29 Jun 2022

Bookmarks with Vanessa Sorenson

From Afternoons, 2:25 pm on 29 June 2022

After an unstable and transient childhood that involved many different schools and caravan parks, Vanessa Sorenson was just 13 when she got her first job - weekend shifts in a bakery.

"I remember being about 12 or 13 and standing in a caravan park thinking 'one day I'm going to have a villa with a white picket fence and a really nice car'. And yeah, I achieved that."

The managing director of Microsoft NZ chats to Jesse Mulligan about inclusivity, leadership and her favourite podcasts to walk with.

Vanessa Sorenson

Vanessa Sorenson Photo: Microsoft

This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.

By the time she was 17, Vannessa had saved enough money to fly back to NZ from Queensland where she'd been living with her mum and brother.

She says she knocked on her father's door with "a really bad 80s perm and glasses" and her life changed.

The first job Vanessa picked up was working as a receptionist for her dad's neighbour, who happened to have a tech startup selling Microsoft software.

In a case of "right place, right time" she got her start in the burgeoning tech world and found her purpose there.

For 23 years, Vanessa worked for the company that is now Spark NZ, then four and a half years ago was shoulder-tapped by Microsoft.

At the time she says she was made to feel felt like an outlier.

"I was always wheeled out as the diverse hire - a woman in the tech industry. We are still really, really under-represented and I think we've got to become more intentional."

Businesses need to include diversity quotas in their action plans because without otherwise they're "not intentional enough", she says.

For New Zealand to shine on the global stage we need to give a broader range of people access to opportunities.

"I look at the job ads for Microsoft and [even] I wouldn't apply for them. You need ten years' experience, you need this and that. We've got to change the way we're attracting talent. We're only just getting started. A lot of work to do."

Heading a giant tech company isn't easy, and Vanessa says she's open with her colleagues about that and open in general.

"Leaders have to go first. I wouldn't ask of my team anything I'm not prepared to do and that starts with being vulnerable and opening up about my own story, how I'm feeling… I grew up in an industry that [the enforced the idea that] 'girls don't cry at work'. Yes, they do, they're doing it in the toilet.

"I want to walk the talk and I truly feel if I'm that way and I openly share, the rest of the team will be. It's psychological safety that people crave and need, and that's what I hope to instil as a leader."

Vanessa's favourite things

On Purpose with Jay Shetty (a motivational podcast)

"For when you feel like someone is sitting across from you going 'hey you can do this even though it's really hard."
 

The Teachers Pet and Serial (true crime podcasts) 

"I have this weird need to listen to crime, I don't know why… I love it when you find out how they got all the evidence."

Becoming by Michelle Obama (a memoir)


Will by Will Smith (a memoir)


'Tubthumping (I Get Knocked Down)' by Chumbawamba 

"[This song is] kind of my weird anthem, I just love it… yeah, that's the anthem."


'Raise Your Glass' by Pink

"She's the person I go to when I need that friend…. Even though she doesn't know me. I find when I'm walking and just need to clear my head... it's her."

 

The music of Elton John

"I don't think [his music] dates and I think he's such an incredible trailblazer… coming out when he did at his age, a father of two kids. I just love everything about him. And it's just some good nostalgia."