Latest / Work It Like A Mum / Chasing Flexibility: How Kerry Jackson Redefined Her Career Path - On Her Own Terms
Transcript
- 0:01Elizabeth Willetts: Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willits and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
- 0:14Elizabeth Willetts: I'm a working mum with over 17 years of recruitment experience and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women Job Board and Community.
- 0:22Elizabeth Willetts: In this show, I'm honoured to be chatting with remarkable women redefining our working world across all areas of business.
- 0:29Elizabeth Willetts: They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, their boundaries and balance, the challenges they've faced and how they've overcome them to define their own versions of success.
- 0:43Elizabeth Willetts: Shy away from the real talk?
- 0:44Elizabeth Willetts: No way.
- 0:45Elizabeth Willetts: Money struggles, growth loss, boundaries and balance we cover it all.
- 0:50Elizabeth Willetts: Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TED talk sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school.
- 0:57Elizabeth Willetts: So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and make sure you're cozy and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams, or just survive Mondays.
- 1:07Elizabeth Willetts: This is the Work it Like a Mum podcast.
- 1:10Elizabeth Willetts: This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women.
- 1:17Elizabeth Willetts: Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers.
- 1:29Elizabeth Willetts: Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you.
- 1:34Elizabeth Willetts: They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries, ready to find your perfect job?
- 1:43Elizabeth Willetts: Search their website at investinginwomencouk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity.
- 1:52Elizabeth Willetts: Now Back to the show.
- 1:54Elizabeth Willetts: Hello, welcome to today's Facebook linked in live.
- 1:57Elizabeth Willetts: I am chatting with Kerry Jackson, who is a Supermoms alumni and she has retrained from events management into Salesforce, so she has come done a complete career pivot.
- 2:10Elizabeth Willetts: She now works in tech, which is really exciting.
- 2:13Elizabeth Willetts: So we're going to be talking all about her experiences of retraining in something completely from scratch, changing career from events management into tech, what prompted that move and how she has found working in tech, working in Salesforce and becoming part of the Supermoms alumni.
- 2:30Elizabeth Willetts: Thank you so much, kerry, for joining us today.
- 2:33Elizabeth Willetts: Thank you for having me.
- 2:35Elizabeth Willetts: No, absolutely.
- 2:36Elizabeth Willetts: I mean, had you heard of Salesforce before?
- 2:38Elizabeth Willetts: Obviously, you'd heard of them before you retrained, but you know, were they part of your subconscious when you were working in events management?
- 2:43Elizabeth Willetts: No, I had used different CRM platforms before, but never sales force, and it was not until I made the decision to change and so I actually learned about sales along with learning about Supermoms.
- 2:54Elizabeth Willetts: So you know, I hadn't heard of it before.
- 2:55Elizabeth Willetts: So why did you decide then?
- 2:59Elizabeth Willetts: What is Salesforce?
- 3:00Elizabeth Willetts: I guess people might be watching this and not know what Salesforce is.
- 3:02Elizabeth Willetts: And then I'm going to say so.
- 3:04Elizabeth Willetts: Here's my attempt at Salesforce as a customer relationship management software solution.
- 3:09Elizabeth Willetts: So I am that's used by businesses and nonprofits to, I guess, drive their operational activities.
- 3:15Elizabeth Willetts: Does anyone from Salesforce watching?
- 3:16Elizabeth Willetts: I'm not sure if that's the best definition, but yes, I mean it might not sound most exciting, but yes, sort of them really that, yeah, the customer relationship management platform that powers business activity Brilliant.
- 3:27Elizabeth Willetts: So you know why then did you want to move into Salesforce?
- 3:29Elizabeth Willetts: What was it about?
- 3:30Elizabeth Willetts: Well, there was, I guess, lots of things sort of in like professional and personal life.
- 3:35Elizabeth Willetts: That kind of all came at one point.
- 3:37Elizabeth Willetts: I mean, as I said, I've been in fundraising event management for a long time and I think I knew that I didn't want to do it.
