Break the Glass Ceiling From the Top

A career that never followed the straight line

Premila Jina was born in India, grew up in Kenya, spent 18 years in London and then started again from the bottom in Perth. She calls it a career by design. She’s also honest that it’s a career by mistakes.

This is the first conversation in Ask Me About My Strategy, a limited series on Unfiltered & Unbound where I ask accomplished women about the choices behind their careers. I have a theory that balance is a myth. What you actually have are risks and trade-offs. Premila didn’t argue.

We talk about the big pivots, the decision other people thought was mad, and a job that cost her her confidence and her mental health. And we get into why she believes the way to break a glass ceiling is from above, not by pushing up from underneath it.

“From action comes confidence. It’s not the other way around.”

Premila Jina

In this episode we talk about

• Why she calls her unconventional path “a career by design”, from software tester to business analyst to project manager to CEO
• Starting over in Perth on a 75% pay cut, and why she’d do it again
• The phone call that came four months into maternity leave, when she thought her career was over
• Why there’s no such thing as work-life balance, only trade-offs, boundaries and integration
• A glossy employer with a toxic culture, and why she now treats every interview as a fact-finding mission
• Helping people without expecting anything back, and the job offer that followed within 48 hours
• Tackling the glass ceiling from above, and what a board seat can and can’t change
• How to get your first board role, starting with not-for-profits, sports organisations and charities
• Unconscious bias, systemic barriers, and why “you can’t be who you can’t see”
• How her definition of success keeps changing, and why that isn’t failing

Key takeaways

• Your career doesn’t have to be a straight line.A sideways or backwards step can be temporary, and it can be the one that gets you where you actually want to go.
• An interview works both ways.Premila now treats them as a fact-finding mission on culture and values. Are the values on the wall, or do people live them?
• Put your hand up before you feel ready.Confidence comes from taking action, not from waiting until you have it.
• Ask for the seat, not just the task.Not-for-profits, sports organisations and charities need boards. Offer to join the board, not only to volunteer. Premila also points to sponsored governance training through the AICD for people who do.
• It wasn’t you.For years she thought she was the problem and needed fixing. Unconscious bias and systemic barriers are real, and naming them changes the story.
• Success is allowed to change.If the old definition no longer inspires you, you haven’t failed. You’ve moved on, so stop measuring yourself against it.