Show notes
Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTqIicjZjgM
Tina has been working in recruiting for more than 14 years, filling various expert and management roles throughout EMEA in technical industries. Making a difference in people’s lives is what drives her every day in finding the right talents for her clients.
Being a mother of two girls, female empowerment is very important to her, Tina is a mentor with the female factor and she recently started an initiative to make women more visible in the IT industry. Interviews with role models will inspire other women and girls on their way to a career in IT. A contribution to raise gender equality and finding out what women need in order to be satisfied and successful in their professional environment.
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-landreau-91b5333/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinalandreau_/
- Women in tech initiative / #hr4wit (Tina’s podcast and blog):
- https://www.apsa.at/hr-for-women-in-tech-hr4wit/
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqA3dkNO064N7CJoACLwqVA
Shoutouts:
- Invisible women book by caroline Criado Perez: https://carolinecriadoperez.com/book/invisible-women/
- Good night stories for rebel girls: https://www.rebelgirls.com/products/good-night-stories-for-rebel-girls
- Brené Brown: The Call to Courage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr-WvA7uFDQ
- Female Factor community where Tina mentors: https://www.femalefactor.global/
- Another great initiative where to get a mentor: https://www.womentor.at/
- Community for women in IT in Vienna: https://thenewitgirls.com/
Transcript
TIMEA: Hey Ramón!
RAMÓN: Hey Timea!
TIMEA: Let’s talk gender equality.
RAMÓN: I love the idea. Gimme a second. I just got to grab my coffee. I hope you’ve got yours too.
TIMEA: Yeah, right here.
RAMÓN: Hello, and welcome to another episode of gender equality over coffee. I’m so excited to have you all here today. Thank you for tuning in. My name is Ramon , she’s Timea, and today we’ve got the pleasure of having on Tina.
TINA: Hi Ramón. Hi Timea. Yeah, it’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for your invitation.
RAMÓN: Let’s let’s introduce you, Tina. We, we were so excited to have so many wonderful guests and you’re just another wonderful one. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe pronouns what your background is and three fun facts about yourself.
TINA: Yeah. My name is Tina I grew up in Austria, in Southern Burgenland in a very, very small village. And I I now live in the suburbs of Vienna together with my husband and my two girls, which are also big in my motivation for me to reach gender equality and yeah, three facts about me. One is that I met my husband and my best friends abroad all of them. So, or in a language course I was like I said, I grew up in the countryside in a very, very small, village. I was the first one to go to university from my family and growing up in the village, I was. Always looking for something more, you know, I loved to have people around me that were different, that came from another country or who had like yeah, different views. And then I studied at the Vienna university of economics and business administration, and I loved to learn languages. So I learned. Of course English, French and Russian, and my exchange semester was in Russia. And that’s where I met my husband. He’s French, by the way, as well. And and I met my best friend who is yeah, on my side since then as well. She’s Austrian. And as I grew up very close to the Austrian border now to the Hungarian border, I also decided to learn Hungarian at university. So I went to summer college in Hungary in summer, and that’s where I met my another best friend and another one as well. So yeah, there, I’d say two facts. That what I met my, my, my closest friends abroad, and I also learned seven languages. I was always I wanted to learn as soon as I went somewhere. I just found it. Respectful to know how to, you know, how to buy something in a supermarket or to ask for for something in a shop, in a restaurant in the, in the country’s language. So that was my motivation to, to learn languages. Yeah, so I learn seven languages and I’m not able to speak them anymore because, you know, if you don’t use it. You just forget it. So now it’s just English, French, and German. Yeah, then another fact I think that not so many people know about me is when I got pregnant, pregnant with my first child, there were a lot of things going on. In my head, you know, asking myself, am I on the right way, being in recruiting for eight years already. And I’ve been traveling a lot. I at very stressful, interesting, but very stressful job back then. So. I decided to do a training, to become a shiatsu practitioner, you know, this shiatsu massage, it’s the bodywork therapy. And that really helped me to come closer to myself in you and to, to learn more about my body. And yeah, that was really important part of my life because I grew a lot. During this time, but the recruiting part never left me. So I had to go back to recruiting after my maternity leave. And and also of the second after the second maternity leave. And yeah, this is what I’m doing for 14 years now.
