1. The document summarizes an informational interview that Sam Kristen Can had with Mrs. Ruhana Hafiz, a Senior Advisor and Special Advisor at the FBI, about her career path in human resources and strategy management. 2. During the interview, Mrs. Hafiz emphasized skills needed for a strategy management position like problem-solving, project management, communication, creativity and flexibility. She also described her typical workday of prioritizing tasks and responding to emails. 3. The conversation sparked Sam's interest in pursuing a similar career path. While Sam plans to obtain a degree in Human Resources Management, they hope to follow a similar career trajectory from the private to public sectors.

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Sam Kristen Can
April 1, 2016
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
LEAD Instructor Tiffany Toston
Informational Interview with Mrs. Ruhana Hafiz
On February 25, I had an intellectually inspiring conversation with Mrs. Ruhana Hafiz,
Senior Advisor and Special Advisor Program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
after her talk at the Career Boot Camp at The Washington Center (TWC). Mrs. Hafiz
possesses an accomplished profile – a graduate from MBA in Business Administration from
Harvard University who found her interest in human resources and strategy management. In
her five years at the FBI headquarters, she has set up the internal Strategy Management
System in two divisions, piloted a trend analysis model for employee conduct, authored the
Bureau’s pioneering white paper on its International Program and redesigned how the
Bureau recruits special agents for overseas positions. Her charisma and devotion to
recruiting and diversity initiatives inspired me to follow up with her to learn about human
resources and strategy management – my ideal career paths.
The position of a strategy manager requires certain personalities besides technical
skills. During her talk at TWC, I observed and perceived Mrs. Hafiz’s leadership style – one
that could be described with three words: charismatic, strategic, and concise. Not until our
personal conversation did we have the chance to talk about leadership style building. I split
this topic into two questions about skills needed for the position and about typical daily
tasks. About pivotal characteristics to strategy management, she emphasized several ones:
problem-solving mindset, project management skill, attention to details, excellent
communication, creativity, flexibility, and adaptability. In order to expand values to an
organization with projects or expand scales of a project, you need to be creative but able to
structure multiple plans, set deadlines, and assign tasks. That requires you to have a big-

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picture mind but also excellent organizational skills. As for her typical working habit, she
always starts her day with prioritizing three goals to finish during the day but leaves twenty-
five percent for flexible, pop-up tasks. Before focusing on her own tasks, she replies emails
to give people what they need. The rest of her day is heavily packed with processing new
ideas or project structure.
To pursue the same career track as Mrs. Hafiz does, I feel the need to obtain the same
leadership style as hers. One noteworthy strength that she has is communication, which is
also my weakest point. As she assured, communication and personal branding are common
Asian female problems. Women in Asia face societal norms that discourage them to express
themselves comfortably even at work. As it took her tremendous time and practice to
achieve such an excellent communication skill, it will take me a lot of time and practice to
accumulate my skill as well. As for organizational skills, past internships have trained me to
lean towards structuring, strategizing, managing projects and processing; it will be the matter
of time for me to gain more competence in such skills.
The conversation with Mrs. Hafiz sparks more curiosity and interest in the strategy
field in me. Before meeting her, I conceived my tendency not only towards social science
and big-picture thinking, but also towards a structured approach to daily tasks. Mrs. Hafiz
helped me realize that strategy management is a perfect combination between working with
people and keeping a strategic, conscious, and scientific mindset. What also draws me into
the path is her charisma that I had the chance to observe at TWC and in person – the
confidence, pertinence, and resourcefulness that she had.
Much as I crave to become a strategy manager like Mrs. Hafiz, I will choose a slightly
different path from hers. She graduated from an MBA program on Business Administration.
I will gear towards a more human-related focus with a Human Resources Management and

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Labor Relations Science program or a Management Science Master program. The reason is
that, her path heavily emphasizes on technical skills relate to the corporate environment and
government-corporation relations. Picking a HR route, I aim to grab a broader range of
knowledge including psychology, information systems, and law. I believe that I can learn
further technical skillsets throughout my career once I have a good foundation of liberal arts
knowledge. However, I will follow her path from the private sector to the public sector,
since strategy management involves public policy but also takes into account capitalist
incentives to maximize resources.
Stepping into a professional field requires strategic planning and practice as well. In
order to advance myself as a prospective strategy manager, I would need to practice
strategizing and optimizing small tasks. This practice will help me become better at
managing small projects, becoming a good group participant, and being more attentive to
details. Also, retaining a more task-focused mindset and little reliance on emotions would
actually allow me to become a better communicator. I learn from Mrs. Hafiz that when she
talked with me, she communicated a message rather than a particular emotion to me. Her
mode was efficient: it put both her, the speaker, and me, the audience, more focused and
made the message more relevant. Also, I attempt for some Human Resources internships in
the private sector this summer and after graduation as a middle step before graduate school
application.
Overall, the conversation with Mrs. Hafiz opens my eyes to a lot of opportunities in
my dream field – strategy management. From her sharing about career path, I could see how
I enter the career path with daily practice and accumulative professional experience. Meeting
with her urged me to put my dream into action through small steps such as internships and
graduate school.