Tariq Khan

Profile

Subject of study: BA(Hons) Business Administration

Location of study: Edinburgh Campus

Year of Graduation: 2022

Current job title and employer: Audit Assistant Manager at AAB

What appealed to you most about Heriot-Watt?

Everything really, at the time I had offers from all my choices, so I really could have gone everywhere. However, my lecturer at Edinburgh College took us on a tour to Heriot-Watt, and I fell in love with the aesthetic, the grounds, all of it. It stood out to me as university that felt like a university. I also knew people who had gone there, and other universities, and the group that went to HW always felt like they were having a really good time, and the degree matters, but that bit matters too.

What’s your favourite memory of your time as a Heriot-Watt student?

When I went to HW, I was a mature student. I had left school when I was 16. I had ADHD at a time when support for that sort of thing was getting there, but wasn't there yet. As a result I felt stupid most of the time, and felt most of my teachers agreed with me, so I acted out accordingly. When 16 rolled around I was bursting to leave and do something else. I went to college, and messed around for a bit and bounced around jobs. I landed on my feet in an oil and gas career but after years of that I hated it, plagued with the feeling that I was unfulfilled and that I never quite scratched that itch of education. Mature enough to think that maybe I'm not stupid, and that perhaps trying hard and failing doesn't make me a failure I decided to pack it all in, move down to Edinburgh and go to college, get my qualifications and go to uni. I spent 8 months learning maths and physics on Khan Academy in my evenings to prepare for it and passed the entrance test. I apologise for the long preamble, but that is to say, by the time I got to uni, I was bewildered to even be there. My favourite memory of my time at uni is trivial things that I thought I'd never do, that I thought I wasn't good enough to do. Like sitting in the auditorium for a lecture for the first time, right at the front of the class, answering the teachers questions and getting it right! There's probably no greater moment of joy than that first time, the feeling that I might actually belong there. Also, all the projects, the team work, the lecturers, and all the wonderful friends I made along the way. My favourite memory of being at Heriot Watt was that I went there at all.

Tell us about your career since graduating from Heriot-Watt?

I worked all through my degree, as a property inspector, then eventually I because since my educational awakening I was bursting with enthusiasm for all things, I became friends with my boss, the owner of the company and began trying to improve the business in various ways, using the tools I was learning at HW to do so. He and I became very good friends, he's one of my closest friends now, and when I graduated he said, "What do you want to do now you're a grown up" and I said, I want to be an accountant. So he helped me apply to AAB in the audit department as a graduate. Since then I've been taking on the task of the chartership, alongside working, which is no easy task but has been unrelentingly rewarding which Is why i'm so excited about the partnership between ICAS and HW. With my usual level of enthusiasm I've thrown myself at the career first with audit but also with the emergence of audit technology I've become completely engrossed with how technology is advancing, AI, and how to shape our profession in the right way with the new tools and tech at our disposal. I took on various projects which I suspect the firm didn't expect a graduate to do, such as taking control of an audit technology software product and developing a training programme in my spare time for it so it would be adopted more widely in the firm than it was. I also became very good friends with the creators of that programme and have a beta platform with regular calls about new features which I test and advise on. I insert myself into any and all conversations about technology whilst maintaining my standing as a valuable audit professional in the team. The split focus keeps the profession exciting for me and I am exceedingly passionate about both. My nominations for this award have been largely to do with my work around technology in the firm, and about ensuring that we are the architects of the change rather than bystanders who get what they're given.

How has your Heriot-Watt education contributed to your success?

I wasn't able to think, before higher education. That's the best way I can put it. Clearly I used to be able to think, but not well, not in a grounded way and not with reliable information at my fingertips. When I took the plunge to go back into education, Khan Academy was a trickle, Edinburgh College was a stream and Heriot Watt was a waterfall when it came to my ability to think and rationalise problems. Heriot Watt told me to think about my arguements, about problems, about things I was passionate in a way that grounds them in research and objective truths, to play devils advocate and consider scrutiny and to articulate my thoughts in a way that was clear. Its a skill that helped me throughout my CA and throughout my career. I regularly engaged with my lecturers too, in debate, in query, these seasoned academics were a fountain of information and logic, but very well researched minds from which a developing brain can learn and be tested. Doing the business degree directly gave me tools that transfer to the work I do today, but the experience gave me more than that, I am a huge advocate for university and its ability to create thinkers.

What advice do you have for current students or anyone considering studying at Heriot-Watt?

Do it, come to the grounds, I'll take you personally. If you're going to do it though, don't do it by halves, really do it, throw yourself at it. I left a career behind to be at uni, and its the best decision I ever made. I enveloped myself in it, and I've been riding that high ever since. I devote myself utterly to everything I do and I'm a believer that if you put in maximum effort, then you never lose. You may not get everything you want, but you're always a winner because you left nothing on the table, and that makes you a winner in your own eyes, which are the only ones that matter. Dream big, dream bigger than you think possible and use your time at Heriot-Watt as a jumping off point. Throw yourself into the culture, join a club, make friends, play sports, be everything you want to be, because everyone else is just trying to figure it out too. At times it will feel insurmountable, but give it everything you have, pressure makes diamonds, discomfort breeds greatness, and all the other platitudes of that nature exist because they're true. If you want to be the best you that you can be, the only barrier to entry is you, and Heriot Watt will absolutely give you the tools to break through it.

What are your aspirations for the future?

For your career?

I want to be a leader in the technology and finance space. I want to be the bridge between the emergent and groundbreaking technology at our fingertips and the profession that needs it. People think of technology as the great replacement, for professionals in these fields, I disagree. I believe that the technology is a tool to be wielded, and we need eager, enthusiastic and curious individuals to do the wielding. I want to help shape the profession, raise literacy in technology across the sector and make us the architects of change rather than responders to it. I will continue to advocate heavily for technology, support my colleagues and peers in their understanding, and drive the profession to the heights I know its capable of because I believe in us.

For your local and wider community?

I want to be a leader that inspires other leaders. I was once a neurodivergent kid who thought he wasn't for things like this, that he wasn't for education let alone what I've achieved so far. If you'd told me back in 2016 that I'd be sitting here 10 years later, as an accountant, the boy that almost failed maths at school, I'd be hard pressed to even conceive a notion. With every new achievement I'm eternally grateful to all who have been on my journey with me and I want to project that on to others who come after me. To give young kids in my position hope, and an anchor that anything is possible. Equally I want to inspire as many people as possible to engage with new technology and be curious, because the change isn't coming, it's already here and we need to be ready for what's next.