How to Find a Job and Build a Career? Ft. Urooj Akhtar Khan

In this conversation I sit down with Urooj Akhtar Khan, the Sales Director at RepStack. We talk about what it really takes to find a job and build a career when you are a woman in Pakistan. No fluff. No shortcuts. Just the honest, messy, beautiful reality of figuring out what you want and going after it.

Self-awareness before the big decision

Urooj was born in Pakistan but raised moving from city to city because her father was in the judiciary. That constant change taught her how to adapt, but it also planted a seed: she wanted to be a judge just like him. Then, as often happens, the path shifted. Her two older sisters were doctors, so medicine felt like the natural next step. She even got admission and gave the MCAT. But somewhere in the hospital visits, dropping dinner to her sisters during night duties, she realized the environment gave her anxiety. “I cannot see cuts and wounds… I just cannot see them,” she tells me. “If I’m not comfortable at the place I’ll be working at, I don’t think that I want to pursue this field.”

That kind of self-awareness, especially when your family expects you to push through, is rare. She didn’t ignore the red flags. She didn’t force herself into a life that felt wrong. She stepped back, even though it meant convincing her parents and living with the comments about wasting an admission. That decision set the tone for everything that followed.

The detours that build you

After medicine, she turned to business administration. No one in her family had done a BBA, so it was a leap. She chose Fatima Jinnah Women University, a place she now calls underrated because of the opportunities it gave her. Becoming president of the event society and working with the British Council while studying built her confidence. But she didn’t stop there.

While job hunting, she discovered DigiSkills, a free platform offering courses in content writing, SEO, graphic design. She devoured them. She then created a blog about fitness and weight training, learned how to rank it on Google using SEO, and even started freelancing on Fiverr. None of this was wasted. Every skill she picked up later made sense in her professional roles.

Her first job was a remote sales gig with no base salary, just a dialer and a robotic voice. She left after three months. Then she worked as an account manager at a digital marketing agency, where all that self-taught knowledge suddenly became useful. She could talk about SEO and graphic design with clients because she had actually done it. The job went well, but she knew she wanted more options. So she did what so many Pakistani women do: she listened when her mother suggested a “respectable” career in education. She enrolled in an M.A. English, passed with flying colors, and then applied for teaching roles.

What she found inside the classroom was eye-opening. “In some schools there is a rule that a teacher cannot sit in the class… If she starts at 8am she has to keep standing till 1 to 2 p.m.,” she shares. The work followed her home. The soft boards, the checking, the annual days, the endless lesson planning. She gained a profound respect for teachers and then realized the cons outweighed the pros for her. So she pivoted again.

Finding a culture that sees you

After her nikkah, her husband sent her a LinkedIn profile for RepStack. She researched the company and noticed something different: women in leadership, a CEO who blended in with the team like a friend, and a clear presence of female employees. For a woman job hunting in Pakistan, that visual matters. It signals safety.

She prepped. She set up a home office, got a ring light, a webcam, and studied their job descriptions until she could walk into the interview like she belonged there. She got the job. But what struck her was the onboarding. They had a whole Success Academy with paid courses and trainers. “They pay you for your training,” she says. They didn’t just throw her in; they invested in making her client-ready.

A turning point came when the leadership saw something in her that she hadn’t seen in herself. They moved her into sales despite her past bad experience, because they recognized her ability to upsell and connect. She was terrified, but a female director pulled her into a Zoom room and coached her through the fear. That single moment of compassion changed everything. Within three months, Urooj closed over 69 deals. The company created a “Rising Star” award just for her.

And then there is the small thing that spoke volumes: the menstrual hygiene program. RepStack partnered with Foodpanda to send sanitary pads to every woman employee’s doorstep every month. That initiative got featured internationally, but more importantly, it told every woman working there, “We see you. We value you.” It’s not a big corporate policy; it’s a small act that makes a workplace feel like a safe haven.

Upskilling is not optional

Throughout her story, one thread stays consistent: Urooj kept learning. Even now, as Sales Director, she gets training on new CRMs and sales strategies. She believes that if you want someone to hire you, you have to increase your value. University gives you a foundation, but the real skills come from what you pursue on your own. “You need to keep working on yourself,” she says. “I train myself. I get my skills even more polished.”

I see so many young women stuck because they’re waiting for the dream job to find them while they stay exactly the same. But Urooj’s approach was the opposite. She identified weaknesses, took free courses, practiced on her own blog, built a portfolio, and then walked into rooms where she could contribute. She didn’t just apply. She prepared.

Advice for women starting out

Her core message is simple: “Always be yourself. Never force yourself into any decision.” If she had forced herself into medicine, she would have been miserable. If she had forced herself to stay in teaching, she would have been unfulfilled. Each time she listened to her gut, she ended up in a better place.

She also insists on knowing your worth and switching when you are not appreciated. “If you feel your work is not being considered, switch to a better opportunity,” she advises. But she couples that with the importance of hard work. You cannot expect to land in a company like RepStack without building the foundation first. Use platforms like LinkedIn and Rozee.pk. Upskill. Take the stepping-stone jobs that teach you what you need. And then, when you are ready, go after the role that aligns with who you are.

Why this conversation matters

So many Pakistani women grow up with a narrow script: doctor, teacher, or maybe banker. Urooj’s journey rewrites that. She shows that it’s okay to not have it all figured out at 18. It’s okay to pivot, to fail, to sit in a remote job with no salary and wonder what’s next. What matters is that you keep showing up for yourself, keep learning, and refuse to settle for a workplace that drains you.

If you are feeling lost right now, I hope this conversation gives you permission to explore. The right path might not look like what your family envisioned. It might be in sales, in a remote startup, or somewhere you haven’t even considered yet. Trust that the skills you pick up along the way are never wasted. Trust your discomfort when something feels off. And when you find a place where they celebrate you, where they send you sanitary pads just because they care, you will know you are home.