Alumni Success Profiles: Uzma Ahmedmunir

(5 min read)

Name: Uzma Ahmedmunir

Current Role: Senior Associate, Employee Volunteerism at Salesforce

Multiverse Apprenticeship: Business Administration

What are the main responsibilities of your current role?

My role is to look after our UK Employee Volunteerism programme. I build relationships with nonprofits and education organisations and engage our employees to volunteer for their programmes. An important part of my role is to enable and empower our community to create an impact towards the causes that they are most passionate about so they we can all be citizen philanthropists.

What does a typical day in your role look like?

My days all look very different, depending on what projects or events I'm working on. The things that are common is the process of having conversations to understand what type of support is needed and then using the resources I have to support them or connect them with other people to achieve their aims.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I enjoy the variety of different things I get to do with my role and the positive impact this has on the nonprofits and communities we work with. I also love the culture at Salesforce, we are always pushed to be leaders in the areas that we are passionate about so in addition to my day job, I also lead one of our Equality groups (ERGs) at Salesforce as I am very passionate about Equality for everyone.

What are the challenging aspects of your role?

The challenging aspects of my role are lack of capacity to fulfill all my commitments. We receive a lot of requests internally from passionate employees who would like to support charities that are close to their hearts as well as plenty of external requests from schools and nonprofits. It is very difficult to say no to anyone as I understand their needs. The way in which I deal with this is to manage my time effectively and also to set expectations when starting partnerships around the availability we have.

Why did this role/industry appeal to you?

I had never heard of Salesforce before I applied for this role. I wasn’t really considering the Tech sector as I am not particularly tech savvy but when I read the role description it was something that I thought I would enjoy as I have some previous experience around organising events and I really enjoyed that. Doing further research on the company, their values, it made me realise that I shouldn't be biased because I don't know anything about the Tech industry as Salesforce looked like a great company to work for. After the assessment day, I was completely sold on the company and role. It was such a positive experience, the people were all lovely and I left the day energized and excited to hear back from them.

What skills do you use and develop as part of your role?

The skills I have developed for my role are listening and communication skills when trying to understand someone’s needs and promoting volunteering opportunities. Organisation and Project management skills to deliver on my commitments. Public speaking skills when sharing my work to inspire others to give back. I have also developed mentoring and coaching skills as part of my personal volunteering journey supporting young people.

What are your future career plans?

I would like to continue to work as part of the Philanthropy team and to progress within the organisation to be a Manager within the next 2 years. I would like to continue to focus on my personal and professional development and to spend more time understanding the impact of the programmes I run to see how these programmes can be refined to be more impactful for the participants and volunteers involved in them.

How did doing a Multiverse apprenticeship support your career journey?

I loved the format of the Business admin apprenticeship I did and how flexible it was.
My coach, Geoge Milton-Mason was an amazing coach who challenged me to step outside of my comfort zone and has played a huge role in my success during my apprenticeship. I also love the sense of community that Multiverse creates and the leadership opportunities that allowed me to develop my confidence and leadership skills so I can progress and thrive in my role.

What achievement are you most proud of since completing your apprenticeship?

There are 2 achievements that I am most proud of. During my apprenticeship I won the Highly commended award for the charity, voluntary organisations and public services sector for the work I had done during my apprenticeship. 
The second achievement was running a Diversity and Inclusion workshop in partnership with Equality groups at Salesforce, Multiverse Multicultural Network and Bame Apprenticeship Awards for apprentices and their teams to create a safe place where they can have conversations around Diversity and Inclusion and leave with actionable pledges to drive those changes. Here is an article I’ve published on LinkedIn about my personal journey towards Equality and here are the learnings from the D&I Workshop discussions.

Can you provide a brief history of your career journey since completing your apprenticeship?

I completed my apprenticeship in May 2020 and was offered an Associate role within the Employee Volunteerism team. I was promoted to Senior Associate in August 2021 and am currently doing this role.

What advice would you give to current apprentices who want to progress in a similar role?

To be intentional and transparent about your career progression and development goals with your manager and colleagues. To have mentors and coaches to support you in all the aspects of your role that you need support in whether that is something intangible like confidence building or something more specific like presentation skills.