Deloitte Career Journey: Sylvia Taylor
Below is an article originally written by PowerToFly Partner Deloitte. Go to Deloitte's page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
"When you're 22, fresh out of college, and exposed to real-world clients for the first time, it's tough because you don't have that life experience yet. When I came back to Deloitte, I had that experience, and it helped me adapt again to the professional world."
— Sylvia Taylor, Deloitte US Office of Confidentiality & Privacy, Austin.
Encore Program
In 2006, five years into her first stint at Deloitte, Sylvia left Deloitte when the military relocated her husband Patrick, a US Navy pilot, to rural California, where she opted for a local industry position. "Despite being a Navy base, many are built out in the middle of mountains and desert, rather than near the coast." After California, they moved again to the high desert of Nevada, placing her hundreds of miles from the nearest Deloitte office. Forced to leave her industry job, she took advantage of this time to start a family while pursuing a professional certification as well as her master's degree.
Still, Deloitte remained on her radar. "I always said that I'd like to try to come back." So when circumstances took her family back east to the DC area, Sylvia applied to Deloitte's Encore program, an 11-week course for people who've left the professional world for an extended period of time. Encore hones skills, builds professional confidence, and prepares people for the return to a high-performance environment. The program rekindled Sylvia's passion for Risk and Financial Advisory and for Deloitte. Following it, she immediately stepped into a senior consultant role in Deloitte's Richmond, Virginia office.
Her return to Deloitte has been far less turbulent than when she first walked into the Houston office back on September 10, 2001. Yes, the day before 9/11. A short time later, after several industries experienced a regulatory fallout and their bankruptcies created more turbulence, auditing and consulting were changed forever. That combination of events shaped her work, with much of it being focused on early compliance with the 2002 federal law known as Sarbanes-Oxley.
Booting Back Up
Now, 15 years later, she's tackling another challenging area of the profession that's growing exponentially: auditing information technology. "Coming back up to speed was really a 'boot camp' for the first three months, and in some ways, it still is," she says. Sylvia's found support from co-workers and mentors. In fact, she's been able to reconnect with friends who still work in the Houston office where she started. "I have my married name now, and I actually emailed them joking around, introducing myself as a new employee…then at the bottom of the note I told them who I was!"
Balancing Act
Sylvia says raising a family and working like she does is a balancing act. She gives credit to a few things for being able to maintain both. First, her parents who are the children of immigrants from China who fled the country during the Communist Revolution. "They owned several small businesses while raising a family," she says. "They've worked very hard and have achieved much success from that." That instilled in her a strong work ethic, whether the pursuit is a career, hobby or family.
Second, being a Navy spouse has taught her to be flexible and to deal with uncertainty. Something that is required in Risk and Financial Advisory work. Lastly, she says, "Deloitte has been really great at working with me to stay on local clients with minimal travel." She adds that she's been able to carve out blocks of time for her family—evenings and weekends—while still being connected to her work and her team. "It's easier now than it was 10 years ago for us to work remotely with advances in communications and technology."
Outside of work, Sylvia enjoys experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen. "We have had amazing travel opportunities with our careers, and food was always a big part of that experience. I enjoy recreating many of those experiences at home." She now looks forward to one day traveling with her two boys to share the same experiences with them.
Epilogue
In the fall of 2017 and after being back with Deloitte for a little more than two years since re-joining the organization (and since her profile was first published), Sylvia is serving in a different capacity than Risk and Financial Advisory.
Today, Sylvia is a Lead Specialist in the Deloitte US Office of Confidentiality & Privacy, assisting with the deployment of Confidential Information Programs for client accounts, and helping to effectively mitigate confidentiality and privacy risks.
"Our team helps client service professionals address confidentiality requirements related to client confidential data, including personally identifiable information, via manual processes, and data handling or technical safeguards. You can imagine how important this is today, not only for our clients, but also for Deloitte. " Sylvia said. "I wanted to focus on an internal role that would be suitable to the skills I gained in the last two years in the risk and financial advisory role, and I feel I've found that. I'm excited for this next opportunity at Deloitte."
Not only has Sylvia made a move to a new area of focus at Deloitte, not long ago, she and her immediate family decided making a physical move from Virginia Beach to Austin, Texas, would be good, too. "We've made three moves in 10 years as a military family, so the decision to make one last move to Austin to be closer to our extended family fits right into our long-term plan, and I'm so grateful for this role and the flexibility Deloitte has given me," she noted. While it seems like Sylvia may be done with making moves for a while, that does not mean her Career Journey ends here. We will bring you more updates as we hear more from Sylvia in the future.
Deloitte's Military Spouse Initiative
Through Deloitte's Military Spouse Initiative, military spouses can lean on each other and utilize Deloitte resources to not just have a job, but have a career.
Lead Together: Behind the Scenes of Facebook's Women@ Leadership Day
Tatiana L. is a global client partner based in Miami.
Tatiana is part of the Women@ Facebook Resource Group and helped plan Women's Leadership Day, an annual global community summit. While the highly-anticipated event takes place over just one day, its massive impact is felt over the course of the entire year.
Amy W. is an operations lead based in London.
"Women's Leadership Day is more than an event. It's energy, and it's a movement," Amy W., an operations lead in London, says. "Moments like this can completely change the perception of women in technology."
