The Key Learning Points:

1. Tips on how to explain CV gaps to potential employers to avoid harming career prospects

2. The importance of learning to communicate the value - in addition to ‘soft skills’ - that you can bring to a company, which often aren’t included in a CV

3. Where empathy and the human side of individuals comes into play within the insurance sector

On this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by someone who I think is one very cool lady! Hayley Maynard works in strategy at Chaucer, the specialty reinsurance group, and holds a PhD in geospatial econometrics. Oh, and she also spent six years living in a van chasing her passion for wine, climbing, surfing, and ultra-marathoning!

Hayley grew up in Laguna Beach, California, where she did her undergrad and made the decision to start living in her car after she “found climbing”, got into long-distance running and surfing. She was able to live an amazing nomad lifestyle - working at vineyards during wine season and enjoying the best climbing and surfing that Nevada, New Zealand and Australia had to offer. Hayley and her partner decided to move to Australia and they agreed to settle down. It was in Australia that Hayley “fell into” her PhD, becoming curious about the use of technology to manage vineyards better and make better wine. Hayley then moved to Sydney, where she finished her Postdoc, and started looking for a job.

Hayley explains that it took her a while to find a full-time job because many employers didn’t like the fact that she had a PhD, assuming that she’d be bad with people! Hayley refused to take this experience off her CV and she tells us about the frustration she feels around CV gaps: “I hate it when people tell me I need to explain a gap on my CV. Or if I take a year out, I’m taking a career break. No, I’m absolutely not. I’m investing in myself.” Over time, Hayley became better able to explain the value she was bringing and how her unique life experiences made her into an individual that businesses should hire. Like many of the Risky Mix guests, Hayley admits that she “fell into insurance” and she joined Allianz in the small business insurance space but says - “I really did fall in love with insurance.”

Hayley has spent four years in the insurance sector. Starting in product management at Allianz and then moving into strategy at Allianz Australia. She then transitioned over to the London office and took a role as chief of staff for a board member and is now currently working at Chaucer, reporting into the chief strategy officer. Hayley adds that her job really involves three key parts – innovation, parametrics and competitor analysis.

For individuals thinking about taking a career break, whether that’s to go travelling, or perhaps to start a family, Hayley shares her top tips on how to do that without allowing the negative career impact that so many of us worry about. Hayley starts by saying: “How do you value a soft skill? How do you value a life experience?” These softer skills rarely appear on CVs, so how can we communicate their value? “95% of my job is story-telling, but where does story-telling sit on your CV? Where does empathy sit on your CV?”

Hayley shares how she communicates her value: “The first step is the hardest, and that’s noticing what the quality is, what the skill is or what you’ve learned.” Next, it’s about quantifying that value, across three time horizons: “There’s every day, there’s sometimes – which is once a month, once a quarter, and then there’s every now and then, and that’s once a year, once every five years, once in your career.” Finally, it’s about selling your value: “It’s incumbent upon you to make it as easy as possible for whoever you’re explaining your story to, to understand the value.”