Rhea Sabharwal

Current Employer/Organisation Name

Enabling Procurement

What have you been doing since leaving Exeter, and what are you doing now?

After graduating from Exeter, I moved to London and worked as a marketing coordinator for Nexgen Fabrics. I conducted comprehensive market research to facilitate company’s expansion into the UK and Europe, focusing on region-specific requirements for upholstery fabrics. To enhance brand’s visibility, I represented the firm in various exhibitions including CineEurope 2024 in Barcelona, January Furniture Show in Birmingham, Clerkenwell Design Week in London, New Designers’ Week in London, and the Manchester Furniture Show.

After that I came to India and now I am working as an analyst at Enabling Procurement. Here I am responsible for analysing clients spend, quantifying savings opportunities through various routes. I help in supporting sourcing and purchasing activities through vendor coordination, quotation analysis, and negotiations.

Why did you choose this career? And what do you enjoy most about your work?

I really enjoy the analysis part that I am doing. As I did MSc in Finance and Marketing, I think I am utilising learnings from both the domains here. My financial knowledge empowers me to better understand the types of spends done by the clients and gives me the analytical mindset required to build savings frameworks. Marketing knowledge actually helps me to support business development in the organisation. Interestingly, I am using some of the marketing concepts to negotiate with suppliers. I really like the perspectives different projects bring and the industry knowledge I gain from working at different projects. I used to enjoy case studies at the University and with closing every project I feel like I am making case studies myself now which gives me an extreme level of accomplishment.

Please tell us if you were a member of any societies, groups or sports clubs?

I was part of Business and Finance Society (BFS) and Entrepreneurship Society.

What did you enjoy most about your programme and what was the biggest highlight?

The highlight for me was extremely qualified faculties who have such depth of knowledge and experience. I also liked how the university provides recorded lectures. It really helped me a lot to go back and refer to the areas where I had confusions.

What did you most enjoy about studying here?

University of Exeter has so many opportunities to socialise and has something for everyone. I love how university organises international student events at Isca Eats and Residence Life events. I think these events helped me a lot to meet people from different domains and countries. Talking to them and getting to know about their cultures and domains broadened my perspective and helped me to improve my communication skills a lot. I think co-curriculars are as important as academics to build the overall personality and valuable networks. I like that university focuses on both the aspects equally.

Why did you choose to study at Exeter?

University of Exeter has a very good ranking, it is a part of the Russell Group, and it offered such a unique mix of marketing and Finance. Honestly, I was interested in both the majors, and this unique course was only available at University of Exeter. University’s focus and experience in research is commendable, and the highly qualified professors were a true magnet.
Another reason I chose the university was because of its location. Exeter is such a beautiful place which made me feel so connected with nature. I saw it for the first time, and I was in love with the place.

What skills and experiences have been most useful for your career?

Most useful skills I learnt at Exeter was analytical thinking and structured way of presenting. These two skills have helped me a lot.

What advice would you give to a current student who wishes to pursue your career?

I would recommend that rather on focusing to learn multiple analytical tools, focus on 2-3 tools only. The priority area should be developing the analytical mindset regardless of tools. Analytical mindset should be such that a student can easily come up with a structure or model in which data can be presented and analysed. I believe that in order to learn more and more tools, somewhere students are not working much on their thinking of interpreting the data. We are in the era of AI, in the near future, AI will be incorporated in all tools and will replace the students who are just focusing on learning to use the tool. The quality that will help them standout is the interpretation and the ability to come up with the right template and model for a specific problem.

What are your plans for the future?

I would really like to move back to UK. In terms of career, I am really happy in the field I am working in as it is giving me amazing exposure.