RAMÓN: That is remarkable. Thank you. I have so many follow-up questions. If I, if you don’t mind indulging me first off. So it’s counting right? English, German, French Hungarian, Russian. What were the other two? Cause you said seven. Sorry.
TINA: Ukranian, because I went to recruit Ukraine for twice in the summer college. And the first time I, I went there, it wasn’t the Russian-speaking part of Ukraine and the Eastern part. And the second time it was in, in the Western part of Ukraine, you speak Ukrainian. And that’s also where I learned Ukranian and and then I learned Spanish because I just love Spain. And you know, if you know French, and if you knew Spanish, it’s very easy to, to speak Italian well, to understand Italian as well. So yeah.
RAMÓN: Absolutely. I’m originally from Chile, so I know exactly what you mean. Like learning French from Spanish was I felt like I had an advantage over my classmates back in high school. Definitely. That’s awesome. I’m also curious. What , what made you land on, on shiatsu massage as, as a potential new direction?
TINA: I think it was just A very spontaneous decision. I always thought that I can only work with my brain and that’s what my peop my parents told me. They said, you know, you’re so clever. You have to go to U of a university. You have to do something with with your brain. So I really felt that I’m too much. Thinking, you know, and I’m coming to something that brings you back to your body. I’m an, I always loved to have massages. I went to see she answered before or any kind of buddy work and just loved it. And I always thought I can, I can not do it. It’s just not my my thing to do that. And then when I got pregnant, I just decided to go on a “Schnupperabend” the way you can just go and see. And the the head of this Institute, he said well, he described the course and then he said, well, and then I sit down together with another partner and then we just try some things. And then we tried some shiatsu techniques, you know, you work with pressure and you work on on the clothes. And. And I just, you know, I was flashed after this experience because I thought it was so calming for yourself, for me, you know, in, in practicing it, not only in receiving it, but also in giving it. So that was a really nice experience. And I also got to know people from so many different domains and, and backgrounds and that was a very Very nice environment also too, to have that, besides the one that I knew before, you know,
RAMÓN: that’s, that’s really interesting. Thank you. And I think, I think this, this, if I may use this as a, as a segue, I think, I think that I get the feeling that you have a, a bit of a passion for trying things out and, and getting out there, which. Probably ties into your drive behind volunteering and especially because especially your interest in mentorship. And I, and I’m curious, what’s, I’m curious. What’s, what’s your, what’s your driver there? What, what how’d you get into it into this, into, into mentorship?
TINA: I think I have to go back a little bit Well, my mom just recently told me that she she told me when I was 15, that I was a feminist because she asked me to, to help her in the kitchen. And I said, I won’t do anything until my dad doesn’t do anything. Because my dad never helped in the household, you know, and I forgot that. I forgot about that, but you know, my mom said you were always a feminist, you know, it’s not just now that she’s doing that. So I kind of had. Well already back then, I had the feeling that there is some inequality that we live and and working in recruiting and always been working in male domains in the first years I’ve been working in the construction industry a lot. Well, industrial companies, automotive as well. And I’ve been hiring a lot of management positions throughout Europe, also the middle East South America and Africa. And that’s rarely seen women in those positions. And I also experienced unfortunately yeah, clients telling me that they would prefer a man and back then, I didn’t dare to, to raise my voice and to say that this is not possible, what I did instead. I still placed women and showed them that they were the best ones for this job, because this is what I’m doing. I find the best people. And I will not exclude anyone because of gender age or yeah. Where, where the people come from. And so it, it was all always there, there was always this wish to, to empower others no matter who they are, what they are, what they do. And, you know, I have two girls they’re three and six years old and they inspire me in so many ways. And yeah, just last year. I had the feeling that I’m I have to do more. So it’s just everything I did. It was okay. But there was this big wish to do more. And it was, again, a very