The Woman Who Hired Me
This week I sat down to interview the woman who took a chance on me. After a 21-year career break, I still wonder what made her choose my resume over someone else’s. Was it my volunteer experience? My community connections? My false projection of confidence? I wanted to hear her insights on hiring a mid-life woman with a long career break. Perhaps I wanted to know if those red shoes I wore influenced her decision.
I have found Alix to be a fabulous mentor, she has been inspiring, encouraging and patient as I readjust to work and find a balance between family, work and fun. She has been and still is incredibly active in our community. She also has thoughtful and valuable insights. Insights that sometimes remind me that not everything we see on instagram is real. Behind those influencer posts and reels there is still someone struggling to set boundaries for their children and hoping that their husband remembered to pick up milk on his way home for work.
How Alix Got Here
One of the first things I wanted to know was what prompted Alix, after years of community involvement and serving on boards, to take on a paid role at Summer and Grace Gallery. The interesting fact is that Alix was initially offered the job of sales director but unexpectedly became the interim director, overseeing sales, staff and the gallery’s roster of artists.
The female business owner who knew Alix through the community “took a chance on me, and it was really a gift,” she told me. For Alix the bigger lesson in experience was that women need to include women not only in their personal lives, but in their “future career conversations and goals.”
What struck me was how much of Alix’s own story was about networks. We can support the skilled women in our own communities, open doors for one another and help each other recognize (as my connection to Alix did for me) and leverage the skills we have.
Building a Multigenerational Team
Alix and I chatted a lot about the current team at the gallery and about what she was looking for in the employees she ultimately hired, including me. For her the strength of the team comes from combining people of different skills and experiences.
An older employee on the team may bring years of community connections and relationships particularly valuable in a business like a local art gallery where trust and relationships are important. Someone with experience in a gallery setting brings invaluable skills and authority for handling the art and discussing technique. And the younger employees arrive with digital skills that as Alix joked, someone who learned cursive in school (that’s me too) “could only dream of.”
Her ideal workplace isn’t built on one generation being superior to another, it is what she called a “combo platter” of generations that add to the team in the “most dynamic way.”
But when I asked Alix what ultimately made her choose the people she hired, her answer had very little to do with age.
“Personality, integrity, confidence, and smarts,” she said. “Most things can be taught.” Sales can be taught. Accounting can be taught. If someone is competent, reliable, listens, has enthusiasm, and is willing to try things, a successful business can be built around that.
But What About the Red Shoes?
There was still one question I was itching to ask….
Apparently, they didn’t hurt.
So it wasn’t my red shoes?
Alix told me they showed “pizzazz and personality,” something that mattered in the creative business. She looks for people who show an interest in art and colour and creative pursuits, whether that’s art itself, cooking or interior design.
But above all, she said, “they have to be team spirited.”
What do Different Generations Bring to Work?
When Alix first joined the gallery one of the people she learned from was in her seventies. What Alix remembers most was her commitment to routine and process “that routine was fundamental to learning the business…not looking at your phone or being prompted by a text or message.”
The younger generation who we know are on their phones have a different strategy: they are always looking for “technical advantages and advances.” For me, the combination has been invaluable. Technology has allowed me to learn quickly, while logical processes and clear steps have helped me to understand the business and begin making a contribution to its growth.
What About the Years We Weren’t Working?
The question at the heart of it all, and perhaps one of the key goals of this blog: What would Alix say to employers who overlook experienced women returning after a long career break?
Alix compared it to the value of bringing different perspectives to a boardroom. A woman who has spent years raising a family has been interacting with schools, teachers, counselors, coaches, doctors and countless other people and situations. As Alix put it, “all the different things that go around raising a family are incredibly vital and useful, and they bring a tremendous perspective and skill set to a team.”
Go For It
When I asked Alix what advice she would give Gen X women thinking about returning to work her answer was simple:
”Go for it.You’re going to find your people”
Alix is a bit of an expert here as she herself returned to the workforce after a number of years at home. She began exploring where her skills might fit. Like the rest of us she looked to Google or ChatGPT for ideas about jobs that matched those skills.
“Put one foot in front of the other” The first job might not be exactly what you imagined,or it could lead to something you never expected.
And yes, returning to work may require some behind the scenes help from your family. But as Alix reminded me that is not a bad thing for our relationships or for our grown or almost grown children and mostly for ourselves. At the end of the day, we need to be happy.
So, at the end of the day, maybe my red shoes did help.
But really Alix recognized that during my unpaid career break I had been building relationships in my community, communicating with professionals, problem solving, organizing people, adapting and developing skills I never thought belonged on a resume.
Summer and Grace Gallery has become an unexpected example of a truly multi-generational workplace. We are led by a fearless, strong and courageous female owner with her own story. We bring different experiences, perspectives and skills to the gallery, and we learn from one another.
So if you are reading this and wondering what next…all those things you are doing during your time away from paid work may actually be enhancing your marketability. They are adding to your value.
But today I know something I did not know a year ago. My career did not stop for 21 years. It simply took another path.
What got me hired wasn’t my red shoes. It was two decades of raising children, volunteering, building relationships, solving problems, organizing people, adapting and quietly developing skills I never thought belonged on a resume.
And now with Foundations in Digital Communication I have added another skill to my resume and rediscovered my desire to keep learning.
About Alix
Alix is not only a Director at Summer & Grace Gallery she also holds a Digital Marketing Certificate from the university of Toronto and has significantly amplified the reach of community projects and fundraising efforts.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alixmairscott
Relaunching Me 
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