Meet Trailblazer Mehru Sheikh

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mehru Sheikh.

Mehru, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I always dreamed of travel while growing up, but never knew one day it would be the best perk of my job! I moved to The States at the age of 13, and attended three different high schools – little did I know, all this prepared me to assimilate into a new society and instilled in me the love of travel.

During college, I worked full time and wanted to graduate as soon as humanly possible so I could finally start my career. I’ve always been very career oriented, and I wasn’t prepared to let anything delay my graduation date – not even study abroad which I desperately wanted to do. After I graduated, I worked at an investment firm for a year and a half before deciding it wasn’t a perfect fit. I started to get restless but didn’t know exactly what I was looking for.

It all changed one day when one of my coworkers told me he was leaving to go work for an airline. Soon after he left, I would see his photos of traveling the world. One weekend, he would be in Bogota and the next weekend in Hawaii. What is this lifestyle I asked myself, and more importantly, why am I NOT part of it? From that day forward, it was pretty clear to me what I wanted. I needed… craved a career which would not only allow me to build a long lasting career in corporate America but also provide an outlet for my favorite hobby: Travel.

On a fateful Wednesday, I came home exhausted after my hour-long commute and applied to my dream company: Southwest Airlines. As I browsed the small page of open job listings, my heart sank. There were no open positions I was qualified for. What’s a girl to do? I closed my eyes and applied for a job I knew very well I wasn’t qualified for. The job asked for 5 years of experience and well… I only had one and a half year of work under my belt. What’s the worst that could happen I asked myself as I clicked submit, and closed my laptop.

A couple of days later, while taking family photos at a JC Penny Photo Studio (my mom’s idea), my phone rang. My heart skipped a beat when I didn’t recognize the phone number. “Hello… this is Mehru…” I answered nervously, and almost fell over when I heard “Hi, this is Katrina from Southwest Airlines calling about your application. I stuttered my way through the initial screening and hung up. As it turns out, I definitely wasn’t qualified for the job requiring 5 years of experience, but they liked my resume and referred me to another job which was newly opened. What’s the lesson to be learned here? Sometimes, a leap of faith is all you need.

A few days later, I found myself in two interviews back to back and a couple months later at my dream company and I’ve never looked back. At first, it started out with taking weekend trips with my coworkers to other states and eventually turned into planning longer trips to Europe and North America.

Has it been a smooth road?
I would say it’s been a pretty smooth road so far due to the love and support of my family and friends. I dont consider myself a true blogger because I dont have an actual blog… yet. So, the pressure that bloggers might face isn’t the same as me. Since this isn’t my primary source of income, and more like a hobby, I have a different outlook. Content creation is very new to me, so I’m having a blast just learning for now! My advice would to anyone who’s looking to start their journey would be to just start. If there’s something you’ve been wanting to do, you should do it. The only person holding you back is yourself.

We’d love to hear more about @sheikhshack_.
I run the instagram account @sheikhshack_. It’s essentially a collection of everything I love. I share my travels along with some fashion posts. What sets me apart from other travel bloggers… and trust me there are a lot of them is the duration of my trips. Since I have a full time job, I can only take very short trips. On these short trips, I try to hit up as many cool locations as I possibly can. I provide my viewers a glimpse of the fast travel life. If you have a layover in Budapest, and need advice on must see things in 24 hours, you could benefit from my reccomendations. Another thing that sets me apart from the other travel bloggers is the fact that (without knowing) I have inspired the girls within the south asian community to travel. I have recieved some very sweet comments about how my travel pics have inspired people to venture out and break the norm. Traditionally, in the South Asian community, girls dont travel by themselves. A phrase that’s much too common is “you can travel after you get married”. Of course, this isn’t the case with every family, it still exists. I want to empower my female followers to get out there and explore for themselves; and I’m more than happy to provide reccomendations to go along.

What’s the most important piece of advice you could give to a young woman just starting her career?
Everyone tells you not to doubt yourself, but the truth of the matter is doubt is natural. We all have it. It’s how we use that doubt to our best advantage is what counts most. Maybe, the doubt pushes you to create your best work. Use it to your advantage, and try to not let it hold you back from things that matter the most to you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: sheikhshack_

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