Carina Parisella on diversity and agility
Leading ANZ Bank’s technology workforce team, Carina Parisella has plenty of experience with people who are changing their career. The company’s workforce initiatives have included the Return to Work Program, designed to reignite the careers of people who have taken a break to raise families, travel or migrate.
“Return to Work has been a great success,” says Carina, who oversees workforce and diversity initiatives for the bank’s technology division. “We bring in people who’ve had both technical and non-technical roles, including those who may not have touched technology before but have potentially transferable skills like problem solving, communications and marketing.”
Carina will be supporting the ANZ’s next collaborative initiative – providing trainee placements for a selection of graduates in the Victorian Government’s Digital Jobs program.
Carina knows it can be challenging to begin a new career and how this can affect someone’s confidence, but knows re-training and upskilling present a great opportunity.
“It shouldn’t be about experienced people feeling they have to start from scratch. It’s actually about re-igniting their career in another area. Trainees with ANZ will be supported with buddies and coaches so that they can thrive and do meaningful work.”
The opportunities for those coming into a new field from a previous career are as good for businesses as they are for those making the change. Businesses benefit from staff with a wide range of experience and backgrounds.
“Diversity isn’t just about gender and it’s not just nice to have. It is a commercial and economic imperative,” says Carina. “Diverse teams reflect our communities and customers. We need people of all ages and backgrounds with different perspectives. Employees who come to us from other roles bring maturity and professional skills as well as experiential and cognitive diversity which can help us think differently about solutions for our customers and staff.”
Developing the technical skills through training is obviously important, but other qualities are also vital.
“Research tells us that even in the tech sector, soft skills are really important. Communications, collaboration, teamwork, and problem solving are very important. So is learning agility. We need people who really want to learn, who are curious and want to ask questions.”
In fact, Carina sees the thirst for learning as key to employability in the future, where career paths don’t necessarily follow a predictable route.
“Learning agility will probably be the currency of the 21st century. To reshape our careers and keep them active, we will have to be alive to changes and ready to learn anything.”
“When you take the continuous learning approach, you give yourself more opportunities. There’s never a glass ceiling. You’ll continue to build both breadth and depth in your skill sets.”
“So try new things,” Carina advises. “Meet lots of people. I honestly believe that it’s the network and the sponsorship and advocacy of the people around you that will help you get to that next level and help you succeed. The more you learn and grow and build your networks in an authentic way, the better.”