- 3:42Elizabeth Willetts: Forever had two small children.
- 3:45Elizabeth Willetts: So there was like the point in my life where I definitely knew that I wanted to change my career.
- 3:49Elizabeth Willetts: I'd made that decision, I was definitely going to change.
- 3:51Elizabeth Willetts: So I'd used, as I mentioned before other CRM platforms.
- 3:55Elizabeth Willetts: I understood the value of them.
- 3:56Elizabeth Willetts: You know I quite like operations, I'm quite like a process person.
- 4:00Elizabeth Willetts: So I started to look in this sort of technical space.
- 4:03Elizabeth Willetts: I wanted something that was less stressful than event management and fundraising and sort of something that would be more flexible around my children, and I also wanted something that had lots of opportunities for personal growth.
- 4:16Elizabeth Willetts: So within the Salesforce world there's just so much opportunity.
- 4:19Elizabeth Willetts: There's so many different paths that you can go down.
- 4:22Elizabeth Willetts: You can go down really, really technical routes, you can go down project management routes, business analysis, consultant.
- 4:27Elizabeth Willetts: There's just so many options and it's just sort of you know it's there, you can learn it if you put the work in.
- 4:33Elizabeth Willetts: The opportunities are there.
- 4:34Elizabeth Willetts: For me as well, I wanted to have opportunity for a greater earning potential, and definitely within the technology space that is available.
- 4:41Elizabeth Willetts: I think the tech space is quite an exciting place to be.
- 4:44Elizabeth Willetts: It's ever-tuning, I mean it can be quite overwhelming.
- 4:46Elizabeth Willetts: I won't lie, and you know I am by no means a really technical person, but it is.
- 4:50Elizabeth Willetts: I'm just saying you were techy, you know, because sometimes you know my husband's a techy like you'll play on the computer.
- 4:55Elizabeth Willetts: You know, I am not a techy person, I actually mean my husband joke that I'm like no, no, especially now I'm in this career.
- 5:01Elizabeth Willetts: He's like I can't believe you're broken tech.
- 5:02Elizabeth Willetts: I'm like I'm software and he's hardware.
- 5:04Elizabeth Willetts: You know what I mean.
- 5:05Elizabeth Willetts: It'll be like can you fix the TV?
- 5:06Elizabeth Willetts: You know I'm not.
- 5:07Elizabeth Willetts: I am not that person, you know.
- 5:10Elizabeth Willetts: So no, you can definitely do this if you're not a technical person.
- 5:14Elizabeth Willetts: And then the last thing which was really important to me in terms of my career change was a one or something that I could do really quickly.
- 5:20Elizabeth Willetts: You know, I didn't have the time or the will to go back to university for four years or the money and we do a degree.
- 5:26Elizabeth Willetts: So I think you know this one in particular in the Supermum's course, like I started in the February and by the August I had the Sales Force Administration certification.
- 5:35Elizabeth Willetts: So you know that was really a big factor as well in the fact that you can make the change quite quickly and comparison, I think, to other career changes.
- 5:43Elizabeth Willetts: So there was a lot of factors that sort of were behind the change.
- 5:47Elizabeth Willetts: And when I looked into it and find sales force and they go hand in hand with Supermum's, you know just sold it to you then to become a sales force, to reach out in sales force.
- 5:58Elizabeth Willetts: What was it that sold you know what was it about Supermums and sales force sold it to you.
- 6:02Elizabeth Willetts: I've spoken with all of those things.
- 6:03Elizabeth Willetts: Really like all of the.
- 6:04Elizabeth Willetts: You know the potential for the different roles that you can bring like industry knowledge from your past career into it that you could do it quickly.
- 6:12Elizabeth Willetts: And then I suppose the like, the format of the Supermum's program was very inviting.
- 6:16Elizabeth Willetts: You know it just like to do things like this on your own is really difficult because there's a platform out there called Trailhead which is where anyone in the world can go on and learn sales force.
