My self-awareness and the support from the organisation have encouraged me to gain professional degrees and implement them in my work life. After completing graduation and a year as a Public Relations Officer with a private airline, I joined Secure as a receptionist. A significant part of this job was to connect people, internal and external. The job gave me the opportunity to understand people and gain insight into their roles. People interaction across functions and levels internally, and exposure to external people, ignited an aspiration in me to take up an alternate role within the organisation.
I approached the Head of HR for a possible role in HR. I was asked the question, ‘Why do you want to move to HR? What do you know about HR?’ I didn’t have any answer; my silence when asked these questions sparked an interest in learning more about HR. I learnt a little after speaking to people and went back with an answer. Looking at my eagerness, to start with, I was given the task to administer training programmes. While coordinating the training, I understood that the information I had gathered about HR was just a drop in the ocean of the Human Resource function. As time passed, I was entrusted with more responsibilities, and I realised that I needed to keep myself abreast with the latest developments.
My introspection made me aware of my strengths and the areas that needed improvement. This realisation made it easier for me to recognise and admit to the unproductive attitudes and behaviours that were holding me back. Meanwhile, we had new members join the HR team, and their professional degrees helped them to add to the work done by the function. That was yet another trigger for me. I must say that it took some time for me to realise this; that I needed to learn a lot… my attitude, my people skills, my technical knowledge in HR and much more. From this realisation, my journey towards attaining a professional degree in HR started. It brought a change to my thoughts and actions. I joined part-time studies and completed post-graduation and a few specialised short-term courses in HR, some through evening classes, some through correspondence and the journey is continuing.
Thanks, Secure, for making me self-aware and helping me grow.