Dee Murphy is an Organisational Psychologist and leads the employer branding business at Jobbio, developing innovative and engaging creative solutions to help clients build their culture and brand, target talent and engage their teams.
As an Expert in Residence, she contributes as a thought leader to internal and external content platforms and delivers seminars, workshops, panel sessions and keynotes. She has extensive international experience gained in training and development for leading companies including Facebook, Apple, Twitter and Coca-Cola.
Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role
I’m an organisational psychologist and the Head of Employer Branding for Jobbio. I spend most days either delivering seminars or working with all kinds of companies to help them understand their culture and create engaging content to tell their story and attract talent that’ll be the best fit for them. Prior to Jobbio, I spent almost a decade cutting my teeth in training, development and career coaching in all sorts of environments, from the Big 4 and global tech companies to startups and universities.
Did you ever sit down and plan your career?
Not as such. I knew that my strength was in psychology and understanding people’s behaviour, but if you asked me what my career path would look like when I graduated from university I’d never have guessed. My career has pivoted lots over the years, and I’ve never been afraid to change roles or companies in order to embrace a new challenge – and my gut instinct has never led me astray. Having said that, even though I’ve had lots of different jobs, they’ve all been within the same arena, so the experience has knitted together to make me well rounded and able for each challenge I’ve taken on.
Have you faced any particular challenges along the way and if so, how did you deal with them?
Plenty! When I was younger, and working as a change management consultant my main issue was being taken seriously by senior, long-standing employees in companies with very toxic and broken (but very engrained) cultures – especially in corporate work environments where there’s adversity to change and it’s clear that tenure is what’s most respected, as opposed to fresh thinking or new ideas. I pride myself on helping people come full circle in their thinking though, and never dilute my feedback if I know it’ll lead to a positive outcome, which although can make for uncomfortable conversations, I think people respect.
If you could change one thing for women in the workplace, what would it be?
Sadly, I’d change plenty. Jobbio conducted research recently for our #ShatterTheGlass campaign to highlight inequality in the workplace, and it’s amazing that women still face mind-boggling pay gaps. Also, it’s still the case that even really progressive companies are usually led by men – Investors, Founders, CEO’s, CFO’s, CTO’s and MD level roles are all still a held by male monopoly and it can difficult for women to elbow their way into these exclusive ‘boys clubs’.
How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?
Mentoring is vital and should be a normal practice in all organisations. The best mentors I know aren’t the ‘know it alls’ or the ‘outliers’ who’ve achieved something against all odds – they’re the humble, empathetic and authentic people, who’ve simply been there and done that and have made mistakes along the way that they’ve learned from. I’m lucky that my line of work has allowed me to act as a mentor to many people over the years. I’ve always learned as much (if not more) about myself from experiences mentoring others.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
Ironically, my biggest achievement has nothing (and everything) to do with the success I’ve worked hard to achieve. It’s realising the importance of nurturing all aspects of your life, not just your career. It’s advice I always gave, but never took myself until recently. I’ve always been very driven and ambitious, and I’ve had to burn the candle at both ends and down to the wick to reach that lightbulb moment for myself. This year I’m making sure to invest in my well being just as much my career.
What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?
As a really fast-growing startup, Jobbio always has exciting new challenges to face, and the continuous change and development are one of the aspects of the company that fits my character really well. On a more personal level, this year I’m keen to reintroduce myself to the creative hobbies I enjoyed when I was younger. It’s a shame that so many of us let that stuff fall by the wayside as we get older.
Connect with Dee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deemurphy/
Find out more about how Jobbio can help you build your brand and attract great talent www.jobbio.com
