This example comes from Rose McCarthy, who is my oldest and dearest friend. Rose and I have been friends since we were 11 and, sadly for me, she now lives in Ireland. Rose had not worked for six years and was in a new country, so she knew her CV was out of date and somewhat irrelevant for
country, so she knew her CV was out of date and somewhat irrelevant for the position she was applying for. When she lived in Australia she worked as an HR manager for a large Australian corporation, but she was applying for a part-time reception role at a physiotherapist. Her CV didn’t show any previous experience as a receptionist, but she knew she could do the job.
Story
Four years ago I moved to Ireland from Australia, where I had lived all my life, with my husband (who was originally from Cork) and our three
children. My eldest daughter, Maeve, was about to start primary school so we wanted to be settled before she started school.
When making the decision to relocate, I remember thinking Life is an adventure, so I really didn’t have a reason not to go. Maeve was a few months from turning five, Clare had just turned three and Michael was five months old when we packed up our house and moved to Cork. Ten days later Maeve started primary school.
A lot of my family and friends said we were mad because it was possibly the worst time to move. Ireland was in the middle of a recession with really high unemployment and here we were arriving at Cork airport. I am positive we were the only people in the world immigrating to Ireland at the time, when everyone else was coming to Australia; it’s a wonder we didn’t make the news.
I guess what this shows is that I am ready and willing to take on challenges and, although I have never had a role as medical receptionist before, I know I have what it takes to make a success of it.
Outcome
Two days before Christmas, Rose was at the shopping centre with her three children when she got the call offering her the job. She was thrilled.
She shared this story because she wanted the interviewer to see her as not someone who was going for a job interview but as someone who was a wife, a mother and person who was willing to take a chance. ‘I had to show what a CV doesn’t,’ she says.
I remember when I was sitting in the interview, the physiotherapist was pregnant with her second baby so I knew we would have that connection and something in common straightaway. She had asked me how long I had been living in Cork and that for me was the opportunity to share my story.
story.
Speak up
Catherine, a client, was going for a job as head of diversity and inclusion.
During the interview, the panel asked her how she had gone from leading large teams overseas to leading organisation-wide efforts related to diversity and inclusion, with no previous HR experience. Catherine wanted to
demonstrate that, although she didn’t have an HR background, she had the credibility, the operational experience and, most importantly, the passion to undertake the role successfully. She told the following story to illustrate what sparked her interest in seeking out the diversity role.
Story
I had always believed in gender equality but, interestingly, it had been an abstract concept for me. I hadn’t grown up in a world where being a woman had ever limited me, and I didn’t truly believe it really ever would. That was until I joined an organisation and industry that was very traditional and male-dominated.
Where I worked, women made up around 15 per cent of the overall
workforce, and were barely represented at the senior leadership level. Over the 10 years I spent in that organisation, I was the only woman to have ever held certain positions, including an overseas role, despite so many able and qualified women being available and willing to take on the role. But one event triggered my commitment to work on cultural change and, in some small way, be part of the change I wanted to see in the world.
I was on a 12-month leadership course where people from across the
organisation were selected to participate. However, fewer than 10 per cent were women. One of the course modules was held off-site and included spending the week away to learn about ethics.
An example given as an ethical ‘dilemma’ that the group was to discuss was whether to chase after a woman in a green bikini on a bicycle and toot your car horn at her (replete with moving images and matching sound effects on the PowerPoint slides).
Another ‘activity’ was rating 10 pictures, almost all of which were of women
in various stages of undress, on the spectrum of art to pornography. I found these activities totally inappropriate for ethical-related discussions when there were so many other valid ethical dilemmas that could have been presented for discussion to the group. I also found them to be offensive, belittling of women and representative of the wider organisational culture that diminished the valuable contributions of women — the minority of the workforce — and reinforced society-wide damaging gender stereotypes.
Although the other women in the group felt the same way, as did some of the men, most did not feel comfortable voicing their opinions to the
organisation’s leadership for fear of repercussions or impact on their career advancement. I did speak out, though, because I could not let this continue.
Doing so led me to meet the Head of People and Culture within the organisation, and we discussed the work I could be part of in leading
cultural change after the experience I had just had, but also as someone who brought fresh perspectives from an operational arm of the organisation.
Outcome
This story not only demonstrates Catherine’s passion and commitment to diversity and inclusion, but also shows leadership and integrity, which she knew the company also valued.
Catherine says the interviewer asked a lot more questions about this situation and story and she received a lot of reassuring nods.