Shehzeen Siddique

Early life and background

Siddique's father is a doctor and her mother holds a master's degree in chemistry. She says her parents had high expectations of her as their firstborn. She describes herself as a very rebellious teenager. She also says there was a lot of bullying and that her school did not consider her smart. [1]

Education

Siddique completed her A-levels at a college, and she says it changed a lot for her. She says the friends she made at college will last a lifetime. [1]

She says she was the most average student in her class and was very bad at math. She failed the grade 12 math mock exam. After the mock, she stopped going to school and became a private candidate for her exams. Her father told her that the failed exam was a bruise, not a tattoo, and would not define her. [1]

She applied to a college, interviewed, and was accepted when her grades came out. She cleared her O-levels with A's and B's, and she says she practised many math past papers. She is currently studying mass communication in Malaysia, with criminology as a minor. [1]

Freelancing

Siddique has been freelancing since she was 15. At first she did not tell her parents or anyone at school about her freelancing. She first came across freelancing on Instagram and learned about it from international blogs. She says it took her three and a half years to learn freelancing. [1]

She says she was scammed seven times on the internet. She met a man online who offered her training for a fee, and the training fee was 1500 rupees. The offer involved reselling Netflix and Amazon accounts. She did the first offer for three days, called it foolish and left it. A second online contact offered her products to sell, and she says that scheme also did not work out. [1]

Someone asked her to write a 1000-word article about hotels. Her first earning was 300 rupees. She wrote 1000-word articles by hand every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She says freelance writing means focusing on the client's specifications more than her own perspective. [1]

She decided not to rely on training fees and to take on clients who need work. At that stage, genuine clients paid her 300, 500 and 600 rupees. Others urged her to make a page, and she made a page that grew to about 1700 followers. [1]

Social media management

At 18 Siddique became a social media manager and got her first job. The job began in 2020, during COVID. She says she was paid really well while working at 18. [1]

Her employers first asked for six hours of on-site office time a day. She said six hours a day was not possible because she took classes at 4 or 5 in the morning owing to the time difference. She persuaded the employers to let her come in once a week for two hours. [1]

During her first batch she neglected her social media management work. Her employers told her to go to university, as they saw the job getting hard for her. She says she preferred freelance coaching because she could work from home on her own time. She says she was not sure whether she was fired or chose to leave. [1]

Learn to Earn

Siddique began teaching when she ran her first batch, which had about 10 to 15 people. She says the first batch earned 8000 rupees, which she counted as a big achievement, and the earnings were in her EasyPaisa account. Someone told her he had sent 2000 rupees to her EasyPaisa account. He took the money from her account and then blocked her. The day after one story, she had tripled the amount that was stolen from her. [1]

Her second batch had 30 people and her fourth batch had 45 people. Her eighth batch had eight people, and her ninth batch had more than 200 people. Her WhatsApp group limit was 256, which capped how many people she could take. After her ninth batch, her work changed completely, and she added social media management as a service because of her experience. Her current batch is batch 18. [1]

She describes herself as the CEO of Learn to Earn. Learn to Earn was started partly because people get scammed very easily. Her course covers common scams so students know what to avoid. She designed the course so new freelancers would not repeat her three years of difficulties, and she condensed three years of learning into a seven-day course. [1]

Her course ends with SEO, which she calls the most important tool in freelancing. She had no money to open a website. She set up a payment portal on WhatsApp. She was frustrated by copying and asked people not to copy her. She says she focuses on women, including girls who cannot go out. [1]

She says some people are also freelancers who work under Learn to Earn. After batch 10 she hired a manager, one of her own students, and she also brought her brother onto the team. Her team currently has three people. She answers student questions in the group around the clock. [1]

Her youngest student was 13 years old, and her oldest student was 69. That oldest student was a grandmother living in Canada. She says she wants her learning environment to be very safe for 20 year olds. [1]

She wants her students never to feel dumb, and she says her relationship with students is very frank. She says she does not abandon her students when the course ends. She tells students to email her and says she will reply in two or three days. [1]

Siddique is working on a project to introduce more authentic job opportunities. She has designed a platform she plans to launch. She says Pakistan is the fastest growing freelancing market in the world. [1]

Reception

Siddique says she faced a lot of online hate when she first began teaching. A page put up one of her posts. Her page grew from around 10k to about 20k followers around that time. [1]

She says people underestimated her and assumed she was a scammer. Her father told her that her work would answer her critics. She tells people to wait for reviews before judging her work. [1]

Earnings and motivation

After earning 300 rupees early on, Siddique said she would stop taking money from home. Her father told her to save her money because she had lost it to scams. During her fourth batch she had two clients from Australia and one from Spain. [1]

She says respect matters more to her than money now. She says freelance coaching has brought her money, respect and fame. She says she no longer works for money, and that some people she helps have never paid her. [1]

Views

Siddique says girls in Pakistan have few opportunities and often cannot go out to work. She hopes that by 2050 young people will be working and productive. She hopes families will let their children choose their own paths. [1]

She believes work ethic is something to learn from childhood. She believes happiness brings success and that people should do what they love. She tells young people to invest in themselves by learning a skill. [1]

She tells people that success depends on themselves, not on who demotivates them. She believes self-belief and hard work take a person a long way. [1]

Personal life

Siddique once wanted to climb K2. She realised how hard her father works when she started earning. [1]

Timeline

2020

Began work as a social media manager, during COVID.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Why Shehzeen Siddique started freelancing at 15 in secret . Thought Behind Things , 2021-09-27.