C-J Fordyce – Project Manager
| Employee | C-J Fordyce |
|---|---|
| Job | Project Manager |
| Sector | Media and IT |
| Company | Maximillion, Edinburgh |
“I know there are certain things I can’t do so I focus on the things that I can do"
For some people, finding the right job isn’t just about matching their qualifications and skills to a vacant post. Some job candidates demand more. They want to work for a company with values and ethics that match their own. And that’s what media graduate C-J Fordyce was looking for when she started job hunting after relocating to Scotland from London. She wanted a job with a company that shared her values.
C-J who has dyslexia, found exactly what she wanted in Edinburgh based company Maximillion. She found a company that shared her values about the environment but also offered her the opportunity to make the best use of her abilities, her creativity and her skills.
Employer's story
When C-J was recruited as a Project Manager, the company was interested in what she had to offer rather than what she couldn’t offer because of her dyslexia. Sales Manager Shoena Payne explains: “Our recruitment process is based on finding people like C-J with the skills, creativity, experience and personality that’s needed for her job.”
Facing challenges
Shoena isn’t oblivious to the fact that C-J has dyslexia but respects her ability to manage. Her leadership style also helps to address the challenges C-J faces because of her dyslexia. Shoena says: “When I became C-J’s Line Manager, we talked about her preferred ways of working and also about how she wanted to be managed. She doesn’t want to be over managed but will ask for support if it’s needed.” She adds: “Her writing isn’t easy to read but it’s not a problem because all I need to do is ask her to clarify or explain what she’s written.”
As an events management and communications company, managers at Maximillion are very clear about the type of person they like to recruit – creative people with lots of personality. Shoena says: “We need creative people because of the nature of our work, but personality and fit with the company are also important. Because we’re a small company, if people don’t fit in with the culture and personality of the company, it affects all the staff.”
Recruitment and selection procedures are rigorous at Maximilion and include informal and formal interviews. Candidates for Project Management posts like C-J’s, also have to deliver a presentation to potential colleagues. When C-J was interviewed, Shoena says that managers and other staff were impressed with both her passionate views about the environment and also her personality.
Message to other employers
“We try to be aware of all our employees preferred ways of working and if there are issues to do with disability for example, we just deal with them. As a company we are aware of what all our employees can and can’t do. Employees who can’t do some things are often better at other things as a result. They tend to concentrate strongly on what they can do and add value to the company because of this.”
Shoena Payne, Sales Manager, Maximillion
Employee's story
Like many people, it wasn’t until after she left school that C-J’s dyslexia was diagnosed. The type of dyslexia she has affects her ability to write rather than her reading ability. She says: “If I use a word processor to produce text I’m okay, but if for example I have to take notes in meetings or produce minutes from my own notes, I find that really hard.”
C-J has developed her own strategy for dealing with the problems she faces with writing. She repeatedly checks and re-checks any word processed work she produces to ensure there are no mistakes. She says: “I always self-assess my work and check and check again everything I’ve written. I also use the readability scores on the word processor to check my work. If the readability score is low, I work on the text again until I get a higher score.”
Skills and talent
In her role as a Project Manager, C-J needs to have skills and talent. She needs skills to plan, organise and time manage events such as large award ceremonies but needs to have the talent to constantly generate creative ideas and themes for events. She particularly enjoys this aspect of her role and says: “I find this part of my job the most exciting – coming up with themes for events. I love the whole creative process but I also like to meet clients.”
C-J set herself an almost impossible task when she started job hunting. She faced not only the challenge of finding a job, but finding a job in the communications industry in spite of her dyslexia and with a company that shared her values. However, her sheer determination and integrity eventually paid off – both for her and for her company.
