The Champion Women Campaign next features Shazma ‘Shaz’ Meghjee, a Senior HR Business Partner at Experian. Shaz shares her career journey and perspectives on accepting challenges, embracing redirection and change, and what that could look like in a career. Shaz emphasises the importance of building a network to support your aspirations, and advocating for yourself in the workplace.
Shazma ‘Shaz’ Meghjee: My Journey
I am a British Asian Senior HR Business Partner at Experian. I’m Indian heritage, and my roots in East Africa influenced my upbringing. My mother came to the UK as a refugee from Uganda and my father is from Kenya, originally moving to the UK to study at university. My mum worked within the civil service and my father was an IT consultant.
Community, resilience, and knowledge are values from my Indian heritage that have shaped my career journey and ultimately led me to a career in HR. Funnily enough, my earlier aspirations were to be a General Practitioner (GP), before I directed my love of working with people and problem-solving to HR. Growing up, a lot of the people around me were in the medicine field – pharmacists, nurses, and more were the jobs of those around me. However, after completing compulsory work-experience at a GP Practice at 15, I reconsidered. I didn’t think being a GP was right for me.
So, I swapped chemistry for psychology when selecting my A Levels, and eventually went on to study psychology at the University of Birmingham. This is where the journey to my current role as a Senior HR Business Partner at Experian began to take shape. When I was considering career options in my final year of university, my personal tutor asked if I had considered a business psychology angle in my career pursuits.
This led to me applying for about 60 odd jobs within HR and Marketing that involved business and psychology. Eventually, what really kicked off my HR career was the role I landed via a graduate scheme at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). I stayed at RBS for five years, fulfilling various consultancy roles, before being made redundant. I used this period to have a career break and do a bit of travelling. It was after my career break that I got a role as a Business Partner at Experian. I then worked my way up and into my current role as a Senior HR Business Partner.
My passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is an integral aspect of my job at Experian – I recognise the part I play in ensuring my business team understands the importance of DEI in all they do, and I value the importance of representation. I saw the value of DEI when I was one of the few colleagues selected to visit our small Experian community in Hyderabad, India and share my insights with the wider team. It was really a proud moment for me to have been chosen to visit our team in Hyderabad and feedback to my team in the UK.
My words of advice for young women navigating their careers involves three key pieces:
- Build that network, including that community of support. This includes your friends, family, loved ones, mentors, sponsors, allies, colleagues – they are going to help you pursue your career and your achievements.
- Build upon your knowledge and maintain that sense of belief in yourself, because you are the one going to push your career forward. Advocate for yourself so you ensure your ideas – and voice – are heard and respected.
- Embrace challenges! Keep taking risks! Keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone by taking on a new project, or taking on new opportunities within your job. Every experience is valuable because it may lead to more opportunities or gives you a chance to try something new.
Shaz references the point when she experienced redundancy earlier in her career journey, and reflects on how it was an opportunity for her to explore different career options and different sectors, eventually leading her to her current role in Experian.
This interview was conducted by Michelle Aboagye.
