Persona in Progress

Fourteen years later, the dots connect in the most beautiful way…

I came across a Facebook memory this week, a photo of me holding my final design model during Architecture school, and it made me stop in my tracks. I was exhausted, slightly delirious, and unbelievably proud. After all the blood, sweat, and tears, I had finally submitted my final design, complete with supporting drawings, presentations, sketches, and a beautiful model. You might think I’m being dramatic about the blood, but in Architecture school, we worked with sharp knives when creating our 3D models. I often ended up nicking myself while cutting out windows for my model buildings.

This photo was taken after I had completed my submission, just before heading off to dinner to celebrate with my girlfriends. I took it because I wanted to freeze a moment where I was holding something I had poured my heart into. And even now, I still think of that model as some of my best work. The pride I felt then… I still feel a little of it today. Wow… here I am, calling an architectural model some of my best work, even though I’m not a practising Architect. I’m a passionate FMCG marketeer. Younger Sheethal would be confused, excited, and probably rather shocked.

And honestly, she would be beyond proud.

She had no idea what life had planned for her. After a few months in my first job as a Furniture Designer, I found myself retrenched and feeling hopeless. I wondered if everything I had worked toward in Architecture had been a waste. My conservative Malayalee parents were worried. They asked hard questions such as: “Did we waste our money? Why aren’t you successful? After all these years, and now you are unemployed?” Hearing those words from my parents was frightening and humbling. It felt like the ground under me was caving in.

What I didn’t realise was that life was quietly steering me somewhere new. A few months before being retrenched, I had enrolled in a postgraduate diploma in Business Administration at Wits Business School. I attended evening classes after closing up at Kluyts and Co., the furniture company where I began my career. It was tough to juggle both, but it was also the very thing that changed my life. I stepped into a world filled with people who were curious, ambitious, and hungry for more. It was here that I fell unapologetically in love with Marketing. Everything clicked. Consumer behaviour, innovation, positioning, storytelling. It felt like someone had finally turned the lights on in a room I had always been stumbling through. I felt like I was coming home.

And then, almost miraculously, I landed a role at Nielsen, one of the leading marketing research agencies in the world.

I started in a very technical role in the Business Intelligence department, and I was thrown into the deep end from day one. I had to learn data analysis fast. For the first few months, I didn’t even understand half the automated reports I was building. I learnt on the go and tried to keep my head above water. With time, I grew. I moved into a more client-facing role where I trained FMCG marketeers on how to extract and analyse data. I gained a glimpse into the world of brand managers and their pain points. The travelling was exhausting… sometimes I was on a plane every few days. But I loved it. The novelty, the purpose, the growth. I wanted every session to offer real value and help people see data in a way that felt human. Later, during my time at Tetra Pak, I realised I was combining the analytical skills I had honed with the storytelling and design thinking I learned in Architecture, creating insights that were both precise and compelling.

Fast forward to today, and I am living out one of my wildest dreams. In my current role in Marketing Insights, I get to use the technical skills I learnt back at Nielsen and apply them to brand-building work here at Promasidor, an African food and beverage company with a footprint in more than 30 countries. I get to merge creativity and logic every single day. I get to tell stories with data. I get to do work that feels meaningful.

If I could speak to younger Sheethal, the girl in that Facebook memory who was terrified and hopeful at the same time, I would tell her this: it is all going to work out. Your Architecture degree will not go to waste. It shaped your eye, your discipline, your patience, and your ability to build something from scratch. Every late night, every painstaking detail, every moment of self-doubt had a purpose. Your flair for detail and your love for storytelling will carry you places you never imagined. Breathe. Trust the detour. Enjoy the ride, darling!

Looking back now, I realise the true marketing lesson from that model: the patience, creativity, and attention to detail I poured into it laid the foundation for my role today. I appreciate the marriage of art and science, where analysis meets storytelling. Sometimes, your first marketing lesson comes from the most unexpected place.