wanted to develop a greater understanding of the bigger picture. As I developed this, I further realised that I wanted to have greater influence on it. Thus, I decided to develop myself further via business roles, but within the energy sector.

Over the years, I have seen how a lack of stable and sustainable supply of energy can significantly set back the progression of individuals and societies. This is why I feel a strong sense of purpose to lead a career where I can have influence in delivering energy to the world. My career, I believe, helps me to fulfil that.

If you’re confused and still searching for a career path, think about people you admire and start to think about your strong interests, the things you enjoy doing. What are you passionate about? How can others benefit from my passions? At the core of it all, a career driven by your sense of purpose and passion will bring out the best “you” that the world can see and benefit from.

If after trying these options, you still feel that you don’t know enough about potential career paths, consider attending career fairs to spark an interest. Even if you don’t know someone personally in a particular field of interest, try reaching out. Be brave! It may very well pay off. Your conversation with that person may very well be the conversation that ignites a flame within you that the world is going to need.

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James is currently based in Europe.

(Originally published on Facebook, IG in June 2020)