Skip navigation

Would you hire this person?

By:

DATE: 12 April, 2021

Sydney Williams, the global director of brand marketing at GE, recreated her resume detailing her broader life skills. This is what she wrote:

I do everything you do, but I do it with one hand. Literally. I hold onto what’s important with all the strength I have in one hand, while juggling the 1M daily tasks of life in the other. I ruthlessly prioritize. Every day, I grow stronger and more efficient as a result.

I think ten steps ahead. Each day is a 50+ piece Jenga puzzle that I manage with skill, strategy and luck.

I maintain positivity, while my patience is pushed to the limit. My team has meltdowns, emotions run high, new challenges arise daily. I lead with compassion, listen to debate and encourage resolution through compromise.

I adapt. I take whatever life throws at me and adapt to be the leader that’s needed—typically on little sleep, with little time. Past roles include but are not limited to: teacher, chef, nurse, barber, garbage woman, builder, driver, hostage negotiator, seamstress, engineer, translator, swim instructor, therapist, stylist.

lead with empathy. My team comes first and foremost. I work for them.

I fight ferociously on behalf of them.

I communicate powerfully and prolifically. I focus on clear, results-oriented communication to drive change.

I prioritise integrity and honesty. Anything less is unacceptable.

I am in a constant search for a better way. You can find me iterating on everything from process improvements to product development to communication tools. Creativity is fundamental to my job.

I value collaboration. Teamwork is key to my success. I forge and foster relationships between diverse groups of people in order to support, elevate and maintain life among my team.

I do it all with very little “Thank You” and wake up each morning to do it again because of my capacity to find the joy and love in my work.

Impressive stuff! I bet if you saw this CV it would hit the top of your consideration list. But how and where did Sydney Williams develop these amazing life skills?

At home, as a new Mum of two boys aged under 3. Which sums up why mums are ideal employees for just about any position. But here’s the reality.

A report by the Australia Institute estimates there are almost 400,000 Australian stay-at-home mums aged between 25 and 44 who want to go back to work but can’t get a job because nobody will hire them. Yep, that’s right, nobody wants to hire a Mum. And that thinking, I reckon, really does need to change.

** Are you a mum struggling to work from home? Check out our 5 Tips to help work from home with children