Tanzim Khan - My career journey into Management at Ambition

At Ambition, we believe that every career journey is unique and that success comes from being supported, challenged, and valued along the way.

For Tanzim Khan, now a Managing Consultant in our Advisory team, joining Ambition meant finding a place where his goals aligned with genuine opportunities for growth.

From starting out as a Consultant in Corporate Finance to stepping into a leadership role, Tanzim’s journey highlights what makes Ambition different: a culture of openness, trust, and continuous development.

In this video, he shares how mentorship, training, and a supportive team environment have shaped his career, and why Ambition stood out as a place where everyone holds equal value.

Watch Tanzim’s story to see what it’s really like to build a career with Ambition.

Transcript

Sometimes, there's a stereotype in recruitment firms that people have large egos. Ambition showcased to me straight away that everyone holds equal value.

My name is Tanzim and I'm a Managing Consultant here at Ambition of the advisory team.

Why did you choose to join Ambition?

I noticed that they (Ambition) were market leaders within the professional services space. This was something that really intrigued me, and I wanted to find out more.

Conversations I had with the senior leadership team further emphasised the way that they wanted to make the advisory team grow. And that really aligned with my own motivations, my own goals. And then I ended up joining.

Can you walk us through your journey from Consultant to Managing Consultant?

When I joined Ambition, I joined as a Consultant, solely focusing on Corporate Finance, and I worked in this position for about 18 months.

I slowly recognised that a lot of my skills felt aligned to maybe the managerial route. So, I was open and transparent with my managers at the time, and they opened doors for me, put a lot of trust into myself.

It allowed me the opportunity to slowly work myself into a full-time manager, which I am now.

How has Ambition invested in your development at each stage of your career?

Ambition has consistently invested in my development over my time here.

When I was a consultant, we had a future leaders cohort, which was really nice to be around like-minded people - people at the same stage as me - but then allowed me to be quite vocal about my goals and motivations for the future.

I think what Ambition’s senior team did really well was take on all of the things that they heard from there and allow you to sort of make your own plan and develop for the future.

As soon as I went into a more management role, which I'm in now, I’m able to have weekly conversations - open and transparent conversations - with other managers, lean on them for help and support when I need it, as they are a little bit more experienced than me. So, it’s always really good to have that support network.

What support and training helped you prepare for the step into a leadership role?

In terms of support and training going into this leadership role, I had an abundance of it.

The most beneficial for me was actually shadowing other managers within Ambition - going into their catch-ups, going to their weekly team meetings, and just understanding and trying to be a sponge and soak up all of the information I could.

Also, with my own line contacts, I had regular catch-ups just going over the competencies of what Ambition is looking for, what maybe I needed to improve on, which allowed me to then be a little bit more flexible with my time and focus on things that I maybe hadn't thought of beforehand. So, I thought the development and training was really, really pivotal.

How would you describe the culture and collaboration within your team?

High performing team, hard working. We like to celebrate our wins together. But also, on the flip side, we like to pick each other up when things aren’t going to plan.

As a team, we have a mix of cultures and personalities, which I think makes it a really nice team to be a part of.

What stood out about Ambition's culture when you joined?

Everyone I met was really down to earth, was really humble with the work that they do. And I know that sometimes, there's a stereotype in recruitment firms that people have large egos, and I know that's not the place for me. Whereas Ambition showcased to me straight away that everyone holds equal value.

What's the approach to learning at progression like at Ambition?

I think Ambition has a really dynamic approach to development and training. For example, we've recently had some external trainers come in called Scene Change, and I think this has taken my development up to the next level.

I really enjoyed the fact that we have a mix of theory-based work, where we take on some advice and some tips of how to work with clients, managers, candidates, and your own team. But then also on the flip side, we are involved in some really practical, worthwhile exercises where we're speaking to teams about difficult situations and how to confront those situations - which is something that I wanted to have a little bit more training on beforehand, because it's something I'm very inexperienced at.

So, it was really nice to get that development and support from them in a really nice environment where you felt safe.