For the last minisode of our GHC series, we sat down with Doreen C., Senior Director of Career Growth and Development at ADP. Doreen shared her career growth journey with ADP and how her career choices have led her to love what she does every day. She also gave a teaser for her talk at Grace Hopper Celebration, "Foot on the Gas, Hands on the Wheel- Using Your Strengths," and told us how she plans to give her audience actionable guidance to drive career success.
Kate:[00:00:06] Hey, Ingrid. So here we are, another special minisode of Life at ADP, the podcast, and today we are joined by our third speaker at Grace Hopper, Doreen Coles, who is our senior director of Career Growth and Development here at ADP. So, Ingrid, let's give Doreen a warm welcome.
Ingrid:[00:00:28] Woohoo!
Doreen:[00:00:31] Thank you, ladies.
Kate:[00:00:33] Yeah, so, Doreen, tell us a little bit about your journey here at ADP.
Doreen:[00:00:38] Sure. I'd love to. I am actually a second-generation ADPer. My mom worked for the company for thirty-three years before retiring, and I applied for her job as I was coming into the organization. Don't want to go too long on the story, but I'll share with you. I didn't get that role but managed to come in as a client service manager 17 years ago. So since then I worked ten years in operations leadership working in both of our service area and our implementation area. And then the last seven years I've been in my current role as Senior Director of career growth and development. Side note, life-changing job. It's been amazing and I'm thrilled and blessed that I get to do what I love every single day.
Ingrid:[00:01:29] That's awesome. And you know, I was just listening to your amazing, amazing, actually impressive career growth at ADP. So if you have the opportunity to maybe go back in time and have a conversation with yourself, what would you tell yourself about who you will be in your career?
Doreen:[00:01:51] Hmm, I love that. First of all, I will tell you that I'm a person that when I do look back in hindsight, I recognize that every choice I made and every action that took place led me to where I'm at right now. So I wouldn't go and erase anything or change anything. But what I would tell myself is to remind, remind myself to be my own cheerleader, that no one is going to care about my career more than I will. And therefore figuring out, thinking through what are the tasks and activities that I love to do more than anything else, be super specific about those, and then finding ways to do more of those things as many of them and as often as possible. I figured that out, I would say in the second half of my career, but I didn't really focus on that in the first half. And that's really the message that I want to give to everybody, not just the younger Doreen, but to everyone is really key in on the things that you love to do and what you're great at and find ways to contribute those things in different ways in your career.
Kate:[00:03:08] Doreen I'm like feverishly writing over here and I'm pretty sure Ingrid is too. You know? So I think that ties in really nicely to your topic at Grace Hopper because as I mentioned in the intro, you're one of our three speakers this year representing ADP at Grasshopper, which is just so exciting as an organization, and your topic if I'm correct, is about strengths and career, right?
Doreen:[00:03:35] Yes, exactly.
Kate:[00:03:37] So I can imagine, you know, some of this advice to your past self and your continuing growing self, you know, is going to be talked about within your topic.
Doreen:[00:03:50] Yeah, there's no question that those are my those are my loves to be able to share with other people. So my session, as you mentioned, it's about strength and it's about career. It's about the combination of the two things together. And specifically, I want to share with our attendees how they can leverage the super awesome gifts that make them the amazing, unique creatures that they are and what strengths-based actions they can take to drive their career at every stage or at any stage. And hopefully, I won't be giving too much away when I share with you that each of our attendees will be gifted with their own personal standout strengths assessment, and they'll take part in an activity to build their own elevator pitch. So we're going to have a ton of fun in our session at the Grace Hopper convention.
Kate:[00:04:49] So that sounds amazing. And listen, I'm all for spoiler alert. So I'm not sure whoever is listening to this, if they've been able to see Doreen's, you know, talk yet at Grace Hopper, they're about to attend the talk or they aren't able to attend Grace Hopper, but they're having a little bit of FOMO and they're catching this episode because they wish that they were there, you know, outside of your you know, your topic. What else are you looking forward to for Grace Hopper? Is this your first time attending, Doreen, or are you a veteran of Grace Hopper?
Doreen:[00:05:25] I am a first-timer and I am so excited to go. I've heard about it. I know a couple of folks who have spoken at it before, but when I got the opportunity, I just had to grab it. So I actually don't know what to expect. I'm going to go in with my eyes wide open and soak in as much of the goodness as I possibly can. And then of course, I'm so looking forward to the session that I'll be offering.
Ingrid:[00:05:54] That's great. I have a feeling that this event is going to be so amazing. So, Doreen, you mentioned elevator pitch, right? So what would be your elevator pitch for your topic and what would you tell someone to encourage them to attend your talk at Grace Hopper?
Doreen:[00:06:16] Oh, I love that. So I think I would say if you want to learn how to use your unique tendencies and talents to drive your career growth and development, which of course you do, you need to come to my session. It's titled Foot on the Gas, Hands on the Wheel. It's on Wednesday, September 21st at 4 p.m. Eastern. And you will end up leaving with actionable guidance and tips to drive your career success. Come see me.
Kate:[00:06:50] Okay. So I'm going to be at Grace Hopper, you know, like yourself representing ADP. I'm going to be in the booth and I'm going to have to sneak away to see the session because I'm already like, Doreen, I can't wait. No, that sounds fantastic. And I just think it's going to be so amazing to see these young women and women in different stages of their careers just get this renewed sense of purpose. And I know at ADP we're so inclusive and it's such a, you know, the word culture can get thrown around an awful lot, but I have a feeling that the folks who come visit us in our booth are going to be like, holy cow, they're just really nice. Like, the people at ADP are just really nice, don't you think, Doreen?
Doreen:[00:07:45] Hundred percent agree. And while there are tons of things that, excuse me, that make up our fantastic culture, just the fact that we have someone who is responsible for every associate's career growth and development, I think speaks volumes about the type of company that we are.
Kate:[00:08:07] And you raise a really great point because something that we see from you know, candidates when applying to ADP and even in their initial stages of their interview process, they want to know like what does career growth look like? That's probably one of our number one questions that we get asked.
Doreen:[00:08:26] Right.
Kate:[00:08:26] So, you know, do you mind sharing a little bit about, you know, career growth at ADP?
Doreen:[00:08:33] Yeah, that's actually one of my very favorite questions because career growth at ADP looks like whatever you want it to look like. Not everybody has the same definition of career success. In fact, most people don't share the same definition of career success. And we might have a different definition of career success today than we did a year ago or five years from now. So career growth and development at ADP is very personal, and we want our folks to be able to move forward toward career accomplishments that excite and energize them.
Kate:[00:09:12] I love that. I love that. I love that. If we could just bottle that up and share it with everyone.
Doreen:[00:09:19] Right, exactly.
Kate:[00:09:21] That would be amazing. Well, Doreen, it has been a true honor having you on the life at ADP, the podcast, minisode number three for Grace Hopper. I look forward to personally seeing you in Orlando in like two weeks.
Doreen:[00:09:39] I cannot wait.
Kate:[00:09:40] Yes, going to give you a big hug. And thank you so much for joining us today.
Ingrid:[00:09:45] Good luck at Grace Hopper. Thank you so much.
Doreen:[00:09:48] You're welcome. It's been my pleasure. Thank you both.