Abisola Okuk started at the Institute as a temp and turned a twelve-week assignment into a launch pad for a career in finance at MIT. Now in her eighth year, she looks back and is amazed to see where this brief stint led her—to the Media Lab, to the Sloan School of Management, and today, as a Senior Staff Accountant on the Accounts Receivable (AR) team in the Office of the Vice President for Finance (VPF).
One of her temp assignments was in the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Media Lab. From there she was offered a full-time staff job as an administrative assistant, providing administrative and financial support for the research group, and supporting Scratch team events. “As anyone who has handled events at MIT knows, it’s a great way to learn about finance,” she says. “I learned how to use all of MIT’s accounting and financial systems from SAP to Buy-to-Pay. I also helped prepare budgets for grants and learned about research administration in this role.”
Next, Abisola moved to the MIT Sloan Office of External Relations (OER) as an operations coordinator. She handled financial matters, and co-led a team to address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with an aim to infuse some new ideas into the team. “One idea was to better align our spending with our DEI goals. We worked with VPF’s Small and Diverse Business program coordinator to analyze and then diversify our spending to support smaller businesses, minority-owned businesses, and those that offered more sustainable products.”
“The common factor in these roles was finance. I knew I wanted to take my career in this direction, in a role that was fully dedicated to finance. I joined the VPF AR team in 2021 where I help manage funds that come into MIT, including domestic and foreign wire payments and provide support to DLCs who handle incoming payments. As we modernize our systems, I’ve taken on the project of process documentation and improvement. I love the team’s approach to customer service excellence and the spirit of collaboration and mutual support.
“When I came to the U.S. from Nigeria, I always dreamt of being grounded in my profession, even though I didn’t know what field I wanted to pursue. I learned that there are many ways to build a career and it begins with finding out what your interests are and pursuing them, no matter the odds,” she says. Her advice? “Explore what you like. Take risks. Stay open. Trust the process. Learn everything you can. Be a good team member. Focus on building great relationships. You can create your own journey.”