I am Shahryar Qazi (Shery), originally from Pakistan and moved to Finland when I was 11. From the start, I never knew what I really wanted to do with my life and had not found my purpose. When the time came, I chose business studies, which is an international business in English, sounded good. Therefore, I applied and got a study place at Metropolia Business School. In the beginning, it was hectic since I worked 40-60 hours a week when it was possible during the first semester. Up to now, I have done the same, this usually meant sleeping anywhere from 4 to 6 hours every night. I started in IBL Group of 2018 (INTPROG18_C) and back then I had no idea what my specialization would be until I had my first contact with accounting and finance course, especially stocks, bonds, and all corporate finance in general. Then I knew that I would specialize in finance and continued to study finance in two other UAS as well. I finished my specialization a semester earlier than others which took immense focus, resilience and discipline. For me, there is only left my thesis and internship which is ongoing now. For me, to survive this amount of work and study there was one key practice and that was to relax and enjoy whenever you can and have free time because that charged me for the future.

Finding an internship was a yearlong battle full of many failures, opportunities, setbacks, and applications in which after I succeeded to land a position as an accounting intern. My internship is ongoing and the firm I am working for is a small accounting firm in the middle of Helsinki centre called Finacc OY. There now, I handle accounts receivables and accounts payables after which I will start as a junior accountant with my client portfolio. Working in a small company has many perks one is learning about entrepreneurship since I share my office with the CEO/owner/founder of the company from whom I learn more everyday about business, so I got lucky to have a position where I can grow substantially.

From my experience, one tip is to listen to Louise Stansfield and learn about communication, presentation, and CVs. Another tip is to have good contacts since me and many of my friends have found internships through their contacts. Beware of application tracking system (ATS) where the software will ditch your application if there are no keyword matches with your application and the position listing. Never applying to a place where you are not qualified (Masters required) since they will only drain your energy. 

• Remember to contact the HR person afterwards this just shows your more interested than others. 
• Remember your CV must communicate in a way so the HR person would like it or choose it above others, make your CV for others not for yourself meaning your CV should communicate with the reader.

Further information:

Find out more about Shahryar’s career path in LinkedIn!

Written by Shahryar Qazi
Edited by Nhi Nguyen, IBL 18