Story ID:
1390-0
Employment Assistance
Posted on Saturday, 13 December 2014
Fatima Dawood was asked to fulfill her Time and Knowledge Nazrana niyat in her home town of Sydney, Australia. Fatima’s role was to assist members of the Jamat to find employment in their respective fields by providing customised support particularly in the areas of interview preparation and resume editing. One of the aims of Fatima’s role was to enhance the marketability of individual’s skills so as to empower them in the job searching process.
Fatima found the experience to be ‘heart-warming’ because it enabled her to build confidence and self-esteem in members of the Jamat who were in turn better able to support their own families. In addition, Fatima herself gained professionally from the experience noting that “by supporting and counselling Jamati members that were seeking employment, I was able to use my knowledge and background to look for job opportunities, improve job attainment skills and provide tips and tricks for finding employment in an Australian context.”
Fatima is honoured to have played a role in this Golden Jubilee initiative pointing out that the many hours invested in serving the Jamat were worth it when she saw “the smiles on their [jamati members] faces.”
She reflects:
“There was one client that comes to mind that had been job seeking in their field for a few years and had not been able to penetrate the market. We persisted by creating several varied resumes, worked on interview skills and really tried to keep their enthusiasm and confidence up when all they seemed to be encountering was closed doors. Towards the end of the niyat, the client told me that they had successfully found full time employment in a job they loved and that was highly suitable to their skills. In helping others, I gained more from this niyat than I could have ever imagined."