24-year-old Haider Malik is a first-class degree holder in Banking & Finance from Middlesex University, London. He had been searching for a job ever since the pandemic began but soon got tired from all the online interviews that resulted in nothing. However, on November 2, he decided to arrive at an underground train station with a board which he bought from the stationery shop. He had a plan.
On the board, he wrote his details – his name, education qualification, the job role he was searching for, and pasted the QR codes to his LinkedIn profile and CV. His plan was to grab the attention of the people passing by, engage in a friendly conversation, inquire about any job opportunities, and test his luck. He also had copies of his CV inside his bag, reports The Independent.
He arrived at the station at 6.45 AM. However, the first couple of minutes were nerve-wracking for him.
“I found it really awkward. I didn’t know what I was doing, I found it really weird. I had all my CVs in my bag. I was standing there empty-handed trying to look at people and hoping to meet people rather than being proactive and speaking to them,” he said.
However, soon be began smiling at people and initiated conversations. He started saying ‘Good morning’ and engaged with them.
“I held my CV in my hand and I was just saying good morning to people, just trying to engage people in a conversation. A lot of people gave me their cards, they gave me their phone numbers, and started talking to me.”
After a while, one person named Emmanuel came up to him, wished him luck, took a picture of him and posted it on LinkedIn. As fate would have it, by 9.30 AM, he received a message from Canary Wharf Group asking him to come for an interview for the role of a Treasury Analyst, reports My London.
“I got a text message from the director of the department at about 9.30 AM saying ‘come in for an interview at 10.30 AM. I had my car in the car park so I took the board and took all my stuff. They interviewed me on the 30th floor of a building and I’m overlooking Canary Wharf thinking ‘wow, I never expected to be interviewed here let alone potentially about to get a job’.”
On November 5, he attended a second interview at Canary Wharf and on the same day, he was offered a job!
“It was really cool the way it happened – I took a chance,” he said.
Wah! Luck ho toh aisa!