How the Parity Programme Helped Me Springboard My Career
By Gabriel Osamor, Business Intelligence Analyst at Brown Advisory
I was the first in my family to go to university. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do career wise so I chose Law. I didn’t know the difference between Redbrick, Russel group and post-92 universities so I picked the one closest to my home that I could commute to. I didn’t know back then that all of these choices would impact the career opportunities available to me after I graduated.
Despite being on a full time university course, I also worked full time hours in retail alongside it to supplement my family income. It was tough and a balancing act, but I did what I had to do. I ended up resigning in my final year because I really needed to focus on my degree.
In my final year at university and thinking about career choices I felt very lost and stuck. I didn’t have the best GCSE grades and I didn’t take A-Levels so I was worried that I would be impacted negatively in graduate recruitment. All the jobs I was applying to weren’t yielding results so reinforced this belief. I also wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, I just knew I didn’t want a career in retail. After applying to many office based jobs without success, I came across East London Business Alliance and their Parity project, which supports black men in obtaining employment in the corporate sector. I applied to this in the hope of it helping me to establish a career.
Parity provided me with soft skills training and the ability to speak publicly and network. It also provided me with the opportunity to attend various insight days at major investment banks, commercial law firms and other financial services corporations. My internship through the programme at Nomura was interesting in that it made me look beyond a career in Law, and exploring Financial Services, something I hadn’t considered. This was followed by an apprenticeship at T Rowe Price in the Client and Investment Reporting team and included a secondment in the Equity Research team. This helped me to build upon my skills and to establish a passion of being an investor.
Whilst in this role I took investment exams with the CISI and CFA Institute of the UK. It can take individuals a couple of years to complete these but I was so motivated in achieving my goal, I completed them in 6 months alongside my work. In addition to this, I knew I had to create the opportunity for myself. As I was given access to other departments in the organisation and the tools to network through Parity, I used this to my advantage when I approached the Director of Equity Research a T Rowe Price. I managed to impress him enough to secure myself a secondment in his team; this was the first time that this team had taken a trainee like me. This meant that when I applied to Brown Advisory as a Business Intelligence Analyst, I had well rounded experience to draw upon and secure the job. I have been in this role for almost a year now and am learning lots.
When I think back to where it all started, the feelings of hopelessness in not knowing what to do and rejection after rejection for every job that I applied to, I’m so proud of how far I’ve come today. I’m grateful for the doors that have opened for me and the access I’ve had to opportunities that without the Parity programme, probably wouldn’t have happened. I still had to prove myself, but by putting me in front of the right people and providing me with the foundations, I have been able to establish my career in Investment Management. I wish every young person would have similar opportunities for whatever their passion lies in.