International Education Specialist, Tosin Adebisi

Hey everyone, welcome back to The Graduate Guide. Today we have an amazing episode in store for you. I'm joined by Tosin. Tosin is going to share all of his amazing wisdom for all the international students out there on how to launch an amazing career. Tosin, thanks for joining us.

Oh Jesus, oh boy, um, where do you start with that? No pressure, not at all, not at all. I've got all the answers. Um, no, it's a pleasure. Thank you for having me. Um, I'm really, really blown away by what you guys are doing in Ausell. Just so you know, I don't pronounce my H. You probably picked that up, so it sounds really weird. So if you're listening, that's— I'm saying hustle the company. So thanks for having me. I think what you're doing is really good to inspire young people, to get them— I wish I knew some of the things that you guys are trying to bring out early for students at the start of their careers. And I think I will share my own thoughts as a former international student, see how I can contribute to that. Everybody's journey is different, but I think hopefully we all have little nuggets we can share.

Yeah, 100%. How about we kick things off? Would you be able to introduce yourself and you're a bit— share a bit about your journey with our listeners?

Blimey, so where do I start? Um, so I was a former international student.

Yeah.

Um, so I came to this lovely country, uh, I don't know now, probably going on 20 years. I'm Nigerian and I moved down here to do a master's. I did my undergrad. I am Nigeria— I'm Nigerian, Lagos, Lagos boy, born and bred. For those of you who know Lagos. Ekaabo, that's my local language. Welcome, that's what it means. And I came here and I had family in London, but I think my early 20s at the time, so that was typical rebel. I could have chosen to stay, study in London, but I decided no. I went all the way to Aberdeen. I knew nobody. I just got up from Lagos, flew straight to Aberdeen. It was a beautiful experience overall, but I probably should have thought about that before I did that. Great experience. I did a master's Public Communications and PR. And, um, beautiful city. The course really gave me confidence. Um, before this, I was very, very nervous about public speaking. And if you do a course on PR, you can't get away with it.

Yeah.

So they had a very interesting way of teaching us and getting us to be experimenting. And overall, I did that, finished it, and then I got a job at the University of Portsmouth. So that was not the career I wanted to do. I would train everything to work in corporate communications to do something in CSR. So that was the career I had in my head. And then I went into university student recruitment. So essentially the international student, I started recruiting international students myself. I didn't even know that that was a sector that I wanted to really go in. And that's how I got into this career. And I've since then been an higher education baby. I moved from Portsmouth, moved to Sussex. And then from Sussex, I'm now at LSE, and I've done a lot specifically within the space of international student recruitment. But within that, you got to learn a lot more that every job, obviously there are skills in there.

Yeah.

And what skills do you develop? Sales, business management, marketing, comms. And, and whether I planned it or not, the work I learned from the uni that I dismissed, I thought, you know, why did I pay all this money? You know, we, we all think that sometimes. It's proved like I still remember that those things, I use them a lot. Yeah, in my role, and it's really helped me to get to where I am today.

So in terms of those things that you learned, what exactly were they? Because I think that, like you said, a lot of students do definitely struggle, and a lot of younger people in general struggle with public speaking, communicating well. What were those nuggets of information you learned that helped with that for you?

Okay, so there is a part where the formal and there's the non-formal. Yeah, the formal is what you will learn in the uni, where at the time you might be like, why am I learning all of this? It doesn't really make any sense. You will find out over time that usually none of this thing is wasted because you're practicing something. Yeah. So they got to introduce us a lot to doing presentations. They got to get us a lot to be thinking about storytelling, and those are skills that, you know, you just kind of practice, practice with your groups or, or alone. So that was— those really helped me. And, you know, I had supervisors that genuinely You know, every opportunity that you have as a student, you may not know it, but there are some people that they will make time for you.

Yeah.

And there were some academics that would take me under their wings and they actually help support me.

Yeah.

