We asked a number of leading women who are speaking at the upcoming She Leads Conference what they’d like younger women to know about navigating their leadership pathway. Below, Jessica May, CEO of Enabled Employment, shares her story of determination, resilience, and innovation.
As children, we all have ideas about ‘what we want to be when we grow up’. But some of us have no realisation that there is any kind of barrier to being an astronaut, or a brain surgeon, or the head of a multinational company.
When I was a child, I was acutely aware of gender inequality in the workforce, having watched my mother struggle with precisely that as a female electronic engineer and multimedia teacher.
My mother provided an extraordinary role model for me, she worked doubly hard to overcome this barrier in her workplaces, and she proved her abilities time and again.
I listened to my mother’s story, and those of the women she knew, and gender inequality was always one of the issues discussed in our house. My mother made sure that my brother and I understood that everyone is equal, and deserves to be treated as such.
Hearing and watching her do this made me determined to do something significant with my future, and established my principles around fairness and equality which remain drivers for me today.
I am, and was then, super proud of my mum. She worked so hard, as a single mother with two kids, who worked full time and studied electronic engineering on the bus on the way to work and back each day.
She studied during the one hour trip to work, and the one hour trip back from work so she could spend time with us, her children. She broke down some serious barriers about women in technology and continues to be a role model to me today in everything I do, especially in being resilient.
I was one of those people who had no idea what they wanted to do with their life. I remember my mum being passionate about me studying IT as I had an interest in it. But as teenagers are known to do, I was against the idea, and set off on a learning curve to find something that made me happy.
To begin with, I wanted to be a fire fighter when I was growing up, as I was sure there were no female fire fighters. When I found out there were, the career lost its shine for me.
Then I took up a hairdressing apprenticeship, but hated how the gossip mill churned, and the way apprentices were treated. I had jobs at Go Lo, Payless Shoes, became a point of sale manager at Coles, did some waitressing, and learned some administration skills at NatRoad.
While none of these jobs turned out to be my ideal career, they all taught me a little something – such as customer service, administration, or served as an important stepping stone to put me closer to where I wanted to be.
When I was 23, I landed an administrative service officer job in the Australian Public Service at the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, a role which saw me answering the hotline, which gave me great conflict resolution and negotiation skills. I began doing their annual report to parliament and some website work.
This got me back into my interest in IT, one thing led to another, and I was studying for my own degree in information technology (mum was right)!
Working my way up to an Executive and started as the Program Manager for the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House, an experience that was to be life changing.
With the skills from my degree and the opportunity to work in the information technology field, the team and I automated the entire Australian superannuation system for employers. We won the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Innovation, and I was now at the Executive Level 2 glass ceiling.
And that’s when it all crashed down.
After the birth of my first child, I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder which I had always had, it just became unbearable in conjunction with an overactive thyroid. I couldn’t return to work without disclosing the condition, and when I did I faced discrimination.
I began to look for some sort of work to do online, from home. There was nothing. I began to think about how many people in my situation couldn’t access work, and how I could apply my skills and experience to solve the problem.
With help from the ACT Government’s Lighthouse Innovations, I received a grant to build the Enabled Employment website, and found Chris Delforce, our Chief Information Officer and brilliant award winning web designer.
We launched the business on 11 September 2014, and there is now a place where people with a disability can find flexible work in the open marketplace.
The lesson to be learned in all of this is that it doesn’t matter what you find yourself doing to survive in terms of a job. Stay open and learn all you can about every job, because the skills you learn will stand you in good stead.
I still apply things I learnt in my first job, and having a customer service background is a great platform to keeping your customers happy in the future.
People will inspire you or show you the type of person you want to be along the way. Everything is a learning experience, and even the bad times are never wasted – as long as you get up, dust yourself off and start again.
You can do anything you want, and one day it will all gel into the idea that will ensure you are happy in your career direction, and satisfied and happy in your job.
I know I am certainly happy now and wouldn’t change anything in my career path as it has led me to where I am today.