Anita Owen: Chief Delivery Officer, Putting Your Hand Up, Valuing Curiosity | Career Stories Podcast

This week's guest is Anita Owen, Chief Delivery Officer at Novigi, a 550-person tech and data firm serving Australia's superannuation industry. Anita leads a team of 350, but her path to the C-suite started in data entry at a life insurance company after she dropped out of university and travelled the world. Her career has been built on curiosity, putting her hand up, and asking questions when other people rolled their eyes. In this episode: • Why Anita hires for soft skills before tech skills, and how she can tell within 10 minutes of an interview whether someone is right for her team. • How asking questions at a superannuation legislation briefing led to her first proper job in product and marketing. • Why doing an MBA after years of work experience is what made it valuable, because she could bring real context to every concept. • Why working three days a week made Anita more productive, not less, and how constraint forced her to focus. • Being a hard marker on yourself, and the cost and discipline of an internal critic that thinks about failures more than successes. • Why "you can do it all" is a myth, and how Anita balances family-first priorities with leading a big team. • Working through public speaking nerves with the discipline of MBA presentations, and the year she has decided to put herself out there. Anita's career philosophy: "I'm probably towards the end of my career, but I feel like I'm probably still at the start." All opinions are the guest's own. --- Career Stories is hosted by Dr Luella Forbes New episodes every Wednesday, with guest interviews plus a monthly career advice episode with Associate Professor Michelle Gander Listen on your preferred platform: https://pod.link/1873863711 www.the-career-library.com [email protected] Support this podcast by becoming a member: https://www.the-career-library.com/join Members get access to bonus episodes with expert leadership and career advice from Luella, Michelle and guests, plus a monthly newsletter with tools and guidance. Subscribe to Career Stories for weekly interviews with leaders and managers about the real story behind their careers, plus practical leadership and career advice every month. Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library, helping you have a better working life.