NURA AKBAR

Regional Product Manager, Mastercard

(In her 40's)

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Her story (in her own words)

Thanks to Career Navigators, I was introduced to Mastercard through the Relaunch Your Career program, one specially curated for mothers who have taken a career break and returning to the workforce. With over 10 years experience in the airline industry, starting a new chapter in a dynamic payments industry was daunting at first but after the initial weeks, I managed to apply soft life and work skills from previous roles to this new one. However despite a productive 6-month stint, COVID made it difficult to find a permanent role in the firm after the 6-months was up. Thankfully, in 2021, a hiring manager from Mastercard, reached out to me offering me a maternity cover role. Eventually, I landed a permanent role at Mastercard. On weekends, I still continue to teach community tuition at a nearby school as my bid to give back to society.

 

Despite my age, I am humble and always eager to learn. Within 15 months in Mastercard's Issuer Loyalty team, I got up to speed and was able to contribute significantly to my team and to support other teams. I have a good rapport with the team member, despite them being younger than me. I also feel it is important to be a good role model for my 4 children when they see me contributing to the community by doing community work, in my free time. I try to juggle home, work and social activities through good time management and in some parts, with the support of automation. I am creative and a good listener which makes me a great team player.

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Greatest achievement

Adapting to new industry, relearning new skills.

 

Biggest challenge thus far

I was not good at powerpoint decks because we used to outsource it to an agency. When I had to do it myself, I spent hours on youtube and looking at other decks to be able to be on par.

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