The Opportunity Angelo Almost Missed
How a last-minute application, three months of Power BI training and an opportunity to prove himself helped Angelo turn his finance qualifications into a career at Absa.
One application that nearly didn’t happen
At the beginning of 2022, Angelo was unemployed. He had a Bachelor of Commerce in Investment Management from Stellenbosch University and an Honours degree in Financial Management from UNISA. He had worked hard to build a solid academic foundation, and he knew he wanted to pursue a career that combined finance with his growing interest in data analytics.
What he didn’t have was a clear way into that career.
It’s a situation many graduates will recognise. You’ve spent years studying, earned the qualifications and you’re ready to contribute. But finding an employer willing to give you the opportunity to demonstrate what you can do is often more difficult than you anticipated.
Angelo came across an advertisement for the KPI Graduate Programme and decided to apply. The application required him to submit a video, something he kept putting off. Days passed, and before he knew it, the deadline had arrived.
He remembers telling himself:
“You have to do this now, otherwise you’re gonna miss this opportunity.”
Fortunately, he submitted the video and was accepted onto the programme.
That decision would eventually take him into Absa Group Treasury and a permanent position in Liquidity Risk.
Watch Angelo tell his story:
From academic knowledge to practical skills
Angelo arrived with something valuable. His finance qualifications had given him a foundation in financial management and investment principles. He understood the academic side of the discipline, but he wanted to develop the technical skills that would allow him to work with data in a practical business environment.
Before joining Absa, Angelo completed three months of intensive Power BI training through KPI Management Solutions. The programme involved learning the technology, building dashboards, working through practical problems and presenting his work for feedback.
I was involved in reviewing some of his technical work and presentations, alongside our other trainers.
The objective was never simply to teach graduates how to use Power BI. We wanted them to understand how to take information, work through a business requirement and produce something that another person could actually use.
That sounds straightforward until you try doing it.
Building a dashboard is one thing. Understanding what the business needs, identifying the relevant information and explaining your decisions to people who understand the business better than you do is something else entirely.
The training gave Angelo an opportunity to develop those skills before being expected to use them in a corporate environment.
The moment training became real
In July 2022, Angelo joined Absa Group Treasury as a Business Analyst Intern. He was assigned to a regulatory reporting project, with responsibility for developing a reporting tool using Power BI.
This was no longer a training exercise where a mistake meant correcting a dashboard and trying again. He was working in a banking environment, dealing with real business requirements and experienced professionals who needed a useful result.
Angelo described the experience as his “sink or swim” moment.
I think that description captures something important about the transition from training into employment. At some point, the examples disappear and the business expects you to work with the problems it actually has.
Those problems don’t always arrive with clear instructions. The information may be complicated, the requirements may evolve, and the people relying on your work may have different expectations.
Angelo had spent three months learning Power BI, building dashboards and receiving feedback. Now he had to bring those skills together and apply them to a project that mattered to the organisation.
He took ownership of the assignment, developed the reporting tool and presented his work to senior stakeholders within the bank.
When the work starts speaking for itself
The reporting tool Angelo developed attracted positive feedback from senior stakeholders within Absa, who recognised its potential to support work across the bank.
For Angelo, this was an important moment. He had entered the programme hoping to build a career in data analytics. Now he was producing work that experienced banking professionals considered useful.
Reflecting on his progress, he said:
“The learning curve has been steep, but I’ve come leaps and bounds from where I started.”
There is something satisfying about watching a graduate reach this point. Not because they have completed another course or received another certificate, but because they have demonstrated their ability to contribute to something meaningful.
Angelo was no longer simply a finance graduate interested in data analytics. He had developed a reporting solution, worked with experienced professionals and contributed to a real banking project.
From graduate internship to a permanent role at Absa
Angelo completed his internship through KPI Management Solutions in June 2023. The following month, he joined Absa permanently as an Analyst: Liquidity Risk within Group Treasury.
In approximately eighteen months, he had moved from being an unemployed graduate trying to find his way into the industry to securing a permanent position at one of South Africa’s major banks.
It was a significant achievement, and one that reflected the effort he had put into developing himself throughout the programme.
Angelo also spoke positively about the people he worked with at Absa. The project team gave him responsibility, supported his development and trusted him with work that had genuine business value.
That support matters more than we sometimes acknowledge. Graduates need experienced people who are willing to invest time in helping them develop, explain the context, challenge their thinking and gradually allow them to take greater responsibility.
Angelo had the qualifications and the willingness to learn. Our role was to help him develop the practical skills, while the team at Absa provided the environment in which he could put those skills to work.
The gap between qualifications and experience
Angelo’s story highlights a challenge that continues to affect graduates entering the South African job market.
We have young people who have invested years in their education, often at considerable personal and financial cost, only to discover that the qualification they worked so hard to achieve doesn’t necessarily provide a straightforward route into employment.
Employers, meanwhile, are looking for people who can apply their knowledge to practical business problems. Neither expectation is unreasonable.
A graduate may understand financial management but have limited experience working with financial data in a large organisation.
They may know the principles of analysis but have never been asked to develop a reporting solution for senior business stakeholders.
These are not necessarily gaps in intelligence or academic ability. They are gaps in experience.
And experience is difficult to acquire when employers expect you to have it before they will employ you.
This is one of the reasons we developed the KPI Graduate Programme. We wanted to create a practical connection between learning and working, where graduates could develop relevant technical skills and then apply them within organisations that had real business requirements.
But providing an opportunity doesn’t guarantee success, and training alone doesn’t guarantee employment.
Angelo still had to do the work. He had to learn Power BI, deal with unfamiliar business requirements, take responsibility for a project and demonstrate that he could deliver.
Nobody could do those things for him. But somebody had to create the conditions in which he could try.
A decision that changed his direction
When Angelo was asked whether he would recommend the KPI Graduate Programme, his answer was clear.
“I would definitely recommend this programme to future grads.”
He also recognised that the opportunity wasn’t necessarily limited to people entering the workforce for the first time.
“Even if you’re not a recent grad and you’re just looking to change your career and shake things up, I’d recommend this programme.”
For Angelo, the programme helped him connect his academic background in finance with his interest in data analytics. More importantly, it gave him the opportunity to demonstrate what he could do when those skills were applied to real business problems.
Angelo deserves the credit for what he achieved. He put in the work, accepted the responsibility and demonstrated his value to the people around him.
We were fortunate to play a part in that journey, alongside the team at Absa who gave him the opportunity to develop and prove himself.
But there’s one detail about his story that I keep coming back to.
At the beginning of 2022, Angelo was sitting with an unfinished application and a video he hadn’t submitted. He nearly let the deadline pass.
Sometimes the distance between an unemployed graduate and a promising career isn’t another qualification.
It’s someone opening a door and giving them the chance to show what they can do.
Well done, Angelo. It’s been a privilege to be a small part of your journey.
About KPI Management Solutions
KPI Management Solutions helps graduates develop practical data analytics and business intelligence skills through structured training and workplace experience.
Our graduate development approach connects technical learning with real business requirements, helping organisations develop talent while giving graduates the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do.