- 6:26Elizabeth Willetts: It's a global free platform where you can go and you can work through everything that you need to to learn.
- 6:31Elizabeth Willetts: I mean, you'll never learn everything about Salesforce, but you know that's just kind of boring, if I'm honest, doing it on your own and it was everything about the sort of accountability of.
- 6:40Elizabeth Willetts: So I signed up to a course it was the admin certification and it was like a six-month training course where you had like live content, weekly sessions with you know, a Salesforce trainer.
- 6:50Elizabeth Willetts: You had like homework every week you were assigned a mentor and that was that you could obviously go to with any of your problems and they like checked your homework and you could learn for them, et cetera, et cetera, and there was like a really you know, like a standard curriculum that you worked through and then, at the end of that as well, there was work experience where you got to do pro bono work for a nonprofit organization 50 hours of support, and then they helped you prepare for your exam.
- 7:17Elizabeth Willetts: So there was just, it was an incredible, you know, the whole thing was very well organized and you were really part of a community of like-minded individuals.
- 7:26Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, you've got the ecosystem, aren't you, which is nice.
- 7:29Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, absolutely.
- 7:30Elizabeth Willetts: So it was that.
- 7:31Elizabeth Willetts: I just I could not have done it on my own.
- 7:33Elizabeth Willetts: So, you know, having that accountability and being part of, you know, that particular training group and being, you know, with lots of women or other career changers who were like doing the same thing, it really, you know, everybody like supported each other on.
- 7:46Elizabeth Willetts: I was saying, like with Supermoms, I genuinely have never felt like as supported to succeed.
- 7:51Elizabeth Willetts: Do you know what I mean?
- 7:52Elizabeth Willetts: Like, if they're, you know, because your success is their success.
- 7:54Elizabeth Willetts: So it kind of it's a win-win for everyone.
- 7:56Elizabeth Willetts: But yeah, so it was being part of that community as well, that like that course, the offering of the course, I think, and being able to, you know, work through it.
- 8:04Elizabeth Willetts: Quite again, I'm quite process-y, so being able to sort of yeah, you could see what the course was.
- 8:08Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, you've got the cohort then doing that course.
- 8:11Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, there's cohorts, they do like three or four per year.
- 8:14Elizabeth Willetts: So we were like I was like the February 22 cohort.
- 8:17Elizabeth Willetts: So, yeah, you know, like we had like a WhatsApp group.
- 8:19Elizabeth Willetts: Everybody was going through that experience together.
- 8:21Elizabeth Willetts: So that was also really nice.
- 8:22Elizabeth Willetts: And then I attended some of their events up in London as well, which was then really nice to like put names to faces behind the company and everything as well, lovely.
- 8:30Elizabeth Willetts: So you finished in August, so it was what?
- 8:32Elizabeth Willetts: One day a week, the training session, was it.
- 8:34Elizabeth Willetts: And then I don't know, I think it was like 20 hours per week that you needed to commit to the course.
- 8:40Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, and there was a live session which was approximately three hours a week, and then the rest of it was, you know, your own study and homework and mentor and that kind of thing.
- 8:48Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, probably 15 to 20 hours per week, so you could maybe do it alongside another part time job, alongside parenting, you could do it alongside other bits and bodies, yeah, and use that training session.
- 8:57Elizabeth Willetts: Was it during school now?
- 8:59Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, the training session was during school.
- 9:01Elizabeth Willetts: I said we used to be like about nine and a half nine in the morning for in the week, but they do record everything.
- 9:06Elizabeth Willetts: So I was in the fortunate position where I was able to attend most of those live, which I find really beneficial.
- 9:12Elizabeth Willetts: But if you can just watch all the recordings back and I know lots of people who had, you know, as you say, who do it alongside work and then maybe do it in the evenings and then they just watch the recordings back so you finish the course you took six months and then tell us what happened after, because it's all obviously, obviously all well and good to do, in course, getting a new qualification.
- 9:33Elizabeth Willetts: What happened after you got your qualification?
