Farhoon Asim is the Founder and CEO of The UK Job Institute, a TEDx speaker, former KPMG UK auditor, and seasoned career coach known for helping international students secure jobs in the UK. His story is not just about professional success—it is a testament to resilience, reinvention, and a mission to break down barriers for others who face the same challenges he once did.
Born and raised in Karachi, Farhoon arrived in the UK at just 19 years old. Like many international students, he stepped off the plane at Heathrow with excitement and anxiety in equal measure. He describes himself back then as someone who could barely hold eye contact—shy, uncertain, and thousands of miles away from home. The first three months were the hardest. Every weekend, he would phone his mother in tears, begging to come back home. He had no friends, no local network, and was struggling with a crushing lack of confidence.
But even in that isolation, there was a spark of determination. Farhoon believed that the UK could offer opportunities unavailable at home—if he could just find the right strategy to access them.
During his studies at the University of Bath, Farhoon pursued Accounting and Finance. Those university years were anything but smooth. He juggled part-time jobs to make ends meet, navigated cultural differences, and, most painfully, collected rejection after rejection. In his words, he survived university “mainly on self-belief.” Over the course of his early job search, he faced more than 500 rejections before graduation.
This period of hardship was also one of learning. Farhoon began to systematically study what made some international students succeed in securing UK jobs while others fell short. He noticed the importance of storytelling in interviews, precision in CV writing tailored to UK recruiters, and the unspoken cultural codes that local candidates often took for granted.
One of his breakthrough strategies was cold outreach. But instead of just asking for referrals, Farhoon focused on requesting honest guidance. For each role he wanted, he would message 20–30 strangers on LinkedIn, asking them about their experiences. He built a network from scratch, one conversation at a time.
This strategy finally paid off when a manager he had cold-messaged offered to coach him for the KPMG Launchpad assessment. In 2019, he joined KPMG UK as an Audit Graduate. Importantly, the offer came with visa sponsorship—no small feat for an international student under constant immigration pressure.
At KPMG UK (2019–2020), Farhoon gained invaluable experience in auditing, working with demanding clients, learning UK corporate culture, and understanding what top-tier employers truly valued. But he was never one to stay still. Driven by curiosity about how smaller companies scale rapidly, he moved to Raindrop, a FinTech start-up, as their third hire and Growth Lead.
At Raindrop (2021–2022), Farhoon learned firsthand how high-velocity start-ups operate. He wasn’t just managing marketing or sales—he was wearing multiple hats and helping the company scale revenue from £6 million to £20 million in just 15 months. This experience gave him deep insight into growth marketing, customer acquisition, and operating lean while delivering big results.
Meanwhile, the idea of helping international students like himself never left him. In 2022, Farhoon joined Antler’s Cohort 7—a prestigious venture-builder program—to validate his obsession with solving what he calls “the international-student problem.” He recognized that thousands of talented students came to the UK each year but left without jobs, burdened by debt and disappointment.
During this period, he co-founded International Heroes (2022–2023), a free program that helped 32 students land UK jobs in around 60 days. But when that project ended, Farhoon didn’t stop. He took out a £7,000 personal loan, a serious risk for someone with no safety net, and launched International Hustlers—a paid community with structured coaching, resume and interview preparation, and networking support.
Despite being bootstrapped, International Hustlers was a rapid success. In just 12 months, the community:
- Generated over $1.1 million in revenue.
- Helped 150+ students secure UK-sponsored roles.
- Reached over 6 million learners on LinkedIn.
His model was simple but effective: affordable, transparent coaching programs that demystified the UK recruitment process. Farhoon didn’t just give advice—he offered structured playbooks, role-play interviews, CV rewrites, and ongoing mentorship in a supportive community.
By 2025, he decided to consolidate all his coaching work into a single platform: The UK Job Institute. He describes this as his “life’s work,” an affordable, step-by-step training ecosystem built by international students for international students. His vision is clear and ambitious: to help 1,000+ graduates secure UK-sponsored roles by the end of 2026.
What sets Farhoon’s approach apart is his blend of real-life experience and modern technology. He is not only sharing what worked for him personally but also using tools like AI-powered CV optimization, generative AI writing for cover letters, and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategies to help clients stand out in both human and AI-driven recruitment filters.
Farhoon is a firm believer that AI is not a threat but a tool for levelling the playing field. He teaches his students how to use AI for personal branding, LinkedIn content creation, and application tracking—helping them get noticed by UK employers who now rely heavily on automated systems to filter applicants.
Beyond running The UK Job Institute, Farhoon is a TEDx speaker. His 2025 talk—“Turning ‘I’m an international student’ into a superpower”—distills his philosophy that borders should be seen as speed bumps, not stop signs. He is also a frequent guest lecturer at universities and incubators, sharing his expertise on job-search strategy, cold outreach, and growth marketing.
His personal brand is built on radical transparency. Farhoon openly talks about his failures: six business ideas that went nowhere, £10,000 in losses, and the emotional toll of repeated rejection. He credits his eventual success to the kindness of strangers who offered honest feedback and coaching when he needed it most. That ethos—normalising asking for help—is at the core of his mission.
On social media, Farhoon has built a large and loyal following. He has over 79,000 followers on LinkedIn, where his posts have amassed more than 50 million organic impressions. He uses these platforms not just for marketing but to provide free, practical advice for students navigating the UK job market. His approach is direct, relatable, and rooted in personal experience, making him one of the most trusted voices in his niche.
Some of his quick stats and wins include:
- 300+ job rejections before securing his first UK offer at KPMG.
- £20 million ARR target smashed at Raindrop.
- 7-figure coaching community revenue within 18 months of launch.
- 79k+ LinkedIn followers and 69k+ Instagram followers with over 50 million organic impressions.
Farhoon Asim’s journey is proof that with the right mindset, practical strategy, and willingness to seek help, international students can transform their odds in one of the world’s most competitive job markets. Through The UK Job Institute, he is committed to removing the guesswork and gatekeeping that so often hold international students back, offering them a roadmap to success built on his own hard-earned lessons.
Farhoon’s promise to his students is simple but powerful: “I’ll teach you what I wish someone had taught me.”