So all of those were the former things that I kind of helped me to be more confident. And then when you get into a job and you have to use these things, repetition, just you get better over time. I always tell people that everything gets embrace discomfort. It's the best way to learn anything. Yeah, it's the best way to grow. It gets better with time. I mean, we all still get nervous, but you just kind of like, we've done it so many times, you can freestyle. So now I get paid for doing things like facilitation a lot. I run sessions for people, training and development programs, and they're just things that come naturally to me because I've been so exposed to discomfort. So top secret is, um, embrace discomfort. A good example of that was When I used to go overseas to recruit students, one of the things you have to do is kind of like maybe go on radio shows and talk to students, and they are listening to you. And I did that quite a lot, and I would go like talk to hosts like yourself. I would tell them about my university, we have a good time, people will call in, you tell them about the university, it was great. And I remember one specific show that I went to, and the host decided to get me to play, switch roles and be the host. And I literally just choked. It never happened to me. I couldn't speak. I just froze. So the guy kind of just immediately noticed my discomfort and was like, okay, okay, and he kind of took it back and we carried on. I got back to uni and I was like, I've never experienced that before. I got really down with myself. And you know what I did? I decided to set up a radio show on campus. The best way you could deal with that is a radio show. Instead of setting up a radio show, a student-run radio show, Time with Sussex, and we did it for almost 3 years with current students talking with students who were stuck in traffic in Africa, and it was the best show ever. I mean, what an award for it. Oh, but essentially, I just— that helped me to overcome that fear, and then that led me to then creating a podcast of my own. And I now do podcasts as something that is now quite fun, and I'm comfortable hosting shows now.

Yeah, so I guess there's, there's 2 real pieces of nuggets that I took away from that. First is to never see things as pointless or not useful, and actually a lot of those stuff that you're practicing at uni, so presentations, storytelling, actually then is very useful later in your career, where even though you may not see at the time. And then the second element of that is obviously, like you said, lean into that discomfort. If you do have fear around anything, then just, just tackle that head-on.

Could you summarize it better? It's just about portfolio. It's called— I think they call it, um, almost like, um, skills, your trading skills.

Yeah.

So you just keep acquiring them, even though they may not seem relevant at the time, is a skill. And you will not know when the time will come to trade that in for something.

Yeah, completely makes sense. Yeah, in terms of throughout your journey then, obviously you said you've now been at a lot of different universities along the way. You mentioned there kind of a moment where maybe you look back on as a bit of a setback. Um, are there any other setbacks that you kind of look to as being really pivotal in your journey so far?

Um, I don't know, I'm still kind of seeing myself like I'm always learning and growing, so every setback is a bump. Yeah, it's not even a back. In a way, it's almost like one step forward, one step back. So you, you're pretty much still— yeah, you're in the same place in a way. Um, so I don't see them— I just see them like it's— we continue this journey and there's just a bump. And so if I was to look at the— some bumps that I've had, because it's only a setback when you kind of like stop trying to do anything in that direction and give up on it, right? Is I would probably have learned to work smarter, not hard, uh, work not harder.

Yeah.

Uh, I think that's probably one of the setbacks that I take on so many things and I try to do everything, but in, in, in life and in especially in the days we have now, there are tools that you can use and there are ways that you can work where you can be a lot more smarter. In your work, and for especially when you're in a working space where you're working in a corporate environment as an employee, your leaders want results and they want impact depending on whatever that is. And I think being able to align yourself very quickly with what they want, what you want, and what your passion wants, and where you find that golden triangle somewhere, but making sure that you're actually working smart and you're delivering things that people can see because I think the setback, I would say that was, I was, uh, maybe I took on a whole lot of things. I was doing so many things, but I was not always very strategic in where I wanted to go early on. And that's fine too, but I think at some point you need to, they say if you don't know the direction you're sailing to, then no wind is favorable.

Yeah.

So I guess in a way, uh, I think one of the setbacks was I kind of like I've gone around so much and I wasn't very, um, but intentional.

Yeah, no, I can, I can definitely resonate with that. I think early on in, in my career so far, I've been also somewhat guilty of that, of saying yes to too much. So in terms of how you've learned to actually say no to stuff and how to be more intentional, that just comes down to looking at, like you said there, the Golden Triangle— what aligns with your passions, what aligns with what you want in life, essentially.

