Murendeni | UK
A Career in Chemistry Brought to a Stand-Still by Immigration
Murendeni grew up in a small village accessible only by a dirt road in Limpopo Province, South Africa. His family was not particularly well-off, having “just enough to eat.” Through a combination of hard work, scholarships, and some meager savings from his mother, he was able to attend university in Johannesburg.
“I wasn’t really exposed to a lot of careers. The careers that you knew were being a doctor, being an engineer, or just being a scientist,” he shared. He was exposed to the world of tech in university, which he took an immediate interest in, but was already too far along in completing his degree in chemistry.
Seven years into a chemistry career at pharmaceutical plants, Murendeni did not feel he was moving forward professionally or financially: “It really felt like a place where you’re stuck, where you are just making enough to survive.” The cost of living climbed while salaries crawled. “Poverty is catching up with you,” Murendeni realized.
Finding Generation
In 2023 he moved to the UK with his partner and young daughter. He was unable to find a job in chemistry, and was unemployed for several months.
He thought to himself, “you’ve always wanted to do a career change, this might be a blessing and a curse, so why don’t you just take that leap?” He went online and started looking for ways to transition into a more tech-oriented career, which is how he found Generation. He started the Generation UK’s Data Analytics program shortly thereafter.
A Brighter Future
Soon after graduating from Generation, Murendeni found his first job in the UK at The Dot Collective, on the Data Analysis team.
His new salary was a substantial step forward in economic mobility. “There’s now a new sense of: I can escape the working class if I just strategize, if I save, if I invest… Whereas before, because there was no money to save, I couldn’t see my way out of it. For my daughter… it kind of opens doors for her both financially and also when it comes to examples of careers that she can think about or aspire to when she’s deciding what she wants to be when she grows up.”
Two years after the program, Murendeni is thriving in his career. “Generation came with that opportunity to say, it’s not too late, you can transition to something you love. And that has changed my entire life.”
