Shownotes: 

According to the Social Mobility Commission Report from last year only 35% of adults in the UK believe that everyone has a fair chance to go as far as their hard work will take them and 46% said that where you end up in society is mainly determined by your background and who your parents were. It is hard to disagree with what the commission has to say. But, every once in a while you hear stories of people who make it despite the challenges, the hurdles that they may have faced in life. This could be because of a teacher who is interested, a mentor who is committed to adding real value to the life of a mentee….

My guest on the podcast this week Rosie Wainwright, an ambassador for social justice met her mentor Laura @Career Ready. Laura hugely influenced the direction Rosie took in her life, by unlocking her love for books (as a dyslexic) and focusing on education as a path to attainment and breaking the cycle (in her own words). In the episode we spoke about her difficult life experiences, being in foster care, becoming an ambassador for social justice, a panel member on TACT (Fostering and Adoption Charity) and a people and change specialist at PA Consulting. We also spoke about 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

👉🏾 Learning what ‘normal’ looks like. Being the first person in her family to go to university

👉🏾 How Career Ready changed her life

👉🏾 The dreaded imposter syndrome, work place culture and being a culture fit

👉🏾 Her mantra ‘Reminding myself that I deserve to be where I am. I am not in my position because someone made a mistake’

👉🏾 Supporting social impact and widening participation 

👉🏾 Her biggest achievement which is her relationship with herself and others

👉🏾 Networking and her mentor at PA Consulting Sally Bibb

“Words have power. Do not be embarrassed, your situation at a young age is not your fault. Focus on your education. Education is often the key to social mobility. So develop, learn skill yourself where you can. And something that I do now, make a conscious decision to surround yourself with people who uplift you, who are going to offer support and encouragement. And if your come across someone that inspires you - reach out to them, ask them to be your mentor like I did.” 

I am ever so grateful to Rosie for sharing her story, her difficulties and triumphs with me and the listeners even though we discussed in advance what she was comfortable speaking about. 

Memorable Passages from the Podcast: 

👉🏾 Sure. So I'm Rosie Wainwright. I live in Southeast London and I work at a company called PA Consulting as a people and change specialist. I'm also a mentor and a qualified coach, and I sit on a fostering and adoption panel for a company called TACT. And yeah, I guess I'm passionate about social mobility and having a positive impact where I can. 

👉🏾 Sure. So I would say that every experience in my life has shaped who I am today. But I'll keep it simple and I'll talk about my top three that kind of stick out in my memory. So the first would have to be, I think like most people, my childhood. So I grew up predominantly with my mom as a single parent and was helped to be raised by my grandparents. When they passed away, things took quite a turn. My mom, she had me very young and she got mixed up with the wrong people and got into the wrong things. So unfortunately, I became the target for most of her anger. I then went into foster care. I was about 14 or 15 years old, and the woman that I was placed with, her name's Judy.

👉🏾 She is the most extraordinary woman that I have ever met. She showed me what normal, if there is normal, but what normal was and being able to see that a complete stranger was willing to take me in, look after me and trust me in her home was huge, right? It, it was really difficult, I suffered with a lot of mental health problems. I had trust issues as you could probably imagine. And the relationships that I got involved in weren't always the best for me, but being with her showed me that there are good people in the world. And ultimately it gave me a new outlook in life, even though I couldn't really see it at the time. But now I do.

👉🏾 I guess the second experience that sticks out in my mind is when I was at college. So this was my third college by the way, I had failed the other two. But my teacher recommended that I get involved in a charity called Career Ready. It was called Career Academy at the time, it was many years ago. And, I didn't want to do it at first, I was quite stubborn. I didn't really understand what it was about, but I knew then I didn't want to go to university because it wasn't for people like me. But I also had no idea what I wanted in to do in the future, so it couldn't do more harm. Right. On the program, I was given a mentor called Laura.

👉🏾 And I got the opportunity to go on various workplace visits, and I remember going to Canary Wharf for the first time, and even though I live really close entering these, like huge shiny buildings and I dunno, it was just like being a part of a whole different world and this experience really was the turning point in my life.

👉🏾 Towards the end of the program, I had an internship at Morgan Stanley and actually working in that environment showed me that I could be part of this world if I really put my mind to it. And just, yeah, it really changed my life. We also, during that time we had this guy come in, he used to be a student and he told, he spoke about his own experiences at university and this guy, he was kind of like me, he was from where I'm from and he'd studied the same subject, it was a B Tech in Business and that kind of, it just affirmed to me like, okay, maybe I can go to university if I really want to. So I went back, I retook my Maths GCSE, I think it was for the fourth time and I applied to study law at City University and got accepted. So yeah, those are the main two.

