This week's guest is Fadzi Whande, Chief of Section for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, where she leads DEI across an organisation operating in 130 countries. She has spent 15 years building a career in the field, moving through employment consulting and corporate DEI roles at organisations including Mission Australia and Western Power before being headhunted by the United Nations during Covid. In this episode: Fadzi explains what UNHCR does and what leading a global DEI function at the world's refugee agency looks like in practice, including her conviction that how an organisation treats people externally must be mirrored internally. She traces a career path that moved from trainee insurance broker in Botswana to public relations, hotel customer relations and travel roles, before landing in employment consulting in Australia and eventually finding its way into DEI, almost by accident. She talks about her work as an employment consultant at Mission Australia with long-term unemployed clients, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and how that experience sharpened her thinking about disparity and opportunity. She shares how she got into DEI: a friend found a role, they Googled 'what is a diversity consultant?', she got the job, and that was nearly 15 years ago. She describes being headhunted by the United Nations during Covid while working at Western Power in Perth, needing three attempts at a travel exemption to leave Australia, and arriving in Geneva in 2021 to start a role at one of the world's most high-profile organisations. She reflects on going to university for the first time at 40, completing an MBA in Australia and then a Master's in Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. She talks about the "teachable spirit", her core career philosophy of always being in a position of learning, whatever the situation. She describes how her definition of success has shifted from material markers and achievement to what she has overcome and the fact that she kept going. Fadzi's career advice: "If somebody gives you a microphone, don't ask, why did you give me a microphone? Use it and say what you want to say." And on work-life balance: "This is what I do, but this is not who I am." All opinions are the guest's own. New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month. We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you'd like Luella and Michelle to answer at [email protected]. Support this podcast by becoming a member at https://www.the-career-library.com/join and get access to bonus episodes containing work-related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests, plus a monthly newsletter with tools and guidance from this week's advice episode. Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review. Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.