Yeah, I think that's, um, that's it. I still— and also, we're all different, you know, we all have different values. We all are with different people. And also it's just one of those ones where sometimes you just need to accept people as they are and see people that you make mistakes, they make mistakes, and see the world as it is in that way. And just understand that, you know, see the good in the workspace, cuz attitude is key.

Yeah.

Cuz the minute you, even though you might see things that you don't particularly like and it kind of hurts you in the workplace, um, Attitude is everything, and the minute you kind of maybe you see only the negative, you will show up in that way because your sphere of influence is really— it starts from inside, really. That's really it. So I think, um, for me it's okay, these are the things I'm passionate about, I know what I'm passionate about, what my values are, and I will follow through on those. So, and a job is only a job if you make it a job. That is, I think, is the answer to how I found my way around that, which is, you know, I— a job is whatever you kind of make it. They pay you to do a specific role, do it well, but what influence can you have? What can you create? So doing the things like the podcast, I'm doing things like the radio show, see them setting up, um, applying for grants within my institute, um, at my previous universities, that then pulls in other people I don't know, different ways that you can create value within your immediate cohort. I think that was, um, my way of then being able to show the impact that even my job— I went beyond my job, but it allowed me to follow my own passion. And other people started to notice that, and they were like, oh, this is an interesting way of working, this is a different approach. And that's been very helpful because you're creating value. And I think if you're creating value, you know, may take a while, but you know, like our new prod said, be so good they can't ignore you. Yeah. You know, there is logic to that madness. I think it's kind of like helped me.

Yeah, no, I completely agree with that. I think that, yeah, that's very great advice for anyone listening. In terms of now then, your role at LSE, what are your main kind of focuses? What are you working on at the moment?

So I manage the programme for African leadership at the LSE, which is great. Been there for about 2 years. Very different. I'm not travelling overseas anymore, which is a shame. We got to travel a lot in my previous role. Was kind of like Middle East and Africa were the countries I was responsible for. I was usually on the road most of the time. But the thing is, again, it goes back to those skills that you cannot trade in because even though this is not a student recruitment role, it's working with young people and being able to engage them in like what their career plans are, you know, their skills, their development, but all within the leadership, um, prospect. How can they be, you know, um, show up as leaders, not just for the future. I kind of don't like using the word future leaders anymore because we need them today.

Yeah.

So how can they— and when I say they, including me, you know, am I modeling myself as a leader? But also a book by Robin Sharma, Leading Without Titles, you know, trying to get that into them. And not everybody needs to be the typical title position? How do you lead change? So that's kind of like what I'm trying to embed, um, not just at LSE but across the UK. Um, I'm keen to create a space for African diaspora students who have often forgotten, and how do we connect them with their counterpart, their peers on the continent? Yeah, because there's massive population of students and they will remain here. How do we make sure that they are still plugged in and then change the discussion around brain drain. So we had a recent event this week, it's a few, we called it at LSE, we have our speaker series and we had the topic, it was on brain gain, brain gain and the new conversations around brain circulation. So it's almost like, how am I trying to influence students and also colleagues to think differently in how we see, in how we do and in how we act. Yeah, so that's kind of like what the role is. Nice.

No, I love that. In terms of one thing I want to kind of touch on there is the leading without titles. How, how would you recommend people to do that, bro?

It's a, it's a lot. Again, it's so that they always see it in 3 ways. There's the individual, there is the institution, and there's a system. Yeah, so obviously we all work within environments. Yeah. And that could be the institution, but and you can't control that. And I think it's first thing is, it was that— is it— was that Serenity Prayer, you know, know what you can control or what you can't control. And I think when you have a good sense of, okay, then you wouldn't be upset if you're trying to make some change, but actually you don't own the organization, at least not yet. So what is it that you can control within your sphere of influence? Because your sphere of influence is bigger than you even can think about, much bigger. I think that's really first limitation is, because we work in organizations and we really get told, we're going to pay you for this, you're going to do this, and you have to report to this person, you have to report. That's kind of like how we've worked. But actually, if you want to lead without a title, that just means, first of all, the culture in which we work. People usually say it's the culture, but I tend to disagree because culture is people. They are people. So we are culture.

Yeah.

So in a way, it starts off with, okay, how you show that to other people. You cannot change anyone else once you change yourself.

