Meilan, Assistant Librarian at National Library Board (NLB)

“Since I got married, I took on the role of a full-time housewife to care for my family and so had not been employed for the past 12 years. My last job before marriage was as a staff administrator and at that time my salary was just enough for me to sustain myself.

Although I did delight in my duties as a housewife and in taking care of the household, I started feeling anxious and upset when the expenses and costs of taking care of the children started increasing. It was then that I decided to look for a job – but despite trying I did not manage to get hired. After several years of looking for a job I soon lost confidence in ever getting hired. It was then that I approached e2i and met my career coach, Susan Loo. She helped me through my doubts and encouraged me to go for continuous learning.

With Susan’s help, I was sent for courses in IT, English literacy and employability skills. I enjoyed going for the courses and they had prepared me with skills and confidence to start looking for a job again. They prepared me with skills and made me confident. There was a strong speaker at the Employability Camp (EC), Angelina who also became my motivator.

My learning journey had helped me regain back my courage and after finishing with the courses, I was ready to look for a job again. In 1 – 2 months I was successfully hired at the National Library Board (NLB) as an assistant librarian.

I do recommend e2i to anyone who is having difficulties looking for a job. What I found important also was having a good relationship and cooperation between myself as a job seeker and the employability coach in helping to find out what a person’s skill gaps are, and jobs that may suit them.

I am very blessed to get to know these people in my life: Susan Loo, my coach; Angelina the speaker at EC; Roy Hamsah Said, my husband; Mahdy and Nabila, my children; and Titin, my mother. I thank God for these blessings. They are my motivators during my job search period. I love them and I will never forget them.”

Susan Loo, career coach at e2i shares, “With the many cases that visit e2i, many are unsure of the labour market, or they are found to be not job-ready having gaps in their horizontal or vertical skill sets. What will really help them though is their attitude to learning? When I first met Meilan, she seemed lost and lack of confidence – but I could see she really needed help to get a job and sustain her family. She was very willing to learn and accepted my advice to her when I was showing her where her weak spots were and what steps she needed to take in order to close those skill gaps. Her cooperation with e2i enabled her job search journey to be a smooth one and I am truly happy for her”.