By Chioma Okoye

When Ayomide Olubona moved to the UK, she believed her qualifications and experience would open doors. Instead, she faced rejection after rejection. Despite having the right skills including an international HR certification and a successful recruitment career, securing a role that matched her expertise proved to be a challenge.

“I remember sending out hundreds of applications and barely getting any responses,” she says. “At one point, I started to wonder if my background would always hold me back.”

Like many immigrants, Olubona discovered that the UK job market had unspoken barriers. Employers often favored local candidates, while international experience carried little weight. But instead of accepting defeat, she studied the recruitment process, learned how to position herself as a top candidate, and eventually cracked the system.

Her breakthrough came when she landed a top role at BYP Network, a Forbes-listed recruitment agency based in London. Through her work at BYP, she consulted for leading global companies including Google, AstraZeneca, Facebook (Meta), Accenture, HSBC, and Morgan Stanley helping them attract, recruit, and retain diverse talent.

Working closely with these organizations opened her eyes to a critical gap: the demand for diverse talent was high, but many immigrant professionals lacked the right tools, strategies, and orientation to compete effectively. Seeing how underrepresented professionals struggled to position themselves in the job market, she was inspired to create a solution.

That realization led her to found Workforx Ltd in 2022, a company dedicated to empowering immigrant professionals and underrepresented talent. Through personalized career coaching, CV optimization, and interview preparation, Workforx has helped countless professionals secure jobs in industries that once seemed out of reach.

“I saw too many qualified professionals struggling to find jobs because they didn’t understand how the system worked,” Olubona explains. “I wanted to change that by giving them the tools and confidence to succeed.”

Beyond career coaching, Olubona focuses on exposing hiring biases and advocating for more inclusive recruitment practices. She collaborates with companies to help them recognize the value of diverse talent and implement fairer hiring processes.

She also teaches immigrants the power of networking. Since many job openings are never publicly advertised, she shows professionals how to connect with decision-makers and position themselves as top candidates. Her approach emphasizes confidence, strategic branding, and persistence.

“Your skills are valuable, but if you don’t know how to showcase them, you’ll be overlooked,” she says. “It’s not just about working hardit’s about working smart.”

Through Workforx, Olubona is bridging the gap between employers and underrepresented talent. Her company not only supports job seekers but also educates businesses on the benefits of hiring diverse professionals.

Today, she is recognized as a thought leader in the HR space, frequently speaking at conferences on the future of work and inclusive hiring. But for her, the mission is far from over. She envisions a job market where every professional, regardless of background, has a fair chance to succeed.

With Workforx growing rapidly and more professionals finding success through her guidance, Olubona is proving that change is possible one career at a time.