“The Best Career Advice? Do What You’re Good At”

As a seasoned and passionate leader, Joi Patrick is responsible for developing and executing talent strategies that drive retention, recruitment, and growth for MRM’s global workforce.

Before being appointed global chief talent officer in 2025, Joi spent eight years as head of HR at MRM Detroit. In that role, she wore many hats – leading strategic inclusion initiatives across McCann Worldgroup’s North America region and helping scale HR programs across other MW agencies in Detroit.

Joi’s commitment to talent development is matched by her passion for mentoring young professionals and expanding access and opportunities for multicultural talent within the advertising industry.

She credits empathy as her most powerful superpower – an essential trait for building community and fostering meaningful connection and collaboration. Grounded in an understanding of others’ lived experiences, Joi brings mindfulness to every interaction, using it as a foundation for creating informal chemistry and a human-centred culture, even under the most challenging circumstances.

Have you ever heard the saying “Do what makes you happy?”

Looking back on my career, there’s a similar theme that consistently comes to mind when I think about finding meaning in my work. It’s a motto that I’ve quietly lived by – and, at times, shouted from the rooftops. ‘Do what you’re good at’! Essentially, in a more grammatically-proper way, do what you do well!

I know it may sound obvious, but this is truly the best piece of advice I’ve received, followed and shared with people striving to get to the next level.

It took me some time to realise that my career in human resources didn’t happen by chance.

For so long, I resigned myself to the idea that my path was not much of a path at all, and instead a series of opportunities I’d latched onto that simply floated my way. And if I’m being honest, I didn’t believe the success I had achieved was exactly intentional.

When I arrived at certain professions, it wasn’t because I had properly and carefully created or fully researched and vetted a plan for my life. Even when choosing what to study in grad school or which job to interview for, I always relied on this simple philosophy –– – to choose what I was naturally good at.

This thinking helped me achieve ‘meaning’ in my work, which is always credited as an important, if not the most important, career metric.

But it didn’t mean my career path was always easy. There were times when I questioned my skillset or wondered what impact I had made.

There have been many instances where I’ve stared across the table at someone I’m tasked with solving a complex problem and thought to myself, ‘This is a really difficult situation to navigate.’ It is in these moments that I look to past experiences and value my natural ability to ground myself while navigating complexity.

Looking back on my career journey, whenever I’ve reached a crossroads, I moved through uncertainty with intention, rather than t just using my intuition as a navigation strategy. I chose then to do the thing I’m good at.

Which simply put, is looking under the hood, poking around a little bit, and finding what needs fixing to get people back on track. I’ve learned the art of getting to know people personally so that I can help them professionally. It doesn’t mean I need to know the intimate details of their home life, it means I get to know what people care about personally – their goals, their motivations and what resources they need to succeed.

I’m part of a people’s business. And that’s what I’m good at.