👉🏾 And If I think about, a third time in my life that's kind of shaped my identity. I always think about my early career, so, after graduating law school, I went to work as a compliance analyst in New York. And it became this dream of mine to work in the US to work at a high flying company, strut around Manhattan with some heels and a cool laptop bag that didn't actually have anything in it. But you know, it just makes you look really important. And I really thought to myself, that is the end goal. That's exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to make loads of money and seem really important, but actually it wasn't it. About three months in, I realised it wasn't for me, this is not who I am and this life wasn't going to make me happy.

👉🏾 It was soul destroying because everything I believed that makes someone successful up until that point. It, it just kind of, everything felt like it was just crumbling beneath me. So what I'd done is I left New York, I came back to London, I had no job, no idea what I was gonna do in the future. Ultimately hit a state of depression, and I felt like I had to start all over again. At the time, I was even, I was dating this guy who was cheating on me, so just everything that could go wrong did. And it wasn't an easy decision to make to leave. I felt like I was letting a lot of people down, myself down, but actually it was the best decision.

👉🏾 And I don't regret leaving. I came back to London, I was reflecting on what is it that I enjoy doing? What makes me happy? And ultimately it was all the volunteering work that I was doing with young people, helping others having an impact. So I started to work in higher education, within the widening participation team, I worked my way up and then I actually moved on to Career Ready to work there. And now I've come kind of full circle, now working at PA, which is an amazing firm because it allows me to kind of, continue to do all of the great impactful work with our clients, but also to mentor, do outreach work and, you know, we can make a difference in society through projects or doing like the extracurricular 

👉🏾 Yeah, so for me personally, I saw education as being a way out, a way to break the cycle. I knew that I had to do something to get out of the situation that I was in. So learning, reading, gaining new skills, working multiple jobs was my way out. And, it got me into university, mixing with people and I wouldn't, usually come across the people that I mix with at uni. So it really did make a difference. And opportunities just, started to appear, but as you've alluded to, like I didn't always think like that, Career Ready really planted that seed. Having a mentor, Laura, she gave me my first ever book which just unlocked this love to read books inside of me and being dyslexic, I didn't actually think that would ever be possible, but it is. 

👉🏾 Going on the workplace visits, I remember thinking, I wanna work in a place that has multiple food options for lunch and has a hairdresser on site. But yeah, it wasn't until I had my internship with Career Ready that I could actually see myself working at a place like that. And looking back, the program, it really is the full package. You have the guidance of the mentor, the exposure to different opportunities, the masterclasses that prepare you for actually working. And then it's just topped off with the real life experience of working in a job. So I am, I am biased, but it is one of my favourite charities, it really did make a difference.

👉🏾 Sure. So, yeah, I mean, whilst there are, programs and initiatives that are in place to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, there's definitely more work that can be done to ensure that these people get access to the support that they need. And this is why charities exist, right? Is to kind of fill that gap. I think one of the main challenges is actually identifying and reaching out to young people as firstly, the young person may not even know that they're at a disadvantage as the life that they live, that's just their life, right? It's just the norm for them.

👉🏾 Or they may be embarrassed to speak up, I know I was, and also some of the indicators or tick boxes as you like, like free school meals or the postcode that you live in, they're not, it doesn't capture everyone that needs the support. So I think in my situation, if I hadn't gone into foster care, I would've still been at a disadvantage. We were still poor and there was a lot of physical and emotional abuse involved. But then if you take free school meals, for example, I was eligible, but we never claimed it because my mom would've felt embarrassed, and I would've just fallen through the gaps. Like, some young people do.

👉🏾 And I, I suppose like there are a lot of issues as well, like once we identify and support these young people to get into work and education, there is this big question mark, like what's being done to support them once they've crossed over that line. Are these young people that come from disadvantaged backgrounds succeeding in their career at the same rate as someone who come from a middle class background? Probably not. 

👉🏾 Sure. So I guess the first thing would be, education. When I say education, I don't mean that everyone has to go to university because there's loads of alternative programs out there that can get young people into the workplace. But having decent grades is always a good starting point. I didn't have the best grades, but I passed what I needed to pass to get to where I wanted to be. So some advice that I would give is to start researching and to look at, what do you actually need to get into the job that you want.

👉🏾 And when it comes to education, it's not just that you get that one qualification and that's it. You continuously learn on the job. And, the job market is forever changing and being able to adapt and learn new skills is really important. I think as well, networking. Networking is so important and most of the jobs that I've heard about was through networking.

👉🏾 I remember being, I think I was about 17 and I turned up to this networking event, and I was the youngest, most unqualified person in that room, but I made some pretty good connections and people were surprised that I was there. I did feel uncomfortable, but I had to try something. And, this could also lead to finding a mentor to get that extra support and guidance.

