Your network is the key to your career, says the woman who heads up The Gender Index

Name: Your network is the key to your career, says the woman who heads up The Gender Index
Uploaded: 2023-12-01T12:32:10.000Z
Duration: 5 min 41 s
Description: Jill Pay, chairman of The Gender Index and the first female Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons, shares how her mindset helped her reach the top of her game.

Jill Pay, chairman of The Gender Index and the first female Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons, shares how her mindset helped her reach the top of her game.

05:41

Fri, Dec 1 20237:32 AM EST

Jill Pay, chairman of The Gender Index and the first female Serjeant at Arms, said it was her self-belief that allowed her to get the prestigious job in the U.K.'s House of Commons.

The former civil servant started out as a head office keeper at Westminster in 1994, before rising to lead parliamentary security as the Serjeant at Arms in 2008.

While she was waiting to be interviewed for her first role, self-doubt crept in, but she quickly snapped out of it.

"The people who've taken me through this process who've interviewed me, who've invited me to come to this final interview, they believe I can do this job. So, I should believe I can do it. And I went into the interview in that frame of mind, and I got the job," she told CNBC's Make It.

Pay added: "A tiny dose of impostor syndrome gets the adrenaline going."

After her retirement in 2012, Pay would go on to assume leadership roles in charities and organizations advocating for female entrepreneurship. She is now the chairman of The Gender Index, which tracks and analyses the number of female-led companies in the U.K. with the aim of significantly increasing this number.

Watch the full interview to learn more about Jill Pay's biggest lessons.