...And because of that, it meant promotion came much later than it should have."
Rajdeep Chana
Rajdeep’s mum came to this country
at the age of 8. She did not access a formal education and didn't learn how to read and write in English, but learnt how to speak well enough to get by. She worked extremely hard as a catering assistant, but never got paid well to meet the growing demands of life.
Her father was well educated, but because his qualifications were obtained in India, they were not recognised in the UK. This meant he was unable to obtain a well-paid job, so worked as a warehouse assistant.
This meant that growing up, money was tight and there was a lot of financial stress and worry about paying the bills. At a very early age, Raj felt she needed to help them and herself, and so to take some pressure off, got a job at Heathrow, Boots the Chemist. She worked there part-time for six years, waking up at 3am for a 5am start most weekends.
Rajdeep decided very early on that working hard, and getting a well-paid job was what she wanted to focus on. She obtained a degree in Management of Business Information from the University of Westminster. After a stint on a graduate scheme for a car rental company, she realised that was not the industry she wanted to be
in, so after seeing an advertisement via a high street recruitment agency, began her career in market research. She spent ten years at Toluna starting as an Account Executive, working her way up to Account Director. After ten years there, she moved on to her present role as Business Development Manager at Lucid.
Rajdeep remembers early on in her career colleagues finding how she phrased certain things hilarious – the running joke in the office was her saying ‘I’m going shop’. This became regular office banter, which she indulged and laughed at too, however internally she felt mortified by how exposed this made her feel.
Communication differences were a running theme throughout her story. New in the industry, senior people would often edit her emails so as to make her sound more ‘professional’ (these days she prefers to use her own simple, clear communication style, without the need for intricate, complicated words). Public speaking was not something she proactively put herself forward for either, lacking the confidence to present to large audiences. Rajdeep feels that these factors, combined with two sets of maternity leave, led to a number of delays in her promotion.
Rajdeep also clearly recalls people confusing herself and another Indian colleague, whose names were often used interchangeably
by senior staff – they were regularly approached together with the question 'which one of you is Raj?'. In spite of these experiences, she has made her career into a huge success, helping hundreds of MR agencies/consultancies and end clients to source sample for their target audiences and all the while has been constantly praised for her enthusiasm, dedication, customer service, multitasking skills and attracting new clients.
Since 2018 Rajdeep has worked @Lucid, which she describes as a highly diverse and inclusive organisation. She says this has made a huge impact on her work and career:
‘I feel free, I feel independent…I know my worth’
Upcoming guests in this series, include Steven Lacey and Graham Idehen.
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