Earlier this month the BES team supported one of their long standing school partners – Sarah Bonnell for their Enhanced Learning Day. ELBA arranged various events including a Careers Junction and brought along 20 business volunteers to work with the Year 9 students.  Among the volunteers was Head Girl from 2014 – Samiya Malik.

We caught up with Samiya after the Careers Junction to chat about how ELBA has played a role in where she is now.

First encounter with Canary Wharf
In 2012 Samiya arrived in the UK from Pakistan and settled down in Stratford. She describes how she will never forget her first day in Canary Wharf:

“We went into these big conference rooms where massive decisions are made, you have CEO’s, partners, the Head of CSR and graduate recruitment staff coming to talk to you – and they treat you at their level, you are not patronised, you are not just a student – you are someone who could potentially work for them one day.”

This first meeting with the corporate world and ‘city life’ as she describes it, spiked a motivation in Samiya. She describes herself as naturally curious, however she also believes it was the environment she was in that facilitated this curiosity.

Training with professionals
One of Samiya’s highlights was attending the Prefect Leadership training and interviews which ELBA coordinates between the school and a team from Citi Bank.

“I have been interviewed at Citi and KPMG – that level of professionalism I developed at an early age. It’s another opportunity you learn from ELBA – that firm handshake, be presentable and take time to answer a question…be confident.”

Developing ambition
The exposure to different professionals and companies helped her realise what opportunities were available to her and what she could pursue.

“Not everyone is born with ambition, but it can be created when you are given this opportunity. It becomes classical conditioning – this is what you are presented with, this is achievable”.

Samiya felt motivated to meet people with the same background as her.  She acknowledges that at times the lack of diversity in some corporate environments became a motivation for her to take on even more opportunities.

The importance of role models and network
 “I left my East London and small Stratford life to go to the big city”.

Another opportunity Samiya was presented to at 16 was visiting law firm CMS and this experience still stands out in her memory as one of the absolute highlights, which have guided her to where she is today. During a project with CMS and the Lord Mayor show, she got the chance to interview one of their ex lawyers – a female environmental lawyer who was running for Lord Mayor. This opportunity changed her perception of law and introduced her to corporate law and the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Being exposed to new opportunities
Samiya is currently studying History at LSE and wants to pursue a career in corporate law.  She has already visited 11 city law firms and completed a two month course at Harvard Law Summer School.

 “One the reasons I am grateful to ELBA is that the first question I get when interviewing at law firms is: ‘Why law?’ For me it’s not arbitrary – when I was in Year 11 I got an insight to what complex work looks like. I always had that starting point in interviews, which is why the exposure is important.”

Her advice to other students:

“Be curious. It’s the things you do not know, you should pursue.  I didn’t know I was city minded before I was exposed to it.”