spontaneous decision. I saw the female factor on LinkedIn and I saw that they were looking for mentors. And I went on their website and I applied without thinking further. And when I did it, I was really excited. And then I got into the process and they told me that I was approved as a mentor. So since October and I’m in the mentoring program, I have a mentee that yeah, helping in her journey since then. And when it started that I was really on fire. You know, that is one of my, if I’m really passionate, I’m I’m, I feel like I’m almost exploding because there is so many ideas coming up and Yeah. And then I started going to network events that are online now. Thanks to Covid. And as a mom, I can be able to, to to be on more events now. And and then I, yeah, I just was more and more inspired. And so all those women And I felt like what could be my contribution to do more and to to also well, to reach gender equality and to create more visibility for women. Because also I read invisible women back then and that also triggered a lot. And and then I decided I could as I’m working in it, yes, really great book. I work in it recruiting. Now you should read it. Yeah, in it recruiting, we do see women and we do place around 20% women, but Yeah, that’s not enough. And I thought this is my domain now. So this is where I can have the biggest impact. And I decided to find women in tech who are willing to tell their story to inspire others. And and then I told ‘em. My colleagues and my managers about it. And they were just open for it and said, go for it. So our in organizational environment is also. Very open-minded and we’re very dedicated to the new way of work. And well, what, what I hear a lot in our feedback meetings is what would you do? What would like to do, you know, is there anything that, that you still need to be happy in your job? Yeah. To, to do really find happiness and yeah, so there was never a question of how do we do that? Do we have the resources? It was just afraid and, and yeah, that’s what I did. And I was, again my daughter and in the moment where I was about to post on LinkedIn, that I will do it that I will interview women. That was back in January. My daughter woke up at five 30 in the morning and her first question was she’s a six year old, two years old and she said, how. Did humans well develop on this, on this planet. How did that go? And I thought, Oh my God, five 30. You’re talking about evolution and not an easy thing, you know, describing it to six year old and then thought I just use Google to show her the The evolution picture, you know, that we all know and that we never questioned. And she looked at it and she said, you know, you see the the homosapiens becoming, well, the person that we had, the man that we are now dies. And she said, where there are no women before on earth. And that really hit me. It was, it was through the whole day. I was just like. You know, it’s again, a very easy symbol of invisible women. And I Googled it. I tried to Google evolution of women and show again, show me pictures when there is none. There is no picture about that. So. Yeah, that was a confirmation for me that is really important to show, not only adults, but to show the next generation of the girls that there are so many possibilities for you as a girl as well. Because it just shows that if you’re a child, you believe in what you see and Yeah. And then after this happening with the evolution, I I went out there and LinkedIn too. I reached out to, to all the women who are willing to, to share their stories and Timea is one of them as well. And yeah, I really see. A big impact. So many women coming back to me and saying, this is such a great thing. And we need more role models or telling me I didn’t have a role model. It wouldn’t have helped me so much. So now I’m in, I’m in that term in journey and I’m really, I’m so happy to talk to all these women and hearing their story, hearing what worked for them, hearing what they missed and hearing what is still an obstacle for, for women in the industry. Yeah, I just love, I just love doing that and, and seeing that it, that it creates something. Yeah, it’s fine. Yeah.
TIMEA: Thank you very much for inviting me to be a guest on your podcast. Because that’s what, it’s this whole motivation and passion converges into at work for you.
RAMÓN: If I may just briefly interject for our listeners, can we get can you tell us the name of the podcast again?
TINA: Well we, we use the #hr4wit, and you can also find the, the interviews on our YouTube channel. The company is called APSA personal concepts, and abso stands for all people shall advance. Which is also an important fact and you can get in touch with me on LinkedIn. Of course. That’s where, where I spent a lot of time.
