Skill development endeavour helps young woman get out of career rut

AMMAN — Realising that staying as a trainee is never enough for building a meaningful career, Rana Damrah, 24, has decided to quit and explore new opportunities.  

Holding a diploma in medical record management, Rana has worked for several months as an intern at an administrative department in a hospital in the Zarqa Governorate, some 25 kilometres east of the capital Amman.

The turning point in Rana’s life began with the realisation that the job she was doing did not match her personality and ambitions. 

"I was always preoccupied with the question: Am I in the right career?"  …  "I was feeling unfulfilled and the very routine nature of the job I was doing was a subtle indicator that it did not match my personality traits," Rana said. 

Rana said that she was doing a robot-like job, carrying out nearly the same duties on a daily basis without any change. "I have turned into a machine that implements the required work without a single thought."   

Under fears of getting stuck in a wrong-career rut, Rana said she decided to quit the job at the hospital. "Money was never an issue for me especially during this career-building stage. I just was seeking an established work field, where I can excel and develop my skills and capabilities." 

Like the majority of young Jordanians, Rana had no clear career objective set in mind when she chose her college major. 

After quitting her job at the hospital, Rana attended several training courses and worked as a volunteer with a number of organisations and institutions.

As part of her skill development endeavour, Rana is currently undergoing training on marketing strategies and customer relationship-building at a private company in Amman in coordination with CARE International, a global humanitarian organisation, which since 2019 has been implementing an economic empowerment programme for young men and women 

The training is primarily focused on acquiring participants professional skills that can help them find sustainable jobs, which can meet their ambitions for self and career development. 

Rana chose to have her training in marketing the company’s programmes. 

"I have learned the effective marketing, customer-building and problem-solving techniques. The beginning was really tough because the new field I chose had nothing to do with my study and expertise."

Rana is among other 15 young men and women selected by CARE International in Jordan within the training programme the organisation is implementing in cooperation with the private sector. 

The programme, which promotes entrepreneurship and private sector engagement, seeks to help young people build their personalised network of support with the private companies through providing them with specialised training and accredited certificates that can help them enter the labour market. 

The programme targets a group of young people from Amman, Zarqa, Karak and Mafraq who will be receiving specialised training on customer service, telephone sales, telemarketing, accounting, human resource management, office management, information technology and translation.

(CARE Jordan contributed this article to The Jordan Times)