The Key Learning Points:

1. The challenges of climbing the career ladder as a woman, as illustrated by the lack of female role models in the industry

2. The important role networking plays in career development

3. Tips on how to pitch yourself to other people in professional settings

On this episode, we’re fortunate to be joined by Ranila Ravi-Burslem, director of SME solutions at Aviva. Ranila has had rather a philanthropic career path, holding senior and board-level positions across a number of not-for-profit organisations and charities including Action on Hearing Loss, One World Action and the Charities Aid Foundation. She’s gone on to a varied career spanning health and financial services and is currently a member of the board at not-for-profit organization, Worldreader, which champions digital reading in underserved communities.

Ranila starts off by telling us about her career journey, explaining that purpose is really important to her, which is why her career started off in the not-for-profit sector. She spent time working at Charities Aid Foundation, which was Ranila’s first foray into finance. She then moved to NEST, an organisation with a social purpose to provide good quality savings vehicles for low-income people in the UK through workplace pensions. After five years, Ranila moved to Aviva where she now supports small businesses, developing propositions to meet their insurance needs. 

Ranila holds a senior position at Aviva and we were keen to understand whether she has faced any challenges climbing the career ladder as a woman. Ranila explains: “I walk into meetings and most often I’m the only female in the meeting, and more often than not, I’m the only brown person in the meeting.” Ranila believes that the issue for women tends to be a lack of role models, adding: “When I started at Aviva I was contacted by four or five different women, who I’d never met, saying ‘it’s fantastic to see an Indian woman as a director come into the business, because I’ve never seen one, so I don’t know if I can aspire to be one’.” 

Networking played a huge part in Ranila’s career journey, in fact, she admits that pretty much all of her career came as a result of her network and connections. She explains that early on in her career she didn’t appreciate the value of having a strong network, but adds: “I realised it wasn’t enough to do well, it’s important to know the right people internally, as well as externally, and to talk about the fact that you’re doing well…If you don’t sell yourself, no one is going to”. 

Putting yourself out there and speaking about your own achievements is not always easy, and Ranila provides her advice around this. She suggests that you start small, and start with the people you know, the people inside your own organisation. Then try looking to people that you haven’t yet interacted with, but perhaps should – those who are influential or have done really well in their careers. She suggests setting a goal at conferences to reach out to a certain number of people, which will then become a habit. “Once you get to a certain level, you have to take control of your career and your journey, rather than only following the paths that are opened up to you, you have to forge your own path. You can’t do that if you don’t know enough people, have enough networks and connections to be able to create that opportunity for yourself.”