TIMEA: Yes. That’s how it all started. I saw a post of yours on LinkedIn and some friends of mine. Already commented on that beforehand. And I was also tagged in one of these comments and that’s how we finally got to engaged. And thank you for inviting me on your podcast. It was really fantastic to be a guest for a change on a podcast.
TINA: It was great having you. And,
TIMEA: My friend also talks to your podcast and I’ve seen also the previous ones and I’m like honored to be mentioned. And part of that, the group of amazing women here locally, so fantastic. What’s your passion, and I’m also happy that this was possible for you in adopts. So really amazing. Altogether an inspirational story of what passion and drive drives innovation basically can concretely mean for a company or for the community.
TINA: Yeah. And I really felt, you know, in the past weeks there were so many ideas coming up against I feel like everyone around me is like, Oh my God, slow down a bit. I have, I have a lot of people supporting me thankfully. And my husband also is he’s my sparing partner here because he’s very innovative as well. And we will we will also work on the event within the next weeks where. People can meet their role models. You will hear about that in the coming weeks, because I feel that this is also something that that would again inspire others, not only to see them in on a video or to read their blog posts but also to be able to connect with with those women and to ask questions directly.
TIMEA: That’s a very good idea. I like, and we gladly support such endeavors for our community. So we’re make sure to put all these links to the podcast also to your LinkedIn profile in the show notes for our listeners. Yeah.
TINA: Thank you
TIMEA: And I just want to underline again. I love how you told us the story about. Your girls and how that inspires you. I find that really amazing kids can be a lot of things for us. But rarely I, in my circle, at least I find this like concrete. Point of yes, we need to do more for the next generation is actually that’s what it boils down to. But you also have some amazing girls at home. challenging questions, right? Like, okay. Where’s the woman in the evolution. There’s no picture about that. Yeah.
TINA: Yeah. It’s like that also the small one starts telling me things like no, but. You know, he can’t use a boy in, in her kindergarten. Well, he can wear a pink. He’s a boy, you know, as well, he can’t wear a pink. Of course he can, but it already, sorry. It’s at a very early stage. And I mean, this is the stereotypes. It’s really not easy because. My two girls, they just love princesses and they love to, to wear pink. It’s absolutely. Okay. As long as they feel that they can still become like a police woman or I don’t know any other child that is rather male than than, than female. Goodnight stories for rebel girls to them. I don’t know if you need, if you know that book, it’s brilliant. I mean they’re a bit too small to really understand a word by word. Because the Lang, well, I think it’s from the age of nine, 10 years, it will be understandable, but it’s, it shows 100 women and their stories in one page and it’s written for children. And you, you see women like that we know now today is or it’s Michelle Obama or it’s Ruth Bader Ginsberg 100 women. We already, I think we already read like 80 of them and many of those are. Scientists. That’s what I like about the book as well, because you, they chose a lot of a lot of women who studied maths or informatics as well. And and yeah, it, it, it raises awareness about the things that. Women experienced like 100 years ago or 50 years ago. And yeah, I find it really important to, to show my girls that they have all the possibilities.
TIMEA: Exactly. And I think you’re doing that amazingly well and not just for your girls, for the whole community, with HR, for wheat podcasts, and hopefully then event that you’re looking to create in the community. So kudos. Keep it going. Amazing.
RAMÓN: yeah, all of this is going right into the show notes. I’m, I’m incredibly excited to share this with the, with our listeners.
TIMEA: Indeed by the way. Do you have any, any other advice for our listeners in any way books for parents, for kids or events or women or,
TINA: One. Book or one woman that inspired me a lot is Brenae Brown.
TIMEA: Fantastic.