- 9:35Elizabeth Willetts: Yes, so then you were in the big wide world To get an actual job, and you know it was an actual job in technology.
- 9:44Elizabeth Willetts: So it was quite nerve wracking and especially for me, I was like I suppose I'd been on my tour de l'Ive and then I didn't go back to my original career.
- 9:51Elizabeth Willetts: So I did the training course.
- 9:52Elizabeth Willetts: So you know there's always that extra time as well that you've been out and you start to question yourself.
- 9:58Elizabeth Willetts: You know, never mind going back to something that you're comfortable with, but going back to something totally new.
- 10:02Elizabeth Willetts: Do you have that in?
- 10:03Elizabeth Willetts: What's the syndrome at that point?
- 10:05Elizabeth Willetts: Oh yeah, I mean I've gone through that.
- 10:07Elizabeth Willetts: You know they built your confidence in the course, yeah, and then thinking, actually, can I go out now and, you know, be a sales force admin for an organization?
- 10:15Elizabeth Willetts: But the answer to that question is that yes, I can.
- 10:19Elizabeth Willetts: So I did.
- 10:19Elizabeth Willetts: So I just started looking for different roles and super mums also have, as well as a training arm, they have a recruitment arm.
- 10:26Elizabeth Willetts: So they obviously really try and help and support with that process If they think there are any particular roles or things that are suitable to certain people on the course.
- 10:35Elizabeth Willetts: So this one I did actually.
- 10:36Elizabeth Willetts: So my background is a nonprofit and then they did get a nonprofit role and they put me forward for it.
- 10:41Elizabeth Willetts: So I was able to secure a role very quickly.
- 10:44Elizabeth Willetts: I was lucky just a few weeks after I finished the course, but they were great.
- 10:48Elizabeth Willetts: So I've been to some interviews before and they did, you know, really try and build up my confidence and say you know, don't be afraid to be confident about your technical knowledge, because I'd probably not, you know, not really put that across very well and actually not even in roles I think you do.
- 11:01Elizabeth Willetts: Once you've done a course like this.
- 11:03Elizabeth Willetts: You just you know so much more technically than you know really you probably imagine.
- 11:08Elizabeth Willetts: So, yeah, so the Supermoms recruitment helped me land my first role and what I would say to everyone is because SEAL's voice is used by so many different sectors that you can bring that experience from your previous career into it and, to be honest, that's probably what landed me the job was having that sector knowledge as well as the technical skills All sectors, isn't it.
- 11:27Elizabeth Willetts: So I've given retail HK all you know, ie, whatever industry you're from, those people imploding that.
- 11:35Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, that role last October been in a year and that's nice.
- 11:42Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, three days.
- 11:43Elizabeth Willetts: I sit it over four sort of between school hours as well.
- 11:45Elizabeth Willetts: So they're very flexible and again that you know it is a very flexible role, which is great part of the reason why I did it.
- 11:52Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, absolutely, and I know, because I mean speaking to Heather, it's a lot of the roles are really flexible?
- 11:58Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, I think it's the nature of the job as well.
- 12:00Elizabeth Willetts: You know, obviously it's technology.
- 12:01Elizabeth Willetts: You can do it remotely, you can do it on your computer, you know.
- 12:04Elizabeth Willetts: So if you need to catch up in the evening or do things in the evening or just sit it, it is a very flexible kind of role.
- 12:10Elizabeth Willetts: So I would say you went from home, you've moved, haven't you recently?
- 12:14Elizabeth Willetts: Yes, I've moved.
- 12:15Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, I was based in the site of England and my office is in London.
- 12:19Elizabeth Willetts: But I've since moved back to New England and I do think that, like this career has just been a real, you know, really helpful within that, because I could actually just keep my job and just take it with me and just generally the whole career, just feel like you don't have to sacrifice in terms of location.
- 12:35Elizabeth Willetts: You know you can really work wherever you want to still do the job, which for me has been great, but, yeah, back in Ireland night.
