You see, when I was about to move to a new country, I registered with different settlement agencies with the hope that their services will help ease my integration process. One of these agencies was Prepare for Canada. As part of the benefit derived from this agency and in collaboration with Predictive Performance International, I was selected to complete the Drake P3® Communication Survey with the main objective of creating a predictive personality profile just for me. This profile was expectedly meant to increase my self-awareness as well as help me understand my behavioural style and motivational requirements. Result of the survey was further expected to reveal my "supposed" communication and leadership styles, amongst other things whilst also help me to present myself as a suitable candidate to prospective employers.

During my job search, I was confronted with the need to identify my person in the form of a "cover letter". Being someone who would rather blow another person's trumpet rather than hers, it was a major challenge for me moreso as the cover letter had to be adapted to every job search. The result from the Drake P3 communication survey became useful in this regard as it helped me create a background template that could be easily tweaked. In every of my cover letters, you would find the following:

"I am an attentive and perceptive listener who places a lot of importance on cooperation and teamwork. I can set clear time frames to complete projects through careful action planning and work prioritization. Self-discipline and thoroughness of work are key attributes that guide my orientation towards work.

In the words of the Chief Executive of a foremost Trust Company in Nigeria: “I had the privilege of working with Bolanle Oyelade on a number of joint projects and transactions and I find her to be an extremely intelligent and highly resourceful young Lady. Bolanle is a thorough-bred professional and she has impressed me severally with respect to the pace with which she comprehends, takes full responsibility of and delivers on tasks. She exhibits traits of maturity and good demeanour even when faced with challenging situations and she often goes the extra mile to ensure a win-win situation for all parties concerned. Above all, Bolanle is very trustworthy with a very high level of personal integrity. It was a real pleasure to have worked with such an amazing personality at different times. (linkedin recommendation)”

The above brag was supposed to help boost my chances with prospective employers and oh yes, it did. My name is Bolanle Oyelade, a qualified legal practitioner from a culturally-rich West African country, Nigeria. I am a thoroughbred professional who currently makes the beautiful and amiable land of Canada her home. I am wife to a very wonderful and supportive man; and mother to 3 lovely children - a boy and twin girls.

Above and beyond the foregoing, how do I define myself? I see myself as a dearly beloved, ransomed child of God who (for a while) struggled with the concept of God's forgiveness and grace due to constant reminders of past choices that I wished could be reversed. I am still work-in-progress, clay in the potter's (God) hands, and silver going through the purity process.

Bolanle