Key Takeways:

• I enrolled in BS Chemistry; two professors talked me into Management Engineering — the first serendipitous turn of many
• From activist detention in Davao to economics at CRC to Media Pulse to ABS-CBN: none of it was planned
• When Freddie Garcia handed me Sales and Marketing with no sales background, mentorship made ‘yes’ posible
• Non-linear career are failure of planning — they’re evidence of adaptability
• The market rewards specialists, but it deeply needs sympathizers who transfer knowledge across fields

I wanted to be a chemist.

That’s the truth. When I enrolled at Ateneo de Davao University, I signed up for BS Chemistry. I had a plan. I had a direction.

And then the plan changed — the first turn in what became a thoroughly non-linear career.

The first unplanned turn

One semester in, two professors — Nova Olaco and Fr. Francisco Glover, SJ — sat me down. They made their case for the Management Engineering program.

Their pitch was simple: Management Engineering would make me more well-rounded. Critical and logical thinking, grounded in natural sciences, philosophy, and letters. I’d be sharper, more versatile, more prepared for the real world.

They were right. So I switched.

That was the first serendipitous turn. It wouldn’t be the last.

From activism to economics

After a period of activist work that landed me in detention in Davao, I transferred to Manila. My friends Rene Garcia and Caesar Cororaton pointed me toward graduate school at CRC — the Center for Research and Communication (CRC), now known as University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P).

Why CRC? Partly because it was an Opus Dei institution that intelligence operatives would be unlikely to peg as a hotbed of anti-Martial Law activity. But also because it was genuinely excellent for economics training.

I earned a Hanns Seidel Foundation scholarship. I became an economist. And through that work, I met marketing, advertising, and research practitioners — people like JJ Calero, Minyong Ordonez, Jess Dinglasan, Ely Santos, and Benjamin Dy. I found myself genuinely excited by what they did.

I never planned to get into marketing. But I was paying attention. So when the opportunity showed up, I was ready.

Saying yes to the next interesting thing

Then came Media Pulse, where I helped set up the Philippines’ first TV people meter. Then as Program Director of the Drug Association of the Philippines (now the PHAP- the Pharmaceutical and Health Care Association of the Philippine). Then ABS-CBN, first in research. Then running Integrated Sales and Marketing for the country’s largest broadcast network. Then media strategy for national candidates in the 2010 elections. Then Country Head of Omnicom Media Group. Then the 2016 presidential campaign. Then the challenge from friends to set up my own advertising and reputation company – LouderPH.

None of it was planned. All of it came from saying yes to the next interesting thing, building skills that translated across contexts, and being willing to be a beginner again.

Here’s the clearest example. When Freddie Garcia (then President of ABS_CBN) told me I was now Head of Sales and Marketing at ABS-CBN — with no real background in sales — I didn’t feel ready. I told him so. He told me he’d mentor me, and that some of his closest friends in the industry would too.

That was good enough for me. I said yes, and I got to work.

What a non-linear career actually builds

Here’s what I want practitioners to take from this — especially those of you whose careers don’t follow a straight line.

Non-linear careers aren’t failures of planning. They’re evidence of adaptability.

The skills you build in one domain almost always transfer to another, in ways you couldn’t have predicted. My economics and research work made me better at media sales. My activist years made me better at campaign strategy. My research background made me better at negotiation, because I always came to the table knowing more than the other side expected.

Yes, the market rewards specialists. But it has a deep and lasting need for people who can synthesize — who can take knowledge from one field and apply it creatively to another.

That synthesis is what serendipity enables, if you’re paying attention.

The takeaway: don’t apologize for the detours

So if your career has taken unexpected turns, don’t apologize for it.

That’s not a weakness in your story. That might be the most interesting thing about you.

Email: nicgabjr@gmail.com      X:@nicgabunada.com