- 12:42Elizabeth Willetts: So what's your job like on a day to day basis?
- 12:44Elizabeth Willetts: What does a sales at Forst admin person do?
- 12:47Elizabeth Willetts: So I think my role is probably a little bit different than a traditional sales Forst admin, because I work at a small charity called the Wanda Foundation.
- 12:55Elizabeth Willetts: They work directly with women and girls all over the world.
- 12:58Elizabeth Willetts: They're fantastic charity if you get to have a look at them.
- 13:00Elizabeth Willetts: And they were just spreadsheet based, so they didn't have CRM platform until a year ago.
- 13:07Elizabeth Willetts: So I guess the last year really has been like building the architecture of the platform and moving all of their data and information from you know the way it was stored before all armed sales force and then like training up all of the users to be able to use the platform then.
- 13:21Elizabeth Willetts: So it's kind of like the digital implementation, you know leading that piece.
- 13:26Elizabeth Willetts: First of all, and I think it's really sort of now we're getting more into like the day to day of perhaps a more traditional sales force administrator role, which is where, obviously, you know, I continually train the users because there's always, you know, potentially new users or new people who want to use the system and the day-to-day management of the back end of all of the things that need done.
- 13:47Elizabeth Willetts: But they really do want to develop their platform.
- 13:49Elizabeth Willetts: We're looking at them in a potentially using it for development in the HR system they work with partners globally around the world and how we collect the data from them for their impact reporting.
- 13:58Elizabeth Willetts: We're looking at developing that and a system for managing the volunteers.
- 14:02Elizabeth Willetts: So I think that's the good thing about being an in-heist Salesforce admin is that they have the resource to be able just to develop the platform and it doesn't remain stagnant.
- 14:11Elizabeth Willetts: So, yeah, it's really interesting because there's always different things that they want to do and develop, basically to make everything more efficient so that the charity and can spend more time doing what's really important, like their fundraising and obviously their program delivery and obviously how the Salesforce platform can support that.
- 14:29Elizabeth Willetts: And, as I said, there's loads more that we can do.
- 14:31Elizabeth Willetts: So I'm just working with the different teams the fundraising team, the programs team to map out some of those next requirements.
- 14:37Elizabeth Willetts: So, yeah, I mean, I really enjoy it, exactly, yeah, and it's a nice, very role, isn't it?
- 14:43Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, absolutely Definitely.
- 14:44Elizabeth Willetts: And then I think, ultimately at the core of it, I know sometimes like people can feel a bit overwhelmed by technology and it can take time for people to get used to it, but ultimately your goal is really to try and make people's jobs easier by taking away long, laborious administrative tasks, and that perhaps it could be automated or it could be done differently, like one example of that, where I am now is the organization just didn't really have a sense of like who were all of their monthly donors and they were sort of stored in lots of different platforms and lots of different ways, and we've been able to bring all of that information into Salesforce.
- 15:18Elizabeth Willetts: So the person that obviously looks after you, know those people and stewards them can just do it so much easier than before, whereas it was just kind of impossible before.
- 15:27Elizabeth Willetts: And that's one example.
- 15:29Elizabeth Willetts: So that's really helpful.
- 15:30Elizabeth Willetts: So are you still in touch with Supermoms since they've trained you?
- 15:35Elizabeth Willetts: Well, I mean, I am.
- 15:37Elizabeth Willetts: You know they're a great group.
- 15:38Elizabeth Willetts: I used to go to a few of their events and you know, sometimes we had some wine together after and that's what happened.
- 15:44Elizabeth Willetts: But yeah, no, it's a great community to be part of.
- 15:46Elizabeth Willetts: Yes, still in touch with lots of them.
- 15:47Elizabeth Willetts: I've met various people on the way, like my mentor and other people I met at events, and you know very often like that's the thing about a Salesforce admin, I guess, in this particular role, like I am on my own, which sometimes can be challenging, but so I very much use my like network from Supermoms and the network that that's given me if I need help with sort of any technical.
