Great career advice based on working in a variety of sectors
Sectors involved included Hospitality, Medical, Property, Retail, Communications and self-employed.
That sums up the variety of careers of Fiona Robinson,the guest in this episode, has been through.
She is currently Executive Assistant at the Applegreen Group office but the lessons learned from a captivating career beginning in the world famous Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin will keep listeners highly engaged.
At the Shelbourne she was PA to the Director of Sales. She held similar roles at the Beacon Hospital, KPMG and the global fintech company Fiserv.
In between there were stints at being Executive Director at the Public Relations Institute of Ireland, Manager at Euromedic Ireland, Broker/Manager at RE/MAX and Operations Manager at Ed Dempsey estate agents.
Add to those were two periods at basketball Ireland, Senior Men’s Team manager and then Arena Business Development & Duty Manager.
While she enjoyed her time as self-employed in real estate, describing it as great as it provided her freedom and independence, she says that having the security of a regular income overcame these benefits at the time.
Titles in many businesses change as well as work practices. She describes the changing responsibilities of Secretary to Administrative Assistant to Personal Assistant to Executive Assistant (EA), as moving from typing letters to stakeholder management. Working as a number 2 to several senior executives has provided Fiona with a unique perspective on leadership styles from micromanagement to a more trusting approach.
The key values she has seen in leaders are empathy, vision and good communications.
Fiona also says that being a number 2 can be a highly influential position as you can effectively be the eyes and ears of an organisation with information being absorbed from all directions in the organisation.
In terms of an individual’s career, she uses the glass half full analogy to demonstrate that we don’t all see the world in the same way. She says that we must be open to change in today’s world of work. Her message to young people seeking a career is network and understand your net worth. And surround yourself with positive people and be resilient, she says.
She also believes that attitude is key to working with people. For her that is the most desirable attribute to have, followed by knowledge and hard work with luck also being part of any job search.
Using a poem learned from her mother about a little train trying to make its way up a hill without success at first, she says that we must keep trying, you might get 40 rejections, but it only needs one acceptance to get you on the ladder of success.
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