What the Career Expo meant to me

For Abdullahi Hassan, a Flemington local who has long known the Ubuntu Project through its work in schools and across the community, involvement with the African Australian Career Expo began almost by chance. After friends spoke about their experience working on the African Australian Trade Expo, Abdullahi was recruited by Ubuntu's employment coordinator to help organize the 2024 Career Expo, an event Ubuntu has proudly delivered for the past six years to open doors for young people from African backgrounds.
What began as a role behind the scenes became something far more personal. Abdullahi describes the experience as inspirational and amazing, reflecting that “everybody in the community should know about this”. Working on the expo introduced him to career options and strategies beyond school that he had never encountered, including his first exposure to the concept of white-collar careers and resume building.
For Abdullahi, the most powerful part of the expo was seeing professionals, mentors, and speakers who were themselves members of the African Australian community, many familiar faces to the young people in attendance. As he put it, “hearing from people like me and ourselves, and they were there willing to help you and guide you”. Learning directly from people who understood the realities of being first generation immigrants, without access to professional networks, made all the difference.
The impact has stayed with him. The expo connected Abdullahi to people and opportunities he would not otherwise have accessed, sparking a newfound confidence to step outside his comfort zone. Earlier this year, that shift led him to attend a professional networking event he never would have considered before.
Abdullahi's story is a powerful reminder of what the African Australian Career Expo makes possible, not just career pathways but genuine belief in what is possible.