- 16:05Elizabeth Willetts: I was going to say if there's some like thing you don't quite know, can you reach out to like your mentor?
- 16:10Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I go to my mentor, I go to my old trainer or any other people that I've met, to see if anyone.
- 16:16Elizabeth Willetts: And if they can't help you, they normally can find someone who can.
- 16:19Elizabeth Willetts: I would say, like, as a sector, it's the most like helpful, nicest, friendliest sector.
- 16:26Elizabeth Willetts: Honestly, I don't know.
- 16:28Elizabeth Willetts: I think tech might have, like you know, maybe people might think that you know it's all sort of I don't know, I don't want to stereotype, like white people, and there people are so willing to, you know, share their knowledge.
- 16:42Elizabeth Willetts: It's really unbelievable, honestly, as a whole sector, not just the Supermoms community.
- 16:47Elizabeth Willetts: So you please your retrain then?
- 16:48Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, I am Please, I did it, yeah.
- 16:51Elizabeth Willetts: So what's next for you then?
- 16:52Elizabeth Willetts: Because obviously you've done the admin, because I know that they do extra courses, is that something you've considered?
- 16:58Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, it is.
- 17:00Elizabeth Willetts: It's one of those ones where, like recently, I've like moved countries and everything.
- 17:03Elizabeth Willetts: So I felt like quite overwhelmed with my personal life.
- 17:06Elizabeth Willetts: But yeah, I mean, that's the nice thing about Sealsforces, I think there's just all the opportunities are there.
- 17:10Elizabeth Willetts: It's just sort of when you decide to go for them.
- 17:13Elizabeth Willetts: I think for me, I would probably like to look into you know the sort of consultancy type route or perhaps, yeah, non-profit consultancy we get to work with.
- 17:21Elizabeth Willetts: You know multiple different charities and like developing those, like formalizing those, like consultancy skills as well.
- 17:27Elizabeth Willetts: But, yeah, so I do want to look into you know some more certifications as soon as possible, because it has been a year I haven't.
- 17:35Elizabeth Willetts: The challenge at the time is like keeping up with everything and keeping up with the tech world, because it feels sometimes like you blink and you know there's artificial intelligence and you blink and there's something else, and but that's the exciting part of it as well is obviously there's always the opportunity for learning and growing.
- 17:50Elizabeth Willetts: I was going to say do you get like additional training?
- 17:52Elizabeth Willetts: You know when something happens, there's a new development.
- 17:54Elizabeth Willetts: I don't know.
- 17:54Elizabeth Willetts: You know for Sealsforces yeah, I mean Sealsforces.
- 17:56Elizabeth Willetts: I said there's the online platform called Trialhead which basically you can go to to train yourself up and everything.
- 18:02Elizabeth Willetts: So now that I've obviously qualified, like that would be, that's where I go to.
- 18:05Elizabeth Willetts: You know, keep your contacts and the different and whatever sort of area I need to get.
- 18:11Elizabeth Willetts: It's very helpful.
- 18:11Elizabeth Willetts: Wow, what a great story.
- 18:13Elizabeth Willetts: I'm so pleased to hear.
- 18:15Elizabeth Willetts: So if people are watching this and they're interested in free training in Sealsforces, then, kerry, we trained with a brilliant company called Super Moms We've obviously talked about, and they offer six months training.
- 18:26Elizabeth Willetts: You can fit around you and your life and you know, like Kerry, then there's an opportunity for you to get a flexible, well paid job after they really can fit around you and your life.
- 18:35Elizabeth Willetts: So thank you so much, kerry, for joining me today.
- 18:39Elizabeth Willetts: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work it Like A Mon podcast.
- 18:48Elizabeth Willetts: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe, and don't forget to share the link with a friend.
- 18:54Elizabeth Willetts: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
- 19:01Elizabeth Willetts: You can also follow my recruitment site, investing in Women, on LinkedIn, facebook and Instagram.
- 19:06Elizabeth Willetts: Until next time, keep on chasing your biggest dream.