Yeah.

So essentially, leading without title just means, okay, I want to show people— if it's— if you're a creative person, what is— what is your— what are your strengths? What are your top strengths? And it's easier to build on your strengths than to start building your weaknesses. So just play to your strengths. What is it? Either— you would know, some people, you know, that zone of genius, zone of competence. There's certain things that you know that you're just better at than other people.

Yeah.

It just comes naturally. It's like your superpower. We all have them. It's sometimes they're difficult to figure out, but they're there. Me, for instance, I can sit down right now and I can come up with a creative solution and I can connect it to, to other things immediately.

Yeah.

And people like, oh, it's like, it's just come naturally to me. And I was like, you, when I see you write and I see you do reports and I'm like, oh my God, how do you do that? You know? So I think it's find what that strength is and then use that, own that, to bring people together. Yeah, it's about creating a community. People see what you're good at, then you use that to do something. But because they say that success is a worthy struggle, find a worthy struggle. What is something that, you know, you see that is a problem? Every problem is an opportunity. For me, if I see problem now, I just love them. Yeah, I don't even shy away. I'm like, I'm like a dog with a bone. Like, how can I solve that? So that's like my superpower, because I immediately, I try to see solutions, and I've done it so many times that some solutions I've done, I can see it easily fitting for or replicated somewhere else. Yeah, does that make sense?

No, that makes complete sense. So obviously, throughout your journey, you've worked with a lot of international students. What would be the biggest piece of advice you would give to international students now who are maybe feeling very uncertain about the future?

Well, I would probably say that it's not just international students, probably all students now. Yeah. The times are different. So it's funny, it's just like, what, almost 20 years? It's a long time, but still, it's amazing how things have changed, you know. So I think I would probably say that dance to your own tune, whatever that is, and it may not be the popular music, and some people may not hear your tune, but that feeling that you have about what you want to do, you can pursue it. I should pursue it. Yeah, because there is a reason why, especially when it's something that you wake up or every other day you get a feeling that you feel bad that you've not pursued something. You know, we have that voice in our head. There's a reason. I don't mean— I'm not religious, but there is a voice there that tells you that that's what you should be doing. That's what I think actually my biggest regret is, is, you know, not listening enough to that voice. And I kind of have a feeling that this thing, I just feel bad, I feel bad I'm not doing it, and I started to listen more to that. But that said, you need to be gainfully employed, you need to be able to find something to keep, you know, to feed and live, right? Is if you take a job, if that's what you need to do, do it. Whatever you need to do to be gainfully, to keep yourself going. But whatever it is you feel like, there is that voice that tells you you need to be doing, just even if it's something you do a little bit every now and again, just keep doing it. It's about, you know, it's a cumulative effect. Yeah, just give me whatever it is. I would say that that would be my, my biggest advice is just whatever it is that you feel like it's a call. I don't— maybe calling might not be the word, but you have a voice that tells you that this is what you might be good at and you're interested in, just pursue it along. And we are now in the age where we're in, the side hustles are all over the place. You can, you can even just not do it as a side hustle, you can do it as a project, you know. And I would say that that's where you may end up finding that balance of passion but also, um, income. Yeah, I think that's probably the sweet spot.

I think that kind of, it kind of seems like that links very heavily with what you just said previously as well, about kind of finding your superpower. Would you say that the way you'd recommend students to do that is by a similar kind of, I guess, phase of exploration where you just try different stuff until you figure out something that you're really good at. And then, like you said, you can really leverage and something that you're then passionate about, and then you find that, that kind of point where it intersects.

Yeah, I think, I think you're right, Charlie. I would probably say it's also if somebody gives you an opportunity, kind of take it. Yeah, even if you— some of the best things that have happened to me are the ones that almost turned down. Even one of my— well, we don't want to get romantic here, but even somebody that ended up becoming a very good friend of mine, I almost ended up not going to that house party. Yeah, because it's just in the mind, you don't want to go, but I mean, I went and it's one of the best decisions. It's just an opportunity in life that random people network, and I met somebody amazing there. Yeah, we're still very, very good friends still today. It's the same with business. When you have an opportunity that has been put in front of you, kind of test it out. Even if maybe you're not even feeling up for it, you know, just try it. Especially if it's an opportunity to connect with people and then build that network and just try those, um, superpowers, whatever they are. I mean, whatever you find your superpowers, you will know.

