Alumni insights: Annie and Emma

We catch up with two alumni from our community, discussing their time at Manchester and their subsequent carer-paths.

Annie Mbako completed a Biomedical Sciences BSc at The University of Manchester in 2007.

What is your current job title and place of work?
Diversity and Inclusion Consultant, Self-employed.

What is a typical day like in your job?
There is no such thing! In a typical week I try to reserve Monday for learning, Tuesday to Thursday for meetings and events and Friday afternoons with no meetings. I tend to do focused work in the mornings and active work in the afternoons.

Why did you decide to follow this career?
Necessity to create a better work environment for myself and other people.

What skills do you use in your role and how did your course prepare you?
Public speaking, negotiation, analysis and stakeholder management through weekly presentations in my form group, creating lab reports and working in a team, and research.

Did you always know you wanted to work in this role? What else did you consider?
No, I didn’t know it existed. I originally wanted to be a doctor then a banker.

What kind of experience have you found to be/would be helpful to pursing your current career?
Working in the corporate world and in small start-ups with various people. Leading groups in any setting in and out of work has immensely helped with my confidence.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
The fact that I have to learn different things and work on different projects and no two days are the same. I get bored easily.

What was the best thing about your degree at Manchester?
The best thing about my degree was discovering how adaptable I could be. I did a business plan for the final project.

Emma Dixon completed a Biomedical Sciences BSc at The University of Manchester in 2021.

What is your current job title and place of work?
Marketing and Communications Coordinator at Bolton Hospice.

What is a typical day like in your job?
No two days are the same! My role is so varied, working across a variety of service and income generation projects, which is what I love. Typically, I’ll spend time creating content for social media, updating our website, gathering stories and quotes from patients and family members, designing print marketing materials and brainstorming new fundraising ideas.

Why did you decide to follow this career?
I had done some volunteering in marketing at the University’s student newspaper and in Girlguiding, so realised that marketing aligned to my skills and interests.

What skills do you use in your role and how did your course prepare you?Communicating to different audiences is essential in marketing, and I had so much practice of this in my degree including report writing, poster presentations, engaging school children, etc.

Did you always know you wanted to work in this role? What else did you consider?
No, I thought I wanted to go into research but part-way through my degree realised I didn’t like labs enough to dedicate a career to research.

What kind of experience have you found to be/would be helpful to pursing your current career?
My extra-curricular/voluntary experience is definitely helpful as it shows real passion and dedication to do something for free.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
I enjoy how varied it is, how broad the skills I’m developing are, and also how rewarding and impactful it is to work for a charity.

What was the best thing about your degree at Manchester?
How flexible / how many choices there were. I could really tailor my degree to what I wanted it to be, even after I decided to move away from pure science.