Q&A

If someone were to ask “who is Fatima?” how would you describe yourself?

With friends and family, I am seen as the quiet one who is a great listener and tries to come up with solutions to their everyday problems. I also like to think that I am the funny one in my friend group.

My colleagues would describe me as a team player that can be trusted to fulfil all her responsibilities to the best of her abilities. I get on well with everyone and can quickly create a good rapport. I am seen as a hard-worker and I am very grateful to have received such great feedback throughout my career.

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You’re a HR Professional who is currently studying to be a DevOps Engineer. Why did you choose a career in HR initially, can you talk us through your journey to date and what inspired the move to Tech?

I fell into my role the same way a lot of people in the recruitment industry do. I studied Business Management & Chinese Studies at University and one of my final modules for Business was HR. I found the class very interesting and thought that a role within HR would be suitable for me when I graduate. The majority of the roles I came across were either graduate schemes, which I was not interested in, or roles within recruitment firms. I then applied to work for a well-known recruitment company in Manchester for an entry role and I was offered a position.

I stayed in the industry moving up the career ladder for the past four and a half years. This industry like many others has positive and negative aspects. After working in a really interesting role for one of the top management consulting firms in the world, I realised that I wanted to challenge myself once more instead of staying in the recruitment industry for good. I knew I wanted to do something in the Tech industry as I recruited a lot in that field.

Last year in May, I looked into Project Management and got the relevant certifications. However, I wanted to study a bit of coding so that if I ever go into Project Management, I would be able to work better with the delivery team. After studying a bit of coding, I came across QA and their training program and decided to give DevOps Engineering a go. It has not even been a month of studying and I learned so much already!

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What’s one thing you wish you had known when you began your career?

Honestly, I wish that the career advice department at universities would have given us a better idea on potential career paths, industries and opportunities. I actually visited the career advice department in my second and in my final year and have not found it helpful and I know many others who felt the same. I gained so much more of an understanding about potential career paths through my career in HR, but I know that this information is not widely available to everyone.

I think that would have saved me a lot of time and would have lessened the amount of trial and error in my career. However, as previously mentioned I gained all the knowledge on various different careers, industries worldwide through my career. I believe my experience is definitely valuable whether I stay in recruitment or leave for another challenge.

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What advice would you give someone wanting to pursue a career similar to yours?

I think if you want to work in recruitment specifically you need certain personality traits such as being a people person, ambitious, hardworking and being able to work in an extremely fast-paced environment. Recruitment is a very tough industry and you really need to have a genuine interest and passion.

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What is the one common myth about your profession or field that you want to debunk?

I think that recruitment gets a bad reputation and whilst I understand that a few bad apples have not made it easier for us, I genuinely believe that many recruiters do want the best for their candidates and clients. It is really hard to please both parties and find a compromise that fits both their agendas. Honestly, it is difficult when your work is reliant on the complexities of human interactions. To elaborate, whilst recruitment is often described to be similar to the Sales industry, the biggest difference lies in our pipeline. The people are at the centre of the recruitment process and as you know it is human nature to be unpredictable and often ever changing, which is not ideal for us Recruiters. It is our role to fix all the issues that arise, even if they are not our fault or in our remit.

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Who are the three most influential people to you?

I think this changed a lot throughout my life and it would be difficult to name only three people. However, people that always make the list are Prophet Muhammad (SAW), my family, and my friends.

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What does empowerment look and feel like to Fatima? And have you had any empowering moments you’d like to share?

I am grateful that I got to experience empowering moments in my life such as being the first in my family to go to university or move countries to study at a young age.

Recently, I am working towards a career change leaving a great role and moving towards unknown territory, where I need to start from zero again. It is very daunting, however I still decided to trust my gut feeling and go full-steam ahead. I felt empowered and confident in my decision and whilst I can’t predict the future and know for certain that this is the right choice, I am still extremely happy that I had the courage and took this leap of faith.

I think empowerment does not just come from the big decisions, but also the smaller steps in our everyday life’s. This ranks from motivating yourself, exercising regularly, looking after your mental and physical wellbeing, and distancing yourself from people that have a negative influence on your life etc.

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If you could turn back the time and talk to your 18-year-old self, what would you tell her?

I know this might sound cheesy, but I would not change anything in my life. I think all the experiences I had made me the person I am today. I would just tell 18-year-old Fatima that she should not be too hard on herself and let herself enjoy the present rather than feeling so anxious about the future.

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With iEMPOW3R what’s the one thing you’d like to see from us (this can be anything, big or small)?

I would love for this to be a forum where people can re-discover themselves, gain valuable information from people who have a lot more experience under their belt, and actively inspire and help the next generation. I know a lot has been halted due to COVID-19, but I would look forward to networking events in the future.

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What does Fatima do for fun?

I am somewhat of a homebody so most of the things I like to do for fun have not been affected too greatly by the current lockdown. I like to watch movies, shows and documentaries. I also like to read books, webtoons and mangas. My sister and I have been able to bake again and experiment with different recipes, which we did not have much time to do before.

Once we are able to join society again, I look forward to enjoying my other hobbies such as going to the cinema, gym and discovering new restaurants . I also cannot wait to travel abroad again!