My name is Luke Amolo and I’m a civil engineer by training and an accountant not only by
training but also by passion. I hold a first-class bachelor’s degree in Applied Accounting from
Oxford Brookes University and I look forward to graduate with the same in my engineering
degree come September. Besides, I have completed my CPA(K) as well as ACCA professional
qualifications achieving distinctions in both to emerge top nationally and globally.
My decision to study the duo was informed by the need to bridge my quantitative skills with
a deep interest in modelling real-world business problems to help companies succeed. This I
discovered in my high school studies where I emerged top in several Mathematics and
Business contests eventually winning a scholarship to study at Strathmore University.
Cumulatively, I have gathered over a year of work experience done via 5 internships the
most notable being at Equity Bank Kenya Ltd. In 2019. As a relations officer, my role was to
build and maintain customer relations by offering excellent services in both deposit and
withdrawal transactions. The experience was exciting considering my young age and lack of
experience having come fresh from school. I had to quickly develop my communication skills
to address customer issues satisfactorily and in a professional manner. Consequently, the
branch realized a significant increment by both numbers and speed of transaction
processing.
Next, I interned with Standard Media Group in internal audit with a specific focus on
compliance. I was expected to assist in ensuring utmost compliance with regulations by
monitoring the risks of non-compliance and providing recommendations for improvement.
The opportunity was very intellectually challenging as I had to apply my problem-solving
skills to deal with compliance issues never encountered before. Some of our pioneering
work was eventually adopted as part of the organization’s best practice.
Lastly, I worked as a fellow within accounts payable at Tsavo Real Estate. My main task was
to provide operational support to the rest of the organization through efficient processing of
payments. I specifically loved this experience as it gave me the opportunity to use my
analytical skills in reviewing existing processes to identify potential inefficiencies for action
towards optimizing operations. I also enjoyed the teamwork and support from
management.
With these, I feel ready for new challenges hence the move to pursue a career in consulting.
The move to pursue consulting as a career is after thoughtful decision-making and today, I
am more than convinced consulting is the best career choice for me. Foremost, from my
background search of the profession, I I’ll enjoy all aspects of the job and secondly, I believe
that I’ve got the right skillset to become a consultant after objective self-reflection.
Let me begin by explaining why I’m going to enjoy being a business analyst. The main reason
is the impact I believe I will have since I will have the opportunity to work on the most
pressing issues for clients. For me, this is the whole essence of a profession and meets my
expectations of driving desired impact on the society around directly and indirectly in my
own small way. It would be a thrill to see how my ideas influence a company’s performance.
Secondly, not only do I hate doing routine tasks but also, I’m I interested in exposure to
diverse learning opportunities. This is exactly what a career in consulting offers considering
the variety of projects you work on. Therefore, I would find it stimulating working on new
projects every so often and understanding how businesses work or can be improved.
Lastly, it’s because of the people working in consulting. All the interactions I’ve had before
with them left a strong impression on me. I found them to be well-articulated and capable
of taking a high perspective on a variety of issues. This is the kind of professional I look up to
become. Next on, I’ll explain why I believe I’ve got the right skillset for the job.
Firstly, as an engineer, problem-solving is naturally a significant part of me. I enjoy moving
progressively from the problem to an actionable solution. For instance, when I interned at
Equity Bank, I had to understand the reason for the long and never-ending queues in the
banking hall. I evaluated all potential reasons and narrowed down on time-wastage by
tellers on actions to stay within their transaction limits. Next, I gave a proposal to do deposit
and withdrawal transactions in turns with fellow cashiers to limit back office movements
which saw a tremendous improvement in transaction turnaround times.
In addition, I have also demonstrated my ability as a leader to convince people to follow my
ideas. As the ESA vice academic secretary at UoN, I convinced the careers department and
the faculty to change the organization of the annual engineering students’ conference by
highlighting its ineffectiveness occasioned by the drop in attendance in the recent past. In
conclusion I believe the combination of my skills, experiences and aspirations make a
perfect match with the requirements to effectively execute in this role.
