My First Job: Mary Porter Peschka

Lindy:  Welcome to IFC audio stories, the podcast where we talk about private sector solutions to global development challenges. I'm Lindy Mtongana. Well, in honor of Women's Month, we're introducing a new special series called My First Job. I'll be in conversation with senior leaders in business who will take us back to where it all started, how they landed their first jobs, and the lessons that shaped their careers. It's really all about the power of jobs to transform lives and drive inclusive economic growth. Well, let's dive in. My first guest is Mary Porter Peshka. A warm welcome to you, Mary. Thank you for joining us.

Mary: Thanks for having me.

Lindy: Well, Mary, let's start with who you are today. Perhaps just introduce yourself and tell us about what you do in your role at the IFC.

Mary: so I am IFC Regional Director for Eastern Africa, which means I'm responsible for IFC’s operations, both investment and advisory in nine countries in Eastern Africa, as well as for Stakeholder Relations with governments in those countries, private sector, civil society. I sort of spearhead our collaboration with the broader World Bank Group on the ground. And as of last July, I along with other regional directors in IFC, also became responsible for environmental and social issues embedded in our operations.

Lindy: A lot of responsibilities there. But let's go back to the very beginning Mary. T ell me about your very first job, how you got it and what that experience taught you.

Mary: Oh, my word. Well, first off, I’ve had a lot of jobs, especially starting very young, from newspaper delivery girl to lifeguard to gift wrapper in a department store, to various internships in my university years, to civil servant in the US government, to Investor Relations Manager in the private sector in Canada, to entrepreneur and I was even a legal secretary at one point. And that's all before I joined IFC , and all of those taught me something.

I would argue that each role was a springboard to the next, even though I didn't always realize that at the time. Some jobs were false starts. Or maybe I should be more honest with myself, they were outright failures, like my very, very first job to your question, which was delivering newspapers as an eight year old. I begged my parents to let me get a job, and then I quit that job as soon as winter came, because the idea of getting out of bed when it was still dark out and very cold and onto my bicycle to deliver newspapers wasn't as fun as I had anticipated. But even that job, actually, I mention it because it did teach me something. If you're going to do something, you commit to it. No job's going to be fun all the time, even your dream job. So, buy a warmer coat. Don't give up easily, and I like to think I haven't since. I think I carried the shame of quitting that first one for a lot longer than perhaps an eight-year-old should.

I think also it's worth reflecting that other times my career moves have been lateral moves, and sometimes I've actually had to step down in order to be ready to step up. And I've always had a lot of drive. Clearly, if I was an eight-year-old thinking she should have a job, that probably was self evident, but I've had to learn to manage that drive over time, and I've learned along the way a lot of lessons of humility, patience and sometimes impatience. 

Lindy: Was there a pivotal moment in your career or turning point that you would say led you to where you are today?

Mary: I went to university knowing I wanted an international career, not super clear on the specifics. Was it  going to be diplomacy, or did I want to be a foreign correspondent? I wasn't entirely sure. After my first year as an undergraduate, I applied for an internship in the US government to work on national and international security issues, and I didn't get the internship. I was crushed with the rejection and out of sorts. And one of the girls in my Spanish class came into my dorm room bopping with excitement, saying, you know, I just got an internship at the US Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. And when I explained to her what happened, she pulled out the business card of the director of the division that just offered her an internship and said call him. He was a guy named Roger. And I was so shy back then, it took me a full day to get my courage up and also to script what I would say to the secretary to try to get through to Roger, because he didn't know me. I hadn't applied through the formal channels. I was cold calling. I was blushing. My hands were sweating, I was shaking, and Roger himself picked up the phone, and I think I could still remember, my voice was cracking, and he must have sensed it, because he said, come in tomorrow and let's have a chat. And I got in and he said, sadly, I don't have any internships left, but I'm going, I wanted to talk to you a bit, and then I'll introduce you to my colleague down the hall, Janice, who's the division director for the Andean countries, and I went down and met Janice.

