Meet our Account Manager, Anna Masefield. Anna’s work will focus on supporting employers to post their roles and get the most from their collaboration with us. She joins the team having come from the other side – working with Evenbreak as a Client and then personally using the Career Hive resources and Careers Advisor services when she was looking for her next career step.
Anna’s communication, empathy and ability to support others makes her a great addition to the Evenbreak team. She joins us with a multitude of skills and experiences gained through her varied work which has covered teaching, film and TV production (you can still buy her DVDs online via the Apple Store and Dukes Marketing), PR and most recently recruitment (agency and inhouse).
She’s the first to admit she’s learning more and more about herself as a neurodiverse, her own superpowers/disability dyslexia, as well as the hidden and/or visible barriers other disabled people face every day. She considers herself lucky to be identified as dyslexic whilst at primary school so she got some support; however she’s old enough to acknowledge that awareness and support in schools has developed since then, though there is more that could and can be done for such hidden disabilities in schools and beyond.
Anna wants to increase awareness in adults of their own, possibly unidentified, disabilities. She says, “Maybe they’ve accepted life is a bit more challenging for them and in the process learnt to mask or consider their situation ‘normal’ as they don’t know differently – and therefore are unaware of the resources and potential support that exist and might help make the day to day that bit easier. Starting with the fantastic resources available on Evenbreak of course!”
Having worked in recruitment, Anna loves talent match-making, and in the process is keen to bust any myths that being disabled means you can’t be talented, super bright and amazing at your job too. We’ll blow her trumpet a bit here to give an example – for instance she’s got a First class BSc in Geography (with a Dean’s commendation), taught herself how to edit and ended up with a top 10 DVD Christmas seller at HMV, and even got a bonus during her maternity leave as she’d built up such a strong pipeline in her agency recruitment role.
When not working, Anna enjoys spending time with her family, friends and more recently being converted from a cat lover to dogs too, as she now has a Portuguese Water Dog, called DeeDee. Any other spare time is filled with running, cooking, and the odd game of tennis. Basically, anything that gets her outside, moving or being creative equals happiness to Anna, plus the two morning coffees and daily dark chocolate intake.
Anna’s really excited about joining the Evenbreak team and having the opportunity to meet new clients and work with lots of incredibly talented disabled people.
Random facts – Anna is sous chef certified having taken the whim to do a catering course on let’s say a quarter life crisis, can remember supermarket layouts from when she was under 10, and has placed as high as third female in a half marathon, having only taking up running in the last few years. Her experience shows a dyslexic person has many talents (often hidden unless you ask) and that like many people, disabled or otherwise, when they put their mind to something they can achieve amazing things.
