A Consultant’s Career

Mary Moloney joined the CoderDojo Foundation team in June 2014 to take up the role of Global CEO. She has overall responsibility for CoderDojos operations worldwide. She is a dynamic high performing executive, with 23 years successful experience in lead positions within Accenture and with clients of Accenture’s. She is an expert in defining and delivering strategic change programmes with clients across a range of industries.

We sit down with Mary ahead of our next IMAGE Networking Breakfast and ask..

What do you think prevents women from achieving their full potential at work?

There are many contributing factors, but three in particular are frequently mentioned:

1. Women fill many roles during their lifetimes. They are at different stages; mothers of young children, daughters of elderly parents, spouses and partners of another worker, active participants in their communities, supportive friends of other women with busy lives. It’s not always easy to cope with the many demands on their time and the fluctuations that occur over the duration of a career.

2. There’s a recognised tendency for some great women to just “get on with the job” without seeking out opportunities to be properly recognised or to advance their careers.

3. While some women very appropriately make informed and measured decisions at various stages in their lifetimes to take time out from their careers to focus on their young families, they sometimes don’t consider how to remain connected to the workplace and how to maintain and build in demand marketable skills. They can then struggle with re-entering the workplace when they’re ready which in turn knocks their confidence and can become a vicious circle.

Career audits – any tips?

Even if you’re very happy in your career, keep an eye on the market. Know what opportunities are out there and what salary levels those positions are commanding. You’re then going to be either alert to some exciting openings to be pursued or confident in your own worth when next negotiating a salary increase or promotion. Ensure that you’re continually building skills and that these skills combine elements of functional, commercial, industry, technology and people management expertise. Look at people who are working in “your dream job” and consider the paths that they took to get into those roles. Don’t wait for someone else to take charge of your career or to get lucky, be master of your own destiny and invest time in yourself.?Given how much time we spend at work, remind yourself how better you’d be spending that time working on something; you like, are good at, get paid well for and where you get to work with people who you enjoy spending time with!?Don’t settle!

How can you navigate ‘corporate culture’ whilst retaining your own identity?

This one’s getting easier as authenticity has recently become an overused business buzzwords!We’re constantly hearing about the need to be “ourselves” and to bring our unique personalities into business discussions to ensure that there’s diversity and thinking in business. If you’re doing great work and making a contribution to your organisation, your personality and identity will never be an issue – so perform well and you’ll be accepted as you – within reasonable parameters of acceptable professional conduct! I do like the phrase, “be yourself, everyone else is taken”!

After 23 years at Accenture, you recently moved to become global CEO of CoderDojo… how did that feel? Any lessons learned?

After 23 years, it felt like a good time for a change. Very few opportunities to take up a role like the Global CEO of CoderDojo present themselves. I asked myself would I be a bit jealous if someone else took up the role and when I knew the answer would be yes, I knew I had to go for it!The biggest change is not having the support structures and support of a large team of other Managing Directors that come with being part of a large Global corporation but having been an MD for a while, it makes you pretty self sufficient anyhow.The sheer joy ?of hearing from our CoderDojo community of 5,000 volunteers about the great impact we’re having on a weekly basis to 25,000 kids in 48 countries around the world, makes up for anything I might think of missing from my old career.

*** STOP THE PRESS!! ***

Ticket includes luxury gift bag from Max Benjamin that includes an express breakfast blowdry from Dylan Bradshaw.

Prizes on the day include a stay at?Rathmullen House, Co. Donegal courtesy of Ireland’s Blue Book.

Mary will speak at the next IMAGE Networking Breakfast in the Marker Hotel on Tuesday, October 28. Tickets are just €45 and can be purchased here. For more information on the event, email business@image.ie, call 01 271 9616 or click?here.

In association with KBC, Arnotts and No7.