For Graduates and Young Professionals age 21-35
About ISB Connect
ISB Connect was spearheaded to be a special space for young professionals and graduates coming to the end of their time in Campus.
We hold themed networking dinners, as well as online events, for young Muslim professionals who want to connect in a time of life that’s ever-shifting.
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ISB Connect now currently has an ongoing series called ‘Being Changemakers’ that focuses on faith and excellence in the workplace.
As part of the ‘Being Changemakers’ series, we have held online mentoring by leaders and experts in a range of fields:
- Banking and Finance with Sultan Choudhury, OBE, who has also taken up a smaller closed group of mentees for regular sessions
- Law and Islamic Leadership with Zara Mohammad
- Research, Strategy and Policy with Shenaz Bunglawala
- A Life in Politics with Baroness Sayeeda Warsi
Our members have also had opportunities to attend Mayoral visits.
Our Purpose: “To nurture active young British Muslims with a grounded, confident faith identity.”
Our Mission:
- To provide a space for young adults to increase their knowledge about faith in today’s British context
- To create a welcoming community where topical issues and faith matters can be discussed and where Muslims can connect with each other in a unique and open environment
- To provide a bridging link between Campus and ISB
- To address the challenges that Muslims face as they enter a new stage of life, the world of work and possibly parenthood
- To empower young Muslim professionals to gain knowledge and develop the skills needed to succeed in their careers through professional networking and mentoring
Take a look at our networking dinners
- Muslims, the Media and Me: Reclaiming our Narrative
- Building Resilient Communities
- Faith in the Workplace
- The Next Chapter: Planning Your Career Path
Muslims, the Media and Me: Reclaiming our Narrative
📍 Birmingham
Our speakers were journalist Peter Oborne and Esmat Jeraj. Peter spoke on the history of the media and its role in Islamophobia. Esmat spoke on engaging with the media and how we can influence and raise concerns and complaints to official bodies.
Building Resilient Communities
Excellence/Ihsan in the workplace and uplifting our communities!
📍 Manchester
Aneel Mussarat | Philanthropist & CEO of MCR Property Group – from property business to supporting Muslim initiatives and charities.
Afzal Khan | Labour MP for Manchester Gorton, Shadow Minister for Immigration (2017-2019) and Shadow Foreign Office Minister (2019-2020)
Dr Shameela Islam-Zulfiqar | Medical Doctor & Humanitarian Activist- Currently Fundraising & Humanitarian Mentorship Lead at the iNGO Action for Humanity (AFH)
Saima Alvi | Secondary School Religious Studies Teacher, Vice Chair of the British Muslim Heritage Centre
Dr Sara Saigol delivered a short talk on ihsan in the workplace, and Saima Alvi, teacher, joined for roundtables. This event was very kindly sponsored by Aneel Mussarat.
The Next Chapter: Planning Your Career Path
📍 Birmingham
We invited speakers Iqbal Naseem, Sabena Jameel and Khalid Anis to talk about planning for the future, navigating the post-grad period, and self-development.
Online Seminars
UPCOMING! Wed 16th April
Management Consultancy & the Corporate World with Jeffery Beere
Research and Policy
with Shenaz Banglawala
Career Coaching
Would you like free, in-depth and invaluable career mentoring sessions on a range of different job sectors?
ISB wants to help a generation of young Muslims to:
- Step into their influence and potential; nationally and internationally
- Benefit from key mentors who can help accelerate their career progress
- Balance excellence and Ihsaan with their careers and their working lives
- Build the resilience and capacity of the Muslim community
Short mentoring course by Sultan Choudhury on Finance, Banking & Professional Development
Review: Experience of mentoring course with Sultan Choudhury
Assalamu Alaykum,
This mentoring course enabled me access to an opportunity with a prominent figure within the finance world. This provides a unique feeling of freedom to learn and ask about anything related to a finance career path from the Muslim perspective. To have someone like Sultan who has the experience of ups and downs and is willing to share it can be a rare thing and difficult to access, so it was invaluable to have that in front of me.
The content of the course was much more varied than I had anticipated, including the expected details on Islamic Finance types of transactions (e.g. Mudarrabah, Musharakah) but unexpectedly enhanced by a large set of soft skill portions such as communication, even down to psychology models (Adult to Adult communication, Pomodoro technique for time management etc.) showing different motivators and ways of working.
”This helped me to see a new perspective to self improvement in progressing through the career ranks and verifying if the path would be the right choice. It showed what is required to be above and beyond in the industry and even transferable across industries.
The approach was always participant led, asking about our expectations and requests for content to learn so that it would all be relevant. It was invaluable to be in the same calls with other like minded professionals met during the networking dinners. Even if meeting the same people beforehand (and some new faces), ISB Connect allowed us to grow together, through identifying who else wanted Finance as a career and sharing stories.
That is truly unique to this team at ISB as we had not been grouped this way for other teams and projects that ISB runs. This has bridged a gap for early career Muslim Professionals and any future mentoring offered would be a must attend if it’s in your field of interest.
~ Afnaan
As well as banking & finance careers, Sultan spoke on:
Leadership
Time management
Conflict resolution
Facing disappointments
Resilience