From choosing the content and programming for the event to making it accessible for women around the globe, we went behind the scenes with seven members of the Women@ Facebook Resource Group to learn more about how women are empowered—and are empowering one another— in their career journeys at the Facebook company.
Behind the scenes with Women@
Amanda M., an internal recruiting manager based in Singapore, speaking onstage at 2019 Women@ Leadership Day in APAC.
"I've always been passionate about empowering women, but I didn't know how I could do it at work. My first Women@ experience changed how I felt at Facebook," Amanda M., an internal recruiting manager in Singapore, remembers. "From then on, I wanted to help other women feel heard, valued, and confident."
Planning the global event, which brings together women from more than 20 countries, calls for close collaboration across multiple teams, regions, and timezones. Members of Women@ also partner with other Facebook Resource Groups, such as the Pride@ Resource Group, Latin@ Facebook Resource Group, Desis@ Facebook Resource Group and Black@ Resource Group, to ensure all women at Facebook are represented and feel included.
Vivian V. is a program manager based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
"Across regions and communities, we each bring unique differences and powerful stories. When one of us moves forward, we have the opportunity to bring all of us forward," Vivian V., a program manager in the San Francisco Bay Area explains. "While planning the summit, we meet weekly to talk about what women in different regions are experiencing. From the event theme and content to planning speaker sessions and fine-tuning details, we each have items to own. Two months before the summit, we meet daily to share updates and make sure nothing slips through the cracks."
"Just like me, women in APAC look forward to Women's Leadership Day all year long," Amanda says. Planning something that's deeply meaningful to so many people can feel like a lot of pressure, but at the same time, it's uplifting. I appreciate that we have the opportunity to talk about our individual and shared challenges, and we map out ways we can build community while empowering leadership for women across the globe."
Empowering confidence, equality, and leadership through storytelling
Paris Z., a vertical strategy lead in Singapore, and Amanda M. collaborate with women across the globe to plan Women@ programming and events.
Women's Leadership Day encourages women to talk about challenges like experiencing imposter syndrome, breaking through barriers, and how to manage work/life flexibility. "Storytelling is a huge part of the event," Paris Z., a vertical strategy lead in Singapore, explains.
Vivian says, "I've been at Facebook for nearly two years and help plan these events, and honestly, I never really understood imposter syndrome before I got here. Working with the Women@ community and hearing from our speakers—who are talented, brilliant superstars—I've seen firsthand how it affects them too."
Michelle C. is a client partner based in London.
Michelle C., a client partner in London, says that the summit's speaker sessions, which feature people from inside and outside of Facebook, are a highlight of every event. "We had a speaker from Tel Aviv who talked about the importance of balance in her personal life and how she co-parents with her husband. She shared specific things she's done, like adding her husband to the WhatsApp chat groups for mothers she's in and reminding her daughter's school that her husband is also available when their child feels sick. Her message was that we'll never be equal in the workplace until we're equal at home, and it really struck a chord."
Paris says that in APAC, Eva Chen's talk about facing challenges amidst the coronavirus pandemic and how she's raising her daughter was a top-rated session because it was so relatable. "From talking about her daughter's love for dinosaurs—a "boy" thing—and raising kids to fully be themselves to opening up about what it was like to grow up with immigrant parents from China and Vietnam, Eva inspired us with her authenticity and openness. Her struggle to feel supported while working in fashion and tech, rather than medicine, is something a lot of people in APAC understand."
"Every woman has a unique story," Michelle says. "Hearing from others is inspiring, validating, and truly eye-opening. It reminds us that we're not alone."
A memorable and lasting impact
It's no surprise that with the tremendous amount of planning and careful consideration that goes into the summit, its full impact is impossible to measure.
"It meant so much to me when people shared such positive feedback about Women's Leadership Day," Paris says. "We heard that some attendees felt inspired for days and weeks."
Kira G. is an agency partner based in Berlin.
Kira G., an agency partner in Berlin, has witnessed how the summit's programming can inspire action, even helping people push past a career plateau. "We might reach a point in our careers when we think, "I can't do this anymore, I'm not moving forward'," she says. "Women's Leadership Day gives us fresh perspectives, shows us new approaches, and starts important conversations. This can unlock new paths for growth and help us move forward."
Impact is felt in other Facebook groups, communities, and across teams too, inspiring interest and allyship. Amanda explains, "I felt so proud when a male VP from the Sales team came to us after hearing about what people talked about at Women's Leadership Day. He told us he wanted to learn more because it's everyone's responsibility to be an ally."
Empowering the community throughout the year
While Amanda describes Women's Leadership Day as a "bump in energy and inspiration" and "an injection of adrenaline", Vivian says that the real magic is what happens afterwards—and takes place all year long.
"When we think about Women's Leadership Day, our focus is on making sure that the powerful messages we hear and experience serve us throughout the entire year. We ask ourselves questions like, "How can we sprinkle these themes into our programming throughout the month or quarter? How do these ideas fit with our Women@ initiatives?" Going through something awesome together is just the beginning. Our work takes place year-round and we're constantly building on it to do more."
Paris agrees: "There's no shortage of amazing stories from our Women@ community throughout the year. Women's Leadership Day is just one channel for those stories, and I love how it stays top of mind with people and empowers them to do more good. When we come together, we can do anything we dream of."
"We're building a sisterhood and a community," Tatiana beams. "It feels so good to know there's always someone there to support you."
Learn more about Facebook's Employee Resource Groups, including Women@ here.
