When you’re trying to decide what career you want to pursue, finding your passion is one thing, and then actually turning those interests into a career is another.
We chatted with UTS Bachelor of Accounting (Cooperative Scholarship) graduate Haider Khan (currently Interim General Manager, Strategic Delivery at icare NSW) about how he decided what career he wanted to pursue, and how that was made possible through UTS.
How did you decide what you wanted to study?
In year 10 my favourite subjects were Business Studies and Economics. I found myself naturally drawn to them and excelling in both. From this, I figured that if I was good at something and was keen to learn more about it, then why not pursue it as a career?
I was aware of the Bachelor of Accounting at UTS as someone by chance had mentioned it to me. I looked further into it and even got in touch with some of the people who were in the program, asking them what they did to get in.
I found myself in a fortunate position where I knew what I wanted to study, where I wanted to study, and it was in something I genuinely enjoyed. In the middle of my HSC year, I interviewed for the program and was given a preliminary offer shortly afterwards. This put me at ease during my final HSC exams, knowing I’d already secured a spot in a course I’d been working so hard towards.
How long have you been passionate about the field you’re in?
Growing up I always heard murmurs from my friends and family that if you wanted to be rich and successful, and if you really wanted to be ‘somebody’, you needed to become a doctor or lawyer. Neither of those careers sparked any real desire within me so I went against those voices and decided that the commercial side of the business world was where I wanted to be.
Early on in high school, I found myself reading newspapers like the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review, and diving deeper into articles around the biggest CEOs in the country. In my head that was the end game. I don’t necessarily recall a significant moment where everything just came together or whether I was inspired by something I heard or read. I just really enjoyed all things finance and business, and knew that’s what I wanted to do after I finished school.
Did you experience any roadblocks while working towards your dream career?
On my first day at UTS I was still 17 years old and I started in the summer session - much earlier than other uni students did. On day one of the program, I entered a classroom with 30 people I’d never met before and was immediately thrown into the deep end. My classmates and I were told that we’d be going on a multi-day camp with a random location, and that we’d need to form our own teams, figure out logistics and source food. Coming in, I knew the nature of the program and that’s what I was drawn to in the first place.
During my first year at uni, I began a six-month internship at Macquarie Bank. Having just turned 18, I felt out of place walking into a major bank having to work on things that had never even crossed my mind before. It was a challenging experience, but one I look back on as it taught me you must be willing to let yourself go outside of your comfort zone, and through the struggle is where you learn, grow, and excel.
Over the next two years I immersed myself into the industry, taking on an optional summer internship with Westpac, and working in the M&A team at a company called Brambles which was on the ASX top 20 list at the time. By the time I graduated I was still only 20 years old, but I had a year and a half of work experience under my belt. This set me up really well for the difficult transition from study into full-time work, when I moved into the graduate program at Westpac in the equities function.
I felt as though I’d bolted out the gates and things were looking good for me, but that same trajectory didn't continue once I entered the workforce. I found that once you enter the corporate world as a full-time graduate, there's a human side to the work. Whether you want to call it networking, forming relationships, or office politics, it isn’t something you necessarily touch on in your degree. However, UTS did equip you with the soft skills needed to thrive in the real world through uni-led networking events, examining case studies, and studying in groups, providing you with the know-how to collaborate and connect with people. It was evident that the success I’d experienced in my career wasn’t going to be determined by an answer I could simply provide on a piece of paper.
A few years into my career I was concerned at the progression I’d made so far. When I first started, I expected to be further along ‘up the ladder’ than where I now found myself. I needed to take a step back and realise that it wasn’t ‘the norm’ to be in the position I was at my age. I eventually realised that there’s going to be periods in my career where things move slower than I’d like, but that’s okay. It allowed me to look at the bigger picture and appreciate where I was at in the moment rather than having to constantly push on and not be satisfied until I reached my ‘end goal’.
How did you go about building connections in the industry you were keen to work in?
I was fortunate in the sense that through my course, UTS arranged two six-month internships for me in my first and third year. However, on top of that I independently took out a voluntary summer internship. I went over and above because I was genuinely interested in the work I was undertaking. For students these days, there's winter internships, there’s summer internships and even virtual internships. You just need to put yourself out there!
I really encourage the need for students to explore those opportunities, because that will be the separating point between you and other graduates. If you can demonstrate that you've already worked in the industry, that's a key differentiator. I can't recommend it enough for students to find ways of getting practical experience internships throughout your degree.
UTS also excels in building networks within industries. The reality is that a lot of what you study is theoretical and academic, and while that’s useful as a framework, things in practice are usually quite different. For example, in accounting and finance, you need to understand the concepts of everything you do, but the work is streamlined through a system, whether that’s Excel or something else. You might not learn the exact system and processes while you’re at uni, but UTS is excellent at trying to bridge that gap between academia and actual practice.
What are some of the most valuable lessons you learned while following the pathway to your career?
You need something that's going to differentiate you from everyone else because we're in a highly competitive, and highly credentialed world these days. There are a lot of smart people out there.
I would encourage students who are trying to figure out what their passion is, to try and find that sweet spot between what you're interested in, what you're good at, and what the market wants and desires. You might not know the answer to that straightaway, but it will come through talking to people, learning, studying, doing research, and working. That's how you're going to find that sweet spot.
One of the quotes I remember reading years ago, when I was trying to figure out what I was going to be doing, or where I was going to be studying, somebody said to me, “The difference between you now and you in five years’ time, is the people you talk to and the books you read.” In a way, I found that to be quite true because those become the ideas that shape you.
The other thing I’d suggest to students, is to use the time and energy that you have right now to learn certain skills, whether that's coding, financial modelling, architectural design, or whatever it is you're interested in. Master something, because that becomes the value you bring. Again, you won't know what that's going to be, but it requires you to try different things. Once you find that you can do something in a state of flow, and it's easy, or you find it interesting, you're reasonably good at it. Spend hours reading on weekends about it, because that will be the thing that makes a difference when you enter the workforce.
Even now, I don't know what my end destination is. When people ask me, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” My answer is, “Hopefully happy and healthy.” You don't know what the next job is going to be, what the next industry you work in is going to be or what your career is going to look like.
We live in a world where people have a portfolio career, which means you might be an engineer, a management consultant, you might even decide to become a painter later in life, and that's okay. We live in a world where that's possible now, so it's okay if you don't know what the answers are.