At school in Pakistan, Zulaikha was driven by curiosity and a strong affinity for subjects involving numbers, like mathematics and economics. She went on to earn an MBA in Finance, originally aiming to become a Certified Financial Analyst. However, after working in finance for a while, she found the role didn’t leave much room for creativity, and it became repetitive over time.
After five years in finance, Zulaikha shifted direction, completing a Master’s degree in Project Management. While working in roles that involved a lot of reporting using spreadsheets, she became fascinated by what technology could do to improve business processes. Her manager introduced her to tools called Tableau and Power BI - software used to turn data into clear charts and dashboards - and Zulaikha dived in, earning a Microsoft certification and putting these tools to use at her workplace.
“STEM careers aren’t reserved for people who studied technical subjects from day one.”
This unusual combination of finance, project management and data skills gave Zulaikha a unique toolkit. Today, she works as a BI (Business Intelligence) Consultant at Bupa Arabia, a healthcare company, where she brings together financial knowledge, leadership experience and data-driven insight to help solve business problems creatively.
Zulaikha considers her most important achievement to be successfully moving from a non-technical career into a technical one. By continuing to learn - taking courses, working on real projects, and applying new skills in practice - she bridged the gap between her finance background and the world of data and technology.