Hook of Hope

Product Information

I am a great fan of the civil service and eternally grateful because I'm still a full-time carer for my mother. It hasn't stopped me from progressing up the ladder. Thank you to every single member of my directorate for all that you do. I appreciate you. I see you. I hear you. I value you. A tip I always give to my mentees is this: don't take no for an answer. Allow yourself to feel down fora few days, but bring yourself up, reach out to your support networks, and keep pushing. You have to persevere. If I gave up on my dream to become a Director, I would not have this job to look forward to. civilservicelive2023 #moderncivilservice #scienceandinnovation #civilservice #paneldiscussion #CSL23 Extracurricular activities worked for me because doing those things outside my day job made me a better leader in the civil service.

EDUCATION IS A BLESSING: Last week I was at a residential learning week at Oxford University Said Business School through the Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA). This was the second time me and my cohort of amazing individuals from across government came together to spend a whole week of learning. Thank you to our amazing chair Jason Dewhurst and my fellow panel members Christophe Prince and James Cooke for an informative and interactive session.Learning and education is very precious to me as my younger self had to fight against my family, my community, certain ideologies and against all odds just to pursue further and higher education. The journey was difficult but so worth it.

People have sacrificed and paved the way for us, and I've got a role to play, especially while I'm in the civil service. I will do my best to do what I can to carve out spaces for people who feel marginalised. Author Nurjahan Khatun BSc (Hons), MSc, MAPM was asked by the Lifelong Learning and Skills directorate to be a key note speaker for Scottish Government Away Day. She traveled to Edinburgh to speak about key themes from her book, Hook of Hope, where she was able to draw upon her own personal experience of why education is so close to her heart. Having fought determinately for her own education, she considered it an absolute honor to share with the team about how what they do directly impacts young people and how powerful it is to be a part of their journey of self-development and growth. Her talk followed an introduction to the importance of their work from the Scotland's Minister for Education. improved awareness of the science and evidence ecosystem especially in the policy and operational decision-making process. I have an invisible disability –I'm deaf in one ear – and this has been usedagainst me as though it is detrimental to my performance.We can't ignore that the murder of George Floyd sent waves of change to all spectrums of society, andit isa great time as an ethnic minority to leverage that in a positive way and where possible use that as an opportunity to develop and grow yourself. Departments are realising the benefit of diversity, and that's good news for you. There are so many talent programmes for ethnic minorities now. It wasn't like that in the early years of my career. To applyfor an SCS position is a very draining process. There are five steps: the application itself where you have to write a statement. And if you get sifted, you will go through a two-hour interview with an occupational psychiatrist and then on to a couple of hours on psychometric tests. It took me five years of continuous interviewing for a senior civil servant position, sogetting the role is a monumental momentbecause I am not aware of any other visible female Muslimdirector anywhere in government. Murielle Gonzalez, content strategy manager at Dods Diversity & Inclusion, is an experiencedjournalist and editor.She can be reached on [email protected].

The interview took place before Khatun's presentation at this week's Ethnic Minorities into Leadershipin Leeds. In the conversation, she revealeddetails of the challenges she encountered, the sources of resilience, and the drivers to become the leader she wanted to be. A whole new world I've been running a homeless soup kitchen for 15 years, inspired by the time I was homeless and lived on the streets of London for 21 months. colleagues sharing my leadership journey and brought together the many themes the two day event covered: Just by coming together has been a huge success. By the end of the day I was like a proud Mama as I was overwhelmed with feeling incredibly proud of having such an amazing team who are supportive, go the extra mile despite the challenges, who are kind and respond so professionally to my every demand!

Clips

It was difficult to adjust to the bureaucratic processes. I was doing things I hadn't done for a decade, and that, coupled with the fact that I took a demotion in pay and grade, made my job very unsatisfactory.Also, I experienced a lot of discrimination.