And Janice was the most extraordinary person I had met, personally and professionally, keen intellect, tough talker, but with like a whiskey, smooth voice. Turns out she was a jazz singer in her fair time. She'd had a ton of husbands already, and she was probably in her like, late 40s, early 50s, at the point. She grew up an African American woman in segregated America. She was just super tough as nails, and she didn't suffer fools. And I was scared of her at the same time of admiring her. And she said that fine I'll give you a shot for two months. We'll see how it goes. I ended up staying with Janice for a year, and she taught me to translate my academic writing into more business writing, how to think in a more structured manner, encouraged my client orientation, and at the end, she asked me what I wanted from her. And I said I wanted to have an internship in the field in Latin America. And there began my love affair with private sector development in emerging markets especially harder markets. So, getting that first internship and getting to be working for someone like Janice set in motion so many relevant experiences for me, I could have never imagined it at the time. So, I really basically moved from this, I want to be an international something “you-fill-in-the blank”, to having a deep interest in and commitment to the private sector, to private sector development and emerging markets, and especially those countries that, sometimes, more often not the world leaves behind. And it was that interest that would bring me to IFC 21 years later. And the rest is history.

Lindy: That's an incredible story Mary, thank you for sharing that.  I feel like we all need a Janice in our lives, right? Just this person who comes into your life at the right time and changes everything in a way. Just thinking back to that, what do you think are some of the barriers that that are preventing women from accessing quality jobs and leadership positions today?

Mary: Well, I think today we still have cultural norm barriers. We still have biases against women, but I also think women themselves, they often don't apply still. You know that old saying that  a woman sees a Terms of Reference for a role, and she has 80 to 90% of it, and says, I won't throw my hat in the ring, 'm not quite there yet. And a man will have 20% of the terms of reference, and it's like, I've got this in the bag. And so I thin it's getting better with generations, I still think there's a bit that's there.  Women sometimes have to check out for child rearing, or they also have the added challenge of having to contend with the spouse's career, or at least they have to coordinate them and they don't always get the long end of the stick on the coordination front. So I think those are still issues that we have to be cognizant of if we sincerely want to see more women, not just in jobs, but quality jobs, and importantly, in the leadership role. Because when you get women into leadership roles you do have the tendency to see more women get into key roles.

Lindy: And we know that this is a priority area for the International Finance Corporation, perhaps tell us a bit more about the role that institutions like IFC can actually play in ensuring job creation is indeed equitable, inclusive and supportive of women's aspirations.

Mary: I think there's two ways to look at it. There's what IFC and others like us do in terms of our own programming and what we do ourselves in house. So, for me, programming, there's a role for us to play in making the business case. We know from all of our research and our life experiences that having women in management, having women on boards, leads to tangible, measurable, positive financial outcomes. Look at our Banking on Women program. We've proven that women are good business. It is a smart, smart business move to invest in banks and to help equip them to effectively on lend to women. We know women pay back. We know the women beneficiaries of our projects. When they do have a windfall of money, it goes to smart, virtuous things, family, health. Children's education, that sort of thing. 

In house I think we have to walk the talk. You know, it's about saying, If we believe it's truly important to help grow women and to have more women in leadership roles, then we have to systematically work to identify and groom these women, top talent, and then make sure they're ready so that they can avail themselves of the leadership opportunities.  

I also think in house, we can proactively mentor women. People that have worked with me have heard me say this, I say it a lot, you are the driver of the bus that is your career. You have to be clear on what you want to do and you have to really be quite methodical about what are the skills and the experiences it's going to take to get me to where I want to go. How will I hone them? And once they're honed, how do I make sure I get every opportunity I can to demonstrate them? So, while I don't advocate this, you know, clear planning, of step by step, this is what your career will look up look like exactly. I do think there's, there's more homework and a more methodical approach is needed from ambitious women and men alike.

Lindy: Listening to you I bet that you are very much the Janice for many other people that you work with in your team.

Mary: Highest compliment I could possibly get, except the nuns used to tell me to lip sync in church, so I don't have Janice's whiskey voice.

Lindy: Well, thank you, Mary. This has been great.

Mary: Thank you.

Lindy: Thank you to my guest Mary Porter Peschka for sharing her journey and insights. And thank you for listening.  If you enjoyed this conversation, don’t forget to subscribe, share, and join us next time for more stories that inspire and inform. I’m Lindy Mtongana. This is IFC Audio Stories.