Hayley Sudbury, the founder of Werkin, a platform facilitating career mentorship across the world, was interviewed about her career by The Guardian.
Underrepresented groups have been shown to have less access to mentors and sponsors than their white male counterparts. Sudbury credits her identity and experiences as a lesbian woman as crucial factors in her decision to leave her career in financial services and start a company to help address the problem.
Sudbury, who spoke at the OutNEXT Salon as part of the Out Leadership Europe 2018 LGBT+ Senior Leader Summit last October, talked about the importance of mentorship in solving the “pipeline” problem where minority representation drops off at mid-level positions in spite of entry-level recruitment efforts.
Though Sudbury has seen the barriers that still exist in the workplace first-hand and through her own mentorship, she noted: “There’s a lot more support than there was even five years ago […] I don’t think it’s necessarily so hard to come out [in tech workplaces] any more and having a gender mix in an organisation always makes it better. It feels like things can change – but there’s still quite way to go.”
Read more at The Guardian.