TINA: I saw her you can also watch our Netflix actually see, she has a one Netflix show. She does Ted talks. That’s how she got well, that’s how she became famous and she’s studying shame and vulnerability and in her Netflix show, she said one sentence that hit me as well. She said, what if you at the end of your life you asked yourself what if I would have shown up, you know because many of us are hiding are not being authentic because of the expectations of others or any other reason, the way we are educated and so on. And vulnerability is is something that is. Or showing vulnerability is not easy. It was not easy for me to, to go out there and LinkedIn and say, this is what I’m going to do. I didn’t sleep for nights because this is an act of vulnerability. You show part of yourself, you know, of, of your inner self. And also what I’m doing here today is also another step forward for me. And, but I, I really see that first of all, if you, so if you be, if you are vulnerable yourself, you can inspire others to yeah. To, to reach what they would like to, to achieve and not being yeah, not, not being small because we can all be big, you know we can all live our dreams. And and for me that was one of the inspirations to, to go forward and to really do the things that I’m dreaming about and not holding myself back because of anything out there, because, you know, there were so many limitations that we give ourselves or that come from the outside. So I think that what I would hand on is always be yourself, believe in yourself and just do your thing and also talk to people about your fears because everyone has them. Everyone is afraid of something. Everyone has experienced bad things. So if you have a mentor or a friend, a sparing partner, a colleague it was just, would just be helpful to share the experience and to know from the other one that. It’s okay. And or I’ve been there too, you know, you don’t feel alone. If you hear the other stories and that is also another motivation for me to to share stories to, to make women visible with all the, everything they experienced, you know, Yeah. And also like what I do now more than that before, because it’s all online and it’s easier for me as a mom. Right. Do a lot of networking and online events. And yeah, that helped me also to, to do what I’m doing nowadays, because I have more visibility thanks to that. And I connected to men and women who have the same same motivation, the same aim. Yeah. So that would be another, another tip from myself.
RAMÓN: Thank you. You know, I, I, it’s really refreshing to hear from somebody who is who. Something I’ve noticed is that a lot of people have been, I have been kind of let down by the moral new presence by the bigger and the presence of, of, of online events. I mean, taking into account everything that’s going on, but, but it’s really refreshing to hear that there are, that there are positive aspects to it too, that it, that it enables people, for example, who might not have as much time because their parents to be able to come on to these events and have their presence out there as well. So, yeah. I think, I think that’s, I think for example, that’s that giant lesson in empathy, to be able to, to be able to maybe moving forward, be able to offer both types of events in-person and online and give folks the opportunity to get out there.
TINA: And I think that it’s, especially for introvert people, it’s easier to network online. Because if you’re not that. The extrovert outgoing going person. And you, you, you get into a conference room. Would you just go to someone and say, hi, this is who I am. I, I don’t think so. And and I experienced that as well. Like 10 years ago, I would have just stayed with my colleagues on an event and the check with them and feel like I’ve been on an event, but I never met worked with anyone because I was too afraid to to just talk to a stranger, you know, and being online and well also the possibility to write and not to talk. I think that’s also something that makes it easier to, to connect. And then you have very often you have breakout rooms where you only meet two people on the video. And and it’s a very intimate, cozy situation. And I think that this is really helpful or Yeah, men and women who don’t have the time to, to go on events they often, or who wouldn’t there. Just talking to strangers.
TIMEA: Hmm. I’m definitely curious to see how this will move ahead in the community. What will happen or will there really be hybrid conference since from now on? Let’s see,
TINA: we will see I’m curious.
TIMEA: The goal is to be inclusive. Yeah, I think that should be for all conferences.
TINA: Absolutely.
TIMEA: For I suppose for the end of the podcast, I just like to know looking back now everything. That happened in your life and everything the pandemic, everything, you know, our lives. Is there anything you would have done different or a different time in your life?