👉🏾 I think as well, work experience, it doesn't matter what it is. I, my first job was at a pharmacy when I was 15, and then I worked nights in cab firms. These are all skills that are transferrable to wherever it is that person wants to go. And I suppose like perseverance, working hard, it's not just one. You don't just start from here and then end up here. It's up, down, up, down, and nothing is, nothing is handed to you on a, on a silver platter, you need to go out and grab opportunities. And it's, it's not easy, but as long as you are doing something is, always better than doing nothing at all.

👉🏾 And I would've never guessed that I would be in the job that I'm in now because I didn't even know that this kind of work existed. I grew up with hairdressers and, and plumbers and there's nothing wrong with with those jobs, but there is a whole level world of careers out there and getting as much exposure to that as you can is, is really helpful in kind of figuring out your career.

👉🏾 Yeah. So I think for most of us, at some point in our careers, we've experienced this imposter syndrome whereby we have moments where we doubt our skills. I think that we're not good enough, and when you come from a place where you're the first person in your family to go to university, the first to have a corporate job, that feeling is at the more extreme end, but how I've kind of managed this is having, the right mentors in place and remind myself like, I do deserve to be where I am.

👉🏾 I'm not in my position because someone made a mistake somewhere. It's because I have the skills and the experiences that I have, which has led me to where I am today. I would suggest like find your people. Like I have a brilliant mentor named Sally Bib who I met in my first couple of weeks at PA and I was just taken aback by her and her values and I just sat there and I thought, I wanna be like this woman.

👉🏾 I wanna learn from her. So I just reached out to her by email and I remember sitting there like, oh my God, is she even gonna reply? Cause she's so senior and she's been mentoring me throughout my career at PA. But there are some instances that can trigger that imposter syndrome, even if you're doing really well.

👉🏾 And that could be when you are, you spoke a bit about the culture of a workplace. And there may be times where people will talk about their childhood experiences or the fact that they go on ski trips every year since they were like five years old and I can't relate. But there's going to be experiences that I have that I may talk about that they can't relate to either. Like I could say, I used to have to go and visit my friend in prison every other month and people would be like, oh my God, like, I don't even know anyone that's been to prison, that kinda thing. But I do believe if you're ever at a company where you just don't fit, and I did have that at one company that I worked in. I, I won't mention which one, where people aren't welcoming and the way that the organisation is set up, some people succeed, some people don’t. It's quite toxic environment then that's just not the company for you, and that's okay. The most important thing is being able to be your authentic self and bring your whole self to work every single day.

👉🏾 And I definitely get that from working at PA, I've had friends that have changed their accents to fit into a job because most people are from Cambridge or Oxford, and I don't think that's right. 

👉🏾 It's really important for me. I, at the moment, I support four charities, Career Ready, Helena Kennedy Foundation, Comfort Cases and Generation Success. We also have the PA Foundation, which gives colleagues like myself the opportunity to, carry on doing meaningful work, like whilst we're employed. So, I guess the reason that it's important for me is because there was a time that I was going through some pretty horrendous stuff, but life still passes by and I felt quite lonely. So I make it my mission that no one else should ever have to feel that way and so where I can, I try and help those in needs because I know what it's like to feel that way.

👉🏾 Although one piece of advice that I was given actually, and it was from the CEO of Comfort Cases in the US, his name's Rob Sheer. And he said to me, we had like a, an amazing chat and he was like, "Rosie, you're so amazing. You're doing all of this good work, blah, blah, blah." But he said, "you need to make sure that your cup is full before you help anyone else, you can't give when your cup is empty." And this really stuck with me because there are times, not a lot, but it happens when my cup is empty. I'm overworked, I'm stressed, there's family stuff going on, or there's been times where I haven't been able to pay my bills and I can't help anyone else when I'm in that situation and, and, and that's okay. So I actually took Rob's advice and that's part of the reason that I moved back into the private sector. When you're at the right company, you can continue to fill your own cup and still pour into other people's at the same time. So yeah, to answer your question, it's really important for me. Definitely.

👉🏾 So I think for universities, financial support in the form of bursaries is a huge one. So when I was at the Helena Kennedy Foundation, they gave me a bursary which kind of bridged that gap, of really struggling to just survive. I was working five jobs through uni and even that didn't get me to the point where I was at the same level as my peers and that's what these bursaries are for, right? Is to make sure that if you're at a disadvantage, you are brought up to that same level where your peers are in, in terms of support.

👉🏾 When think about university, when I was there, online classes didn't exist and I lived independently in a council house at 18. So when my boiler broke, I had to stay home and wait for someone to come and fix that which, council properties, it would happen all the time, I missed loads of lessons and that was actually frowned upon.

👉🏾 So maybe looking into people's like individual experiences would be really helpful if, if