Sharifah Hani Yasmin’s work has always centered around creating access, particularly for women, youth, and communities often left behind. As a WOSSO (Women Of The South Speak Out) Fellow and a selected speaker for the upcoming United Nations High-Level Political Forum in New York, she continues to contribute to global conversations around gender and economic equity.  At home, she has led workshops, mentored young women, and advised on policy gaps. Online, her platforms, followed by over 45,000 on LinkedIn and 15,000 on X, have become a hub for career advice, graduate opportunities, and honest reflections on work and life.

At 30 years old, she has already worn many hats: law student, youth mentor, workshop trainer, social media strategist, founder, and an emerging voice on the employment scene. Her journey is a testament to the importance of values-driven work and the doors that open for the people who dedicate themselves to opening doors for others.

Studying Law at The University of Essex

Sharifah’s decision to study law was both practical and personal. Her family valued the stability of a legal career, and she felt the subject aligned with her strengths in language and argument. At the same time, she saw law as a means to understand how systems worked and how to eventually challenge or reshape them.

“I chose law because I thought it would help me understand systems and power structures,” she said. “It wasn’t just about memorising statutes. I wanted to understand how the world worked.”

At the University of Essex, she immersed herself in the subject. But over time, her ambitions began to shift. The reality of practising law felt misaligned with her long-term goals.

“I never really saw myself practising,” she admitted. “But the degree gave me the foundation to think critically, to advocate, and to create structure where it’s lacking.”

Law, it turned out, wasn’t her final destination. It was a launchpad.

Building a Career Across Sectors and Screens

After graduating from Essex, Sharifah returned to Malaysia and began building a portfolio career that moved across public, private, and social sectors. One of her earliest roles was with SOCSO, where she worked in corporate communications supporting the CEO, helping to communicate the organisation’s social protection programmes to the wider public. From there, she took up a position at the British High Commission, managing a scholarship programme that offered her a front-row seat to Malaysia’s talent pipeline, and subsequently, the barriers many faced in accessing opportunities.

It was at the Commission that Sharifah began noticing a recurring pattern. “At most of our outreach events, it was always the women who came up to me saying they weren’t good enough for scholarships,” she recalled. “Even though they had amazing track records, they lacked the confidence to apply.”

That moment stayed with her, sharpening her interest in gender equity and further solidifying her desire to create systems that could support (not stifle) ambition. It also led to further stints at PwC and Crimson Education, where she gained additional experience in employability and strategic consulting. Each role offered something different, but all reinforced a core value: that access to meaningful work is not just a personal goal, but a public good.

One Step Closer: Creating Access Through Community

During the pandemic, Sharifah launched a career support initiative that began with reviewing CVs for friends and strangers. What started informally soon snowballed into a structured offering under the name One Step Closer, a platform designed to give job seekers a fairer shot at employment, particularly those from non-traditional or under-resourced backgrounds.

“The idea was to support people who didn’t have a network or couldn’t afford professional services,” she explained. Sharifah provided tailored feedback on resumes and job applications, often offering small grants to help people attend interviews or upskill themselves. As demand grew, she moved from one-on-one sessions to workshops and organisational collaborations, supported by a growing network of over 40 HR professionals who contributed their time and expertise. That collective effort continues today through ad-hoc engagements, as testament to the idea that community-driven support can scale without losing its heart.

As the momentum continued beyond the height of the pandemic, Sharifah decided to create a more formal structure around her efforts. In 2023, she launched SY Professional Review Services, a remote consultancy offering career and personal development services like resume and CV reviews, scholarship coaching, LinkedIn optimisation, mock interviews, and referral facilitation. “It was a way to centralise everything I’d been doing informally for years,” she said.

Today, Sharifah works closely with partners like TalentLabs and previously TalentCorp, delivering employability programmes and workshops to broader audiences. She also supports younger students as an Education Consultant with Crimson Rise, a division of Crimson Education focused on early career guidance. The role allows her to continue working remotely while providing mentorship that bridges education and opportunity across borders.

The mission remains unchanged: to remove invisible barriers and build bridges between talent and access. “A lot of people just need someone to say, ‘You belong here too,’” she said. “That can make all the difference.”

Content with a Mission: Personal Branding and Thought Leadership

Sharifah didn’t stumble into her online presence; it was built with intention. She began cultivating a following on Twitter, where she shared job opportunities, graduate programmes, and upskilling tips. But it was LinkedIn where her content truly found its audience.

Her content generates over 15 million impressions annually on LinkedIn, reaching professionals across Malaysia and beyond. In March 2025, she was ranked Malaysia’s #6 LinkedIn creator by Favikon: an achievement that reflects not just visibility but resonance. 

“I actually enjoy cultivating a following because it’s one of the easiest ways to give back,” she said. “You never know who it might impact.” Her posts are written in a clear, accessible style, often breaking down complex systems, like CV tailoring or career transitions, into digestible advice. 

This consistency and clarity have not only supported others but also unlocked new doors for her. Organisations have reached out for workshops, collaborations, and speaking engagements. Through it all, she has remained focused on the deeper ‘why’ behind her work. “Create with heart, but share with strategy.”  

Advocacy in Action: Championing Women’s Economic Participation

Sharifah’s advocacy work is rooted in patterns she noticed while working in policy, community building, and recruitment. Women, she saw, were disproportionately underrepresented in both opportunity and outcome. That realisation led her to become a mentor with Girls for Girls Malaysia, a structured leadership programme aimed at empowering young women in universities. She later joined Lean In Malaysia, contributing to initiatives that support women returning to the workforce.

These experiences laid the groundwork for her involvement with the WOSO (Women of the South Organisation) Fellowship, a regional programme supporting gender-based advocacy across Asia-Pacific. Through WOSO, Sharifah developed a pilot programme focused on remote work and entrepreneurship for women who had become caregivers and were no longer able to take on traditional employment.

“I was shocked to learn that the female labour force participation rate in Malaysia hasn’t changed in 20 years,” she said. “It’s not even under any ministry’s clear mandate. There’s no accountability mechanism.” Her current goal is to push for policy reform and advocate for structural changes that can close the gender gap at scale.

The Realities of Remote Work

Sharifah’s life may appear scattered across continents and sectors, but the throughline is clear: access. Whether she’s building career resources for young job seekers, designing workshops with TalentLabs, or travelling to and from Tokyo for her master’s application, her work is united by a commitment to expanding access to opportunity.

But that freedom didn’t come without trade-offs.

In her case, remote work has enabled her to say yes to global fellowships and high-impact consulting roles, but also meant saying no to opportunities that weren’t hybrid or flexible enough. “A lot of people glamorise remote work or digital nomading, but stability is rare,” she added. “You give up a lot, especially in the beginning.”

What makes it work, Sharifah believes, is alignment. Most of her roles and projects, though distinct, orbit around the same axis: economic empowerment and employability. She carves out time each week to intentionally block out space for these pillars and relies on a strong sense of internal clarity to prevent burnout.

Advice for the Lost and Looking

For young people just starting, or those deep in doubt, Sharifah’s advice is clear: don’t do it alone.

“Find a mentor. Reach out. Leverage the communities around you,” she says. “If you don’t have support from family or friends, you can still find it through initiatives like FutureLab, Skola, or Closing the Gap.”

In her view, the willingness to ask for help is not a weakness: it’s a strategy. She’s seen countless examples of Malaysians lifting each other up when given the space and tools to do so. But it starts, she says, with taking that first step.

“It won’t happen overnight. But if you lead with values and stay consistent, you’ll get somewhere. Just keep going.”