Ali Kazi

Careers Network Mentoring Scheme
BSc Geography, 2019

Please tell us a bit about yourself.

Hi my name is Ali Kazi. I studied a Bachelor's of Science in Geography. I graduated in December of 2019. After graduation I was struggling to get a graduate job. Coronavirus hit and the graduate job market was completely gone. There were hardly any jobs available so I decided to start my own business.

The main piece of advice I would give to students about university life and careers is to take every opportunity available to you during your time at university. This may be being part of societies as well as opportunities you may find through Careers Network, work experiences, internships and even casual jobs. All of these things are instrumental in helping you gain valuable work experience and find what you're interested in and will maybe one day lead to a career in that field.

Please tell us about your experience of Careers Network Mentoring Scheme.

The Careers Network Mentoring Scheme helped me to set up my own business as well as giving me access to tailored advice to my life circumstances right now and giving me the boost, the advice, the person to speak to when I get stuck.

When I first met my alumni mentor, Victoria Baltag, who is a film director, she said to me one amazing thing which will always stick with me which is nothing is impossible. If you look at the word impossible it says I'm possible and that will always stay with me for the rest of my life.

You have a mentor/mentee relationship in which you get to know one another and after a while your mentor can give you personalised tailored advice to suit your interests and your needs, rather than seeing different advisers from careers network.

I didn't know what to do for my career, I was confused, I was in a limbo, not knowing what I should do, where should I apply, so I thought it'd be great to gain personalised help. My mentor has always been there for me. She's been really easy to contact email/calls and I'm really grateful for this opportunity. It's been very difficult since the pandemic hit and with the lockdowns there's been no events and my business has been greatly affected by this.

So I decided with the help of my mentor that I should study a Masters in film and television and my mentor has been so helpful and supportive in helping me having regular discussions about what I should do with my life and my time. I feel more confident now with my life opportunities. I highly recommend this scheme to everyone. And that's a wrap. Cut!