Yeah.

And then it's the kind of thing that So for instance, if I was to write, um, write a report or something, I know it's not— I can do it, I will do it, because I've had to do it all my life, but it's not something that I particularly am as good as some of my colleagues that I see that almost like it's, it's like they're on— they are in a different level, you know. So for me, it's, um, it would be trying different things out, being— don't worry about how it would look, um, test it out, experiment with it. And if you have a really good idea, it's easier to show than to tell. I think, um, for— I mean, that's something I had to learn the hard way. Sometimes it's also easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. Yeah, you need to know the context in which you're in because I don't want to get you fired. But sometimes you need to show people results than to tell them.

Yeah.

And some way, the best way to just do that is just have a small example of you successful. So while I was in my previous roles, I might just get a few friends together, a few colleagues together to validate an idea, to test it and pilot it, and then show it and like, oh, that's interesting. Hmm. And then you can then see about when I go overseas, I can then try it with some students and things like that. And yeah, I'll probably say, yeah, just try things out, pilot it, and, um, find your, uh, allies. Yeah, you need champions. We all do.

How have you gone about finding, finding allies throughout your career?

Funny part of it is some of my biggest allies, or I've got champions, are not even people that I got to know one-to-one. Yeah, that's kind of like the weird thing in the world we're living in now. So there are some people was online couple of people, and it was just they noticed the way I work, I noticed the way they work, just go in touch, message, LinkedIn. And you know, there's always value, there's always things that they find mutual. When I see something that is relevant to them, I share them, I'll bring them into it. When they see something, just make introductions for me. So it's all about it, just say, Tosing, I'll just get a random man, just, I'm introducing you to this person on LinkedIn, and they find this random person talk to— you guys talk to each other, and then this random person will jump on a call on Zoom, and we— now we're doing business together. Yeah, do you see what I mean? Really like creative stuff together. And the second one is just, um, you know, to find the champions. It's about thinking, um, what's— it's— it may sound a bit harsh, but what's in it for them? Yeah, um, you know, it's important that you also kind of think about it. Other people, you know, it's about what— okay, I'm coming to you with this, you want for— ideally for you to help me out, but why should they care? I mean, not everybody is like that. Some people are more likely to— like I said, people are different, just accept people like that. But especially people you don't know, you kind of have to think about what's in it for them. And usually it's kind of, um, they all have their own frustrations and their own targets and goals, right? Yeah, so I usually always ask, um, if it's more senior people, I think about what keeps them up at night in the role and how can I help them solve a problem. So once I think that— no, not everybody does that for bosses, you know, and bosses are you people. They all want to be liked.

Yeah, they often like to keep themselves away.

Exactly, exactly. So that's kind of like how I've formed champions.

Amazing. I honestly, I think you've provided so much value to students, so I feel kind of bad asking this, but what would be your final best piece of advice that you'd give to students, maybe something that you would like to have told your younger self?

What advice would I give my younger self? I would probably not have gone to Aberdeen without knowing where it was. Jokes aside, I would say that just be your own best friend and don't You're as good as anybody else. I think, um, you're as good as anybody else. You're not better than anybody else. You're as good as anybody else. And just believe that.

I love that.

Believe that very, very strongly in everything you've got.

Yeah, no, I really love that. I think that's a really powerful way to wrap it up. But before we wrap up, thank you so much for coming on, Tosin. Is there anywhere where students can kind of find you if they want to hear more from you?

Oh yeah, it's, um, thank you, do a little plug. Uh, so it's the studentcoach.co.uk, uh, that's our platform. That's what I do with some of my other amazing people where we kind of provide support for students. We do coaching, mentoring. We also currently also doing our dissertation boot camp right now.

Nice.

That's another show we can talk about, the struggle and challenges of dissertation. So we're trying to do something in that space and we do a lot of, um, support for for students. So studentcoach.co.uk.

Amazing. Check it out, guys. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Really enjoyed.