Mirjana Curcic reflects on how GSK Unlocked supports her mission to make a difference
Arrival Education recently had a conversation with one of the key people behind the success of the GSK Unlocked Programme — Mirjana Curcic, Global Early Talent Manager, Finance — to find out what the programme means to her.
GSK Unlocked, now in its second year, is a 7-month programme that brings together 20 of Arrival Education’s talent, aged 18–26, with GSK staff, to learn new skills, develop new insights and break down barriers.
Mirjana shares her thoughts in this question and answer format article.
Please tell us about yourself?
My name is Mirjana Curcic, I’m Global Early Talent Programme Manager. Although born in Croatia, I spent most of my life in Serbia. I’ve worked for GSK for 11 years, moving to the UK in 2014.
Originally, I studied psychology, starting in a military hospital. I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, so I spent two or three years working for a non-governmental organisation supporting war veterans with PTSD. Although a very different environment than GSK, it was also driven by the same purpose — namely, helping people do more, feel better and live longer. That experience shaped much of my thinking.
I joined Human Resources (HR), mostly by coincidence. However, it turned out well, as I really liked working in HR. After making the career transition, I was fortunate enough to take up a role at GSK.
I started in Belgrade, as an HR generalist, supporting the commercial business operations. However, I was particularly attracted to talent management, so I applied for a role in London and I was super lucky to get it. I relocated to GSK House, in Brentford.
My current role is a combination of everything I’m passionate about — working with and supporting people, learning new things, and being in the healthcare sector.
Why is GSK Unlocked important?
GSK Unlocked is important for GSK and for me personally too.
What I like the most about GSK Unlocked is that this is not about GSK, it’s about what we, as a company, can do to support talent, wherever their career may take them.
At GSK, we always ask — what really matters to our patients and consumers? How can we help people to do more, feel better and live longer? It is part of our DNA, so I thought — why wouldn’t this approach be the same for understanding diversity and inclusion better? Why not seek out the diverse talent to ask them?
GSK Unlocked also provides us with a great opportunity to bring the outside in, offering new perspectives and new ways of thinking. Working with young people who might not have the same experiences as us, means we’re offered new viewpoints that can challenge our perceptions. They can be open and honest with us about what they think, THAT is really useful.
It’s a great way to get insightful external feedback. It challenges us, in a good way. It gives us new insights that we might not have thought about.
On top of that, the wider GSK Unlocked programme is a great opportunity for talent, and a great way to make GSK culture more visible to those thinking about working with us. As well as an opportunity for our leaders to learn and keep working towards making GSK even more inclusive.
What have you learned from GSK Unlocked?
The whole programme has been brilliant.
However, if I were to pick out one thing. It would be my coaching relationship with one of the participants, which was special for me. I took so much from it, including how many big decisions young people have to make very early on in their life. It’s incredible.
After a couple of conversations with participants, I was left thinking just how challenging it is to make these really big decisions. In addition, many of GSK Unlocked participants are the first in their families who go to University and are expected to support their families whilst studying.
It’s actually as if people in their early 20s have to behave like they’re in their early 40s.
For me, I was blown away by the maturity they need. Most people don’t really think about how many decisions young people need to make before they even join a company like GSK.
I have a much greater appreciation of this now. I have started asking myself — what’s behind this person and what has their life been like? What decisions have they had to make?
You simply can’t assume everything has been smooth or that all young people have a strong support network. It’s inspirational when you think about it in those terms.
This is another significant value of GSK Unlocked. The participants are helping us understand things we perhaps assume or don’t even think about.
Not only can we better understand and translate their experiences for them. But we can also help them share their most valuable life and work experiences to a company at interview time, in a way that shows the incredible transferable skills they already have. When only 20 or 21 years of age, they have already overcome and achieved so much. You just need to dig a little and you find all these challenging life decisions they have already made!
We are learning from them, but at the same time, when you hear personal stories, we learn how to help them to better articulate the benefits of their experiences. That was a very interesting point for me, they don’t recognise their experiences as a benefit or a plus.
What surprised/delighted you?
What delighted me was hearing all their stories at the end of the programme, it was such an emotional moment for me. It’s hard to control your feelings at a moment like that. It felt like a huge change for everyone involved.
The key takeaway for me was about the level of self-confidence participants have developed through this programme. One of the AE participants said:
“Together, we concluded that as individuals, we are all different. And where we come from doesn’t need to determine our futures. The coaching session changed my attitude towards the application process, boosting my motivation and ability to deal with rejections.”
In addition to the final session, there was a workshop where we investigated ‘courage’. It was delivered by Graham Rivers, VP in Finance GSK.
The level of trust and courage built up over the course of the programme allowed participants to openly share things that were deeply personal. It was inspiring.
It made us rethink things. We want everyone to enter this process having the courage to speak up, to share what’s really in their heart, to use the coaches here at GSK to get what they need. For both sides, GSK employees and AE participants. The final session was a highlight of my year.
You know it must have been special for GSK colleagues too, as previous participants are still talking about it even now. In fact, the word has got out and I’m no longer having to recruit colleagues to volunteer in GSK Unlocked. I’m constantly approached for a place on the next programme.
Of course, it’s great if we get some professional development, learn some new skills but what’s really important is that we support these young people wherever they go.
For instance, there was a participant on the programme, who was successful in getting into a top law firm. We’re delighted for her. It’s more important that we support her in getting into the right sector and firm.
This is genuine for us, it’s not just about the benefit to us as individuals, or GSK even, but that participants benefit from the experience.
If GSK Unlocked can do that, it would be a success for us.
What’s the partnership with Arrival Education been like?
Arrival Education really knows their talent. They spend time finding and getting to know their talent, investigating who they are. They get to know them personally. They relate to their talent as real people, as people worth investing in. Where I see the difference for Arrival is the depth of relationship with their talent. AE has an advantage there.
In GSK we strongly believe in the power and benefits of diversity and inclusion. We believe we can always do better, but this is a journey and there’s a strong agenda here to support diversity.
