كيف تُشكل البدايات مساراتنا المهنية؟ | Mai Al-Fayaheen | TEDxYU Khobar

Quick Overview

The speaker recounts her journey from being a fresh graduate in a family-run, non-HR related business to successfully establishing a career in Human Resources by actively seeking experience, creating her own job description, and receiving mentorship despite initial skepticism from her family and colleagues.

Key Points: The speaker graduated in Business Administration in 2014 but wanted a career in HR, which was not an available department in her family's business. She initially faced skepticism from her father and colleagues when seeking an HR role, as the existing perception of HR was limited to payroll and documentation. To create her desired role, she proactively developed a job description for a 'Senior HR Accountant' role and presented it to her father for approval. Her father, owning a large company with 3,000 employees, surprisingly agreed to the role, provided she focused on supporting the family's existing businesses rather than seeking external employment. She successfully implemented HR practices, including creating policies and training materials, which required her to learn on the job through reading books and practical application. The speaker emphasizes the importance of creating one's own opportunities and having strong family support, referencing her father's initial agreement and the support from her siblings and in-laws. The presentation occurred at TEDxYU Khobar, where she thanked the organizers for the opportunity to share her story about shaping one's professional path.

Context: The speaker, Mai Al-Fayaheen, shares a personal narrative about overcoming initial career limitations within her family's business environment to forge a path in Human Resources. Her story centers on taking initiative, self-learning, and leveraging family connections to establish a role that aligned with her interests, contrasting the traditional, limited view of HR with her modern, ambitious vision for the function.

Detailed Analysis

The speaker begins by greeting the audience and reflecting on her educational background, graduating in Business Administration in 2014 from King Faisal University, but immediately desiring a career in Human Resources (HR), a department that did not formally exist in her family's business structure, which was heavily involved in general trade and contracting across the Eastern Province, Riyadh, and Jeddah. She recounts how, despite her family's deep roots in the region, she felt restricted by the existing, limited understanding of HR, which was often reduced to payroll and documentation. Determined to pursue her interest, she proactively created a job description for a 'Senior HR Accountant' role and presented it to her father. To her surprise, her father, who managed a large establishment with 3,000 employees, agreed, on the condition that she work within the family structure, not externally. She began learning on the job, reading books, and developing practical skills. She highlights that the first generation (her father) was focused on survival and building the business, while the second generation (her siblings and in-laws) were starting to see the value of specialized roles like HR. She shares a humorous anecdote about her father agreeing to give her the HR role if she could secure two non-Saudi employees for the company, which she successfully did by finding two Asian employees (one from India, one from Pakistan) who were already working in the region, thus fulfilling the condition. She then details how she structured the HR function, starting with two small offices and expanding to four, focusing on creating policies and procedures, learning on the fly, and eventually becoming an indispensable part of the family business's growth. She concludes by emphasizing that success in HR requires continuous learning and that the current generation has more opportunities for specialized roles than previous generations.