Two young South Africans, an ethical hacker turned AI entrepreneur and an attorney who built a second career as a digital creator, are rewriting the script for what success looks like in a rapidly changing world of work. Their stories, shared during Investec’s Invest ED Live broadcast on 16 September, offer powerful lessons for learners navigating a future where traditional career paths are shifting, and new opportunities are emerging at speed.
From Small-Town Learner to AI Founder Protecting Billions
Thalia Pillay, co‑founder and CEO of Orca Fraud, grew up in a small town north of Durban where tech careers were unheard of and the first robots she ever saw were at university. Today, the company she built with fellow UCT engineering graduate Carla Wilby protects billions of dollars in transactions across more than 70 countries, making them one of Africa’s first all‑women founding teams in AI.
Pillay’s journey is a masterclass in curiosity, resilience and self‑belief. She spoke candidly about imposter syndrome, being one of fewer than ten women in her engineering class and nearly dropping out in first year. But she stayed the course, discovering her love for building things — from self‑driving cars to sign‑language gloves stitched by her mother.
Her message to learners was simple: “If you’re obsessed with the problem, you’ll figure everything out as you go.”
Pillay’s career has spanned corporate banking, agri‑tech, payments and now AI fraud detection. She credits her success to relentless learning, early testing of ideas, and building with purpose. Her five tips for learners, from asking adults what they do, to building one small project every two months, landed as practical, actionable advice for young people seeking direction.
The Attorney Who Refused to Be Defined by One Path
If Pillay built the job she wanted, attorney and digital creator Didi Karabo Khumalo carved out two careers at once.
Raised by her grandmother, Karabo Khumalo pursued law for stability and financial freedom. But she never abandoned her passion for documenting her life and lifting others up. Even as a top-performing student and later a young attorney at one of Johannesburg’s leading law firms, she shared her journey online: study methods, corporate life, balancing motherhood, and navigating high-pressure environments.
Her legal career taught her discipline, critical thinking, negotiation and how to “run a practice like a business.” Those skills now power her second career in the creator economy, where she inspires thousands of young professionals.
Didi’s philosophy is grounded in self-awareness: “Where are you? Where are you going? And what do you need to do to get there?”
She reminded learners that choosing a career is not about societal pressure, but about being honest with your strengths, passions and the life you want to build.
A New World of Work — And New Possibilities
Invest Ed Live’s message was clear: the future of work is not linear. Careers will change, skills will evolve, and young people will need to adapt, experiment and create.
Thalia and Karabo Khumalo embody that future, one built on courage, curiosity and the willingness to take a different path.
Their stories show that whether you build the job or reshape the one you have, the future belongs to those who dare to imagine it.
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