Meet Florence, A Mom Taking Ownership of Her Own Career.
Unless you are the ultimate hipster (…and you live under a rock in the middle of the pacific), you may have noticed that #MeToo, #PressForProgress and #LadyBoss got real the lasts months, women are now more than ever raising voices to share their stories!
To celebrate Women’s month we have invited four outstanding women working at SThree to share their success stories and give advice to other women starting their careers. Stay tuned this month to here from Florence, Sarah, Eline and Sophie because the future is female.
Hi, Florence.
What is your background?
After graduating from International Business, I worked during 5 years in two completely different domains, IT and transportation. Before coming to SThree I had no experience in consulting or recruitment but I had always felt curious about it.
What do women in business need to do today to pull the future towards them?
Recently, I read a book written by Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook that explained that women tend to assess their own capabilities and underestimate them. Women think they are not ready to assume higher management positions (even when they are) and often decline new opportunities or don’t look for them. I think this is certainly true.
Thus, the advice is to be reckless! If you want a better/higher position, go for it! You’re surely going to make it! If you need to acquire knowledge in finance, business strategy or acquire management skills, get them! But don’t get away from challenge.
What has been your professional path in the staffing industry?
I arrived at SThree almost 8 years ago when I joined Computer Futures as a Trainee Recruitment Consultant. I loved it and learned a lot about the recruitment industry.
After two years everything was going great, but I had reached the comfort zone and I needed a new challenge to boost my motivation. At that time, Real Staffing opened their ‘freelance division’ in France and I saw that as an opportunity. I decided to go for it, even when that represented I had to leave my amazing team, the great results I was producing and start a new path within SThree but in a different brand.
At the beginning, it was pretty hard! I couldn’t get any deals done for the first five months and I started to wonder if my approach was correct and if I was a good recruitment consultant. But I had to take the time to learn about the position, the new service and accustom my own strategies to convince clients. When we finally got to open the market, sell the brand and build the network in the pharmaceutical industry, the deals started and after one year and a half I became manager of Real Contract.
I am thankful for the support my team provided during those moments. That hard time taught me that you have to fight through some bad days to earn the proud to be a winner.— Florence
In 2015 I became a mom.
When I came back from maternity leave in October 2015, I got interested in an open position as Sales Development Coach. — I knew that exploring a new career opportunity would force me to leave again everything I had already built…and a team I adored, but I took the risk anyways and applied. After a while, I took up the position and I don’t regret it because being a coach gave me a whole different vision of the company and helped me realize that SThree offer diverse career opportunities. It was a once in a life opportunity to learn.
The year 2017 was a long period of questioning where I realized that I really wanted to have a bigger impact on the growth of the company. That is how in February 2018, after my second maternity leave, I started a new role as Sales Operations Manager.
“They call me the chameleon, I love versatility” – Florence
Tell us more about being a Sales Operations Manager
Sales Operation Managers drive various projects with three main focus; the client experience, the employee experience and the profitability. We work behind the scenes to make SThree a great place to work at and a key partner for our clients.
Tell us more about being a working-mom
I like the balance between being a mom and having a challenging job, it’s not simple every day but it definitely makes life exciting! I think it demands you to be really effective and organized because you actually have two shifts: one at work and one with your kids.
You certainly need to set priorities and to be efficient, but counting on the flexibility and trust of your employer is also key. SThree has allowed me to manage my own time in the most convenient way and work from home when needed.
What advice would you give to women that want to become moms one day and remain being #LadyBosses?
- Time management is key but everything is possible! We can adapt and find solutions for every new challenge, being a mom helps you boosting capabilities you did not know you had.
- Adjust your job to your life style, not the contrary…And never forget to enjoy every moment!
If as Florence you want to start building your career in the sales/recruitment industry, send your CV to a.duque@sthree.com or…Discover SThree’s open positions.
- The future is female: Feminist slogan related to the success of one specific shirt that’s re-emerged from the 1970s.
And that’s all for the moment, folks. Here is my contact: a.duque@sthree.com if you are looking for a job in the sales/recruitment industry or just want to have a chat, don’t hesitate to write back or…
