You’ve made several interesting changes in your career. Can you talk me through that journey?

One thing I have realised looking back is that there was no one big leap. My career has really been a compilation of pivots.

After finishing my Master’s in Edinburgh, I returned to North Macedonia and joined one of the country’s leading think tanks, Finance Think. Their work focuses on economic development, which aligned with my interest in emerging markets and developing the economy back home.

After a while, I wanted to have a more direct impact on decision‑making, so I moved into a role advising Members of Parliament. I worked for the Parliamentary Budget Office, where much of my work dealt with the economic impact of COVID‑19, particularly on international trade and tourism.

About eighteen months later, I made what was probably the biggest pivot of my career: moving into consulting. I joined Salience Consulting, a boutique firm specialising in digital infrastructure. There, I worked on everything from commercial due diligence and go‑to‑market strategies to business cases and internationalisation strategies across a range of technologies. I often joke that I covered the full spectrum, from subsea cables all the way up to geostationary satellites 30,000 kilometres above Earth, and everything in between!

That period was incredibly important for my career development. Shifting from local issues to international ones across 10 – 20 countries, was a completely different ball game, and the exposure was invaluable. In a boutique consultancy, responsibility comes fast, and I was a lead analyst in calls literally within my first hours on the job.

I stayed there for three and a half years, during which I began my Weekend MBA. Through the MBA, I had my first session with Career Services, where I confronted the big question: What do I actually want to do? Up until then, my career had always placed me at the sidelines - advising, analysing, consulting. I realised I was gaining a broad range of skills, but I wanted to apply them deeply within one organization.

That led to my final pivot. As I was finishing my MBA, I joined Meta as a Network Development Manager in Network Investments. I had worked in subsea infrastructure in a couple of previous engagements and I was able to leverage that experience to make the transition.

What existing skills have you been able to carry into your role at Meta, and where have you had to learn something new?

When I mentioned earlier that I was leading client calls within just a couple of hours of joining Salience, that mentality is something I definitely carried with me to Meta. You have to be flexible, and willing to look for a problem and solve it. You can’t, and shouldn’t, wait around.

But there was also a lot I needed to learn. The scale and breadth of the projects at Meta are unlike anything I’d worked on before. I had to become more open, and more proactive. I also had to learn to truly listen. The people I work with at Meta are, without question, some of the most talented and impressive individuals I’ve ever met. It’s such an honour just being on the same team as them.

Having made the move from North Macedonia to the UK, how has the experience been for you, and what guidance would you share with someone thinking of doing the same?

It was definitely a challenge! Part of that was simply adjusting to a completely new environment, but I also had to rebuild my credibility from scratch. Even with solid academic credentials and work experience, I had never worked in the UK before. I wanted a bit more legitimacy in this market and that’s why I chose to do my MBA at Imperial. It allowed me to keep working, continue my studies, and start putting together a long‑term plan for transitioning between roles.

My focus was on overcoming what in business is called the “liability of foreignness”: entering a new market where you need to establish credibility through your experience, your network, or in my case, through the MBA. It was a challenge, but ultimately it worked in my favour.

As for advice: London is incredibly global. No matter where you’re from, there’s almost certainly an organisation here serving that market. That ties back to my earlier point about pivots and leveraging your background. If you’re coming from Eastern Europe like I did, or have experience in regions like the Middle East or Africa, there are countless companies in London operating in those areas. Don’t sell your experience short. You have unique selling propositions that you should take full advantage of.

Another piece of advice is to surround yourself with like‑minded people. The world is more global than ever, and especially at Imperial you’ll find clubs and societies for virtually any interest. In the Business School especially, people tend to be deeply passionate about areas like consulting and finance. You can find your niche, bounce ideas off each other, and discover opportunities you might never have considered.

What is the biggest lesson that you've learned so far in your professional life?

For me, it really comes down to two things.

The first is that you have to take advantage of the opportunities in front of you. If you stay still and wait to see where the wind takes you, you’re unlikely to get very far. But if you proactively seek out opportunities, you’ll get far more out of each experience. Whether I was in a policy think tank, in Parliament, or later at Salience Consulting, I always sought to take on projects where I could have the greatest impact. And once you’ve proven yourself, very few employers will say they don’t want you to take on more responsibility or explore new areas.

The second lesson is that careers tend to unfold through a series of pivots rather than one big leap. You might start in one field, as I did in policy, and gradually move toward something entirely different. For me, that ultimately meant transitioning into more commercially focused work. In certain professions you might be able to make a big double or triple jump, but for most people the most practical and realistic path is incremental change rather than that one big moment.

This feels especially true in the current labour market. Switching sectors is difficult if you’re trying to jump too far too fast but it becomes far more achievable if you pivot gradually.