Aizaz Hussain: International Business - EY-Parthenon
What degree course did you study and when did you graduate
International Business - 2016 grad class.
Why did you choose that particular degree course?
I was always very passionate about learning how things operate in the corporate world and wanted to get the best balance of numeric as well as business acumen hence this course provided me the balance I wanted for my career.
As I wanted to learn and understand businesses and markets with an entrepreneurial mindset, consulting seemed to be the best fit for me going forward in achieving it.
Tell us about your employer
EY-Parthenon is a strategy consulting firm which provides strategic advice to Csuite personnel to help them make decisions about going forward and achieving their goals. The client base is an even split between private equity firms and large corporates and we do everything from corporate strategy to due diligences for these clients.
What was the position you were recruited for. Please briefly outline the position you were recruited to within your organisation and summarise the business needs and role you fulfil
I was recruited for a Senior Consultant role and that requires me to be a work stream lead for projects and be a project manager when it comes to associates in the same project to coach and guide them as well to hone their skillsets.
What attracted you to this position?
I was always interested in coming back to the UK and try out consulting over there and understand how the western markets operate and what business opportunities lie. Coming from a varied background this is a good place for me to work on myself as an important part of a project but also be able to command a holistic understanding of certain sectors
What are the key skills you learnt at Warwick that have helped you with your career to date?
Warwick had numerous networking events, CV building workshops and alums coming repeatedly for having chats with students across industries. Having access to that built my confidence and helped me understand very quickly what was required from a job application point of view.
What has been your greatest career challenge to date and how did your experience and skills help overcome it?
Being able to navigate a different career to what I previously did in another country and it's something from being resilient and also open to learning and self reflection that helps you overcome it. It's a process and not a target to achieve, so being able to make quick incremental improvements is the way forward.
What top tips would you give to students looking for a career in your market sector?
To show competencies across leadership, openness to learning and feedback and actual impact even if it is small. Being able to quantify such things and being able to be at a good base level with excel and power point should be sufficient to get a good start in consulting.
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were applying for jobs?
How much technical skills play a huge part in your early career development and finding different ways to challenge yourself to get better at those. And have a very fun, out of the box thing about yourself that helps you stand out.