Hook of Hope

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Sharing her story allowed Nurjahan to demonstrate how education played a positive role in her own leadership journey - with the aim to increase the team's understanding of lived experience in informing their work and identifying the work culture the team wants within their own Directorate. This week I attended Civil Service Live in London where I was a panel member; title of the panel discussion was ‘How a strong evidence and science ecosystem can help us improve public service delivery, be more innovative and do more (even with less).’ 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.

When you believe in yourself, you dare to know that you belong to that space. Even though people are not inviting me to the table, I don't need it because I will build a table and bring people in. 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. Ever since I left the Home Office, I've been aiming for the SCS and getting myself ready to do what I needed to apply for a deputy director role.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. 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. 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.

I firmly believe that I belong in the SCS. But I grew up with a dual identity in a family and home that never felt like I belonged. So, I've learned to be resilient and fight against the odds. 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!

I didn't come to the civil service as a long-term career," she told Dods Diversity & Inclusion. "But when my mum had a second stroke,I made up my mind and mapped out what I wanted to do with my career over the next years," she explained. 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.

I am finally, finally at home," Nurjahan says. "I feel home, for me, is America because this is where I am comfortable in my own skin." Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems. civilservicelive2023 #moderncivilservice #scienceandinnovation #civilservice #paneldiscussion #CSL23 I appreciate that I can speak Bengali, but the dual identity I felt early on in my life was a bit of a struggle. Growing up in an environment where you have two cultures to balance is difficult for an immigrant. I had to be very eastern at home but demonstrate a western culture at school.Thank you for the opportunity to have a conversation with you all at a time where it is so needed to help make the #civilservice even more inclusive and welcoming to all. My dad used to say: what you put in is what you get out. But if you're going to be lazy about it and not do anything to make things happen for yourself, nothing will fall into your lap.