Khandaker Muhtasim Rafi
Glasgow, United Kingdom
“I started my journey at LightCastle Partners on October 2019 as a Trainee Consultant and left at the end of summer in 2021 as a Business Consultant. During my time at LightCastle, I worked in the management consulting wing on various development sector projects. These included program evaluations, gender analysis, market access initiatives for women-owned businesses, and writing white papers such as the Bangladesh Donor Funding Outlook. Across these projects, I worked on research design, stakeholder interviews, field coordination, data analysis, report writing, and strategic recommendations. These experiences helped me strengthen my analytical and communication skills, develop a more structured and proactive approach to problem-solving, and build the confidence to work across diverse and often challenging assignments with rigour, adaptability, and curiosity. The skills I learned was immensely useful as I progressed in my career, enabling me to navigate diverse professional contexts in both Bangladesh and the UK.
I am currently a PhD researcher at the University of Strathclyde, where my research focuses on understanding the impacts of transportation disruptions on remote and island communities. My work examines how disruptions to transport networks affect accessibility, economic activity, and community resilience, with particular focus to the secondary impacts on businesses and communities. Alongside my research, I also conduct tutoring sessions for Master’s students on using Excel in Project Management.
For anyone considering working at LightCastle, my advice would be to keep an open mind and actively get involved in new things. Some projects may feel daunting at first, but the more you engage with them, the more you grow. It is also important to seek advice when needed, plan ahead, and simply begin, because the work does not need to be perfect from the start to become meaningful and strong over time. In one sentence, I would describe LightCastle as an excellent place to grow, one that pushes you to become more proactive, adaptable, and broad in your thinking.”
