Responding to the demand for new ways of working, French and Business graduate Mhorag Doig founded a tech start up that helps businesses source flexible workspaces. Name Mhorag Doig Degree MA French and Business Year of graduation 2006 Your time at the University Image As a Scot schooled in England there was never a question for me about my university choice! I was coming back to Scotland and Edinburgh had everything I was looking for academically, socially, and culturally. It also helped that Edinburgh welcomed my International Baccalaureate qualification with open arms making me feel like I was coming to a diverse, open-minded, yet academically rigorous institution. What I liked most about Edinburgh though was how integrated into the city the University is. I felt privileged to be studying in some of the most beautiful, historically significant buildings in Edinburgh, allowing me, and us as students, to really feel a part of the local community. I soaked up everything the University had to offer, playing Hockey for the 2nd XI, taking advantage of the Erasmus programme to spend a year abroad in Grenoble studying, and I even managed to snag the best part time job ever… working in the Threshers on the corner of the Meadows, right by my first-year halls in Sciennes. Not to mention of course the obligatory summer jobs working behind the bar at Pleasance! Even after graduating the University couldn’t get rid of me, and I returned some 11 years later to take up a position in career development and commercial relations for the Business School! Your experiences since leaving the University My path since graduating has not been linear, but I think that is in part thanks to the University and my professors preparing me well for the ambiguous and changing nature of the working world. I graduated into a tough economic climate and was lucky enough to secure a trainee role at what was then just a small local recruitment firm of 6 people, now the premier recruiting firm in financial and professional services in the city. It was an apprenticeship of sorts, working directly for the MD and founder, and it was in this role that I realised I could be and could do many things as long as I remained inquisitive, and hard working. My experience here included further professional qualifications supported by the firm, and an award as ‘newcomer of the year’ to the UK recruitment industry. From there I honed my skills in executive search and talent development, leading me back to the University in 2013 into the newly created role of Employer Relations Manager for the Business School’s MBA and EMBA programmes. In this role I helped give back to the student community through offering careers support, engagement with employers, and through building some of our first international study experiences for the School. My career then took me out to Switzerland for over two years, where I worked for Korn Ferry in Senior Executive Search within the Human Resources field, before relocating back to the UK this summer to launch my own tech start up, Harbour84. Harbour84 is a marketplace platform for corporate real estate - helping businesses source flexible workspaces to support their agile and distributed workforces across Europe. It’s beta-testing time for us at the moment and very exciting to be partnering with organisations across the agile and flexible working community to enable employees to thrive by offering them the right workspaces, on demand. My path since graduating has not been linear, but I think that is in part thanks to the University and my professors preparing me well for the ambiguous and changing nature of the working world. Mhorag DoigFounder. Harbour84 Alumni wisdom Take the time while you can to work not only on building your technical skills and knowledge, but also to hone and develop your soft skills. I encourage you to see your emotional intelligence and soft skills as powerful enablers that will allow you to best apply your technical skills in the real world. Use this time to experiment with new ways of working, figuring out not just WHAT you want to do, but just as importantly, HOW you want to do it! Related links Harbour84 (external link) School of Literatures, Languages & Cultures University of Edinburgh Business School This article was published on 2024-10-28