TINA: You know I told you, I studied at the WU I studied international business administration, which was not a passionate myself. I did it because my parents expected me to, to, to do. So I very often I thought I should have studied something else. I was interested in psychology. I was a lot interested in languages, obviously. Or in medicine as well. But I decided not to think that this was the wrong way because it left me where I am now. You know, I wouldn’t have gone to Russia in this moment and I wouldn’t have met my husband and so many friends. And and that also yeah, everything I learned, I mean, I can use it now. So Yeah, I will not say I wouldn’t. I would do it differently nowadays. I for many years I said, I should have done something else, but now I’m happy. I’m happy about the way that I that I’ve chosen. And another thing that I’m regretting a bit is, like I said before, like 10 years ago there were still many companies who told us we were prefer men. And I, you know, I stayed silent because a client is King and you don’t say anything. And, but I, you know, back that I was like in my late twenties it was just the first well years of work experience. So I didn’t dare saying anything now. I would say something, I would say, I tell my kind that it’s not possible to work like that. And I will, yeah, just move on. So this is something that I regret a bit, but also you know I felt like I wasn’t ready to raise my voice back then. I wasn’t ready to be vocal about about the things I believe in. So also be nice to yourself. Tell yourself that it was okay. Yeah. To, to the way you wrecked it back then. So yeah, all in all I would say I learned from every mistake and And I wouldn’t be the person that I’m now. If, if I hadn’t done the things I did in my life,
RAMÓN: if I may say by coming on, coming on to. By putting, but by putting yourself on these platforms and saying these kinds of things, what you’re kind of doing is enabling folks to who are in the position that you were 10 years ago, to be able to speak up and say, Hey, not cool. Like, you know, so, and I, and I think that carries a lot of, a lot of weight.
TINA: Yeah,
TIMEA: absolutely. Thanks for being our mentor.
TINA: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
RAMÓN: As we wrap up before we let you go, Tina, one thing I love to do is to ask you, is there, are there any resources that you’re really into lately that you’d love to share with our audience or maybe an organization that you like to give a shout out to.
TINA: I mean, obviously this podcast, everyone should listen to it. And yeah, I’m no I’m part of the, well, I’m a mentor with the female factor is so I see that the mentees there are really happy with the program. So if you’re looking for a mentor and a program Connected to that. The female factor is definitely a very interesting platform or also womentor and yeah, if you’re.
TIMEA: So exactly and your podcast
TINA: as well as well. And I’m also attending a lot of events with the new IT girls. My, so this is also a very nice platform to, to network and to meet other women in it.
TIMEA: And can I ask you for your podcast? You’re looking for women in the, in tech or not just
TINA: it’s women for now we didn’t know were released, but I mean, I also interviewed Tina Ernst who is coaching women regarding salary negotiations, because I felt that this is an important Thing as well to empower women to earn their worth. Yeah, because I see that well, on the average women ask for 10 to 20% less for the same position. So I can coach them. But if they, if they go for a job on their own and they will maybe not get the money that they Yeah, that they’re worth as a, this was important for me to, to, to show women that also empower other women. But concerning women in tech also, I I want to show the variety that you can find in it regarding positions. First of all. And also not only showing like the female leaders who, who, who are in the management positions, but more position, but also show yeah, every kind of level you can find in a company because not everyone is willing to become a team leader. And I think it’s important too, to show that diversity also within women in tech. Yes. Yeah.
TIMEA: So a shout-out to our listeners, especially women in tech. This is your chance to get out of the comfort zone and be a guest on the podcast. Tina is waiting. Yes, I am. Great.
RAMÓN: And in order to do that, folks, can you, you mentioned folks can get in touch with you through LinkedIn. That’s your preferred. That’s
TINA: where that’s where I spend most of my time. Yeah, LinkedIn is the best way to, to, to connect with me. Excellent.
TIMEA: We are make sure to put it in the show notes. Thank you. So thank you very much for being here, Tina with us today and I’m on for co-hosting as usual. And dear listeners yeah, see you next time or listen to us next time. Goodbye, everybody.
TINA: Bye-bye thank
RAMÓN: you. Bye-bye
TIMEA: Are you on the forefront of gender equality? You are invited on our podcast.
RAMÓN: That’s right. Or maybe you know somebody that we could have a chat with on gender quality. You should totally get in touch with us. We’re on Twitter @GenderCoffee. Or any of the other contact methods on our show notes, we would love you to get in touch and for us to have a chat.