Here Sidiqullah tells us why he’s still using skills learnt at Manchester Met to succeed in the modern the workplace

Sidiqullah Aqil Mir is a Finance Analyst at Marks & Spencer Plc, after starting out as a Data Admin at Sodexo in 2021. He graduated with a BA (Hons) Accounting & Finance in the summer of 2021. Being an international student, he had additional language barriers to overcome to be able to make the most of his time at university. Despite these challenges he has focussed on harnessing his soft skills he identified as being strengths over his course which proved the difference when looking for his first job. Since then he’s grappled with the modernising world of finance and technology to make a success of his first role and take on a new job in a field he loves working in.

What took you most by surprise about the world of work when you first started out?

I was very surprised by how much the basic accounting skills that I learned during the three years of my university education have been transferable into the modern corporate world, this helped me ace my first job and get the experience of big data I needed to be a success and move to my next role.

I soon realised that how we work with big data keeps updating and its integration into finance is evolving. In order to keep up with these changes, I actually use academic learning techniques such as note writing and explaining concepts coherently and concisely, I’ve learned from my course to improve work systems and add value to the business.

What support did you get from Manchester Met to help you find your first role?

Although I knew I wanted a career in finance before I started my degree, I sought out help from the university when I started looking for my first job in July 2021. My Personal Tutor guided me, and the Manchester Met Careers Service were really helpful. The Careers Service helped me revamp my CV and gave me extremely useful advice such as using LinkedIn to network. They taught me how to use the right language to grab recruiters’ attention. LinkedIn is how I found my first role. The new CV and LinkedIn contacts helped me get my first interview at Sodexo.

Manchester Met set up opportunities for me to connect with recruiters which helped overcome the ‘lack of experience’ issues I found when looking for my first job. This along with being able to demonstrate that the transferable skills I learned during my degree, like meeting assignment deadlines, delivering group presentations, working with different groups of people and using my initiative to achieve project success, helped me to match their candidate requirements.

 You’re in a role at Marks & Spencer Plc now, what steps have you taken to change roles?

A big part of building my skills and putting myself in a position to take on the role at M&S Plc was learning modern accounting software skills such as Sage, Power BI and SAP. I’ve also made the effort to understand the big picture of how businesses work in the real world. These plus the experience I gained at Sodexo meant I was ready to step up.

What top tips do you have for Finance and Economics students who are looking at planning their careers?  

I have three top tips for current F&E students:

  1. Have open mindset and never focus on one profession – the skills you learn in university are enough to choose whichever field end up wanting to go in to
  2. Focus on communication skills, as these are very important at interview stage, as well as in the workplace.
  3. Network, like I did on LinkedIn and at employer events. By doing this you’ll be speaking to people who have already achieved the success in their chosen finance and economics career, and they can help craft your career path.

As well as building on the knowledge and skills gained during his three years with Manchester Met, Sidiqullah used the Careers support here to help in his first successful job application. Find out what the Careers can do to support you at whatever stage you’re at in your future career planning https://www.mmu.ac.uk/careers/students.