Hanna Tekaya
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Hanna’s Career Stories
When you were a student, did you do anything outside of school to build skills or get knowledge that has helped your career?
When I was at school and at university, I did odd jobs (at first completely unrelated to my studies or career choice) such as working at McDonald's, in a call center, delivering newspapers and helping out in the kitchen at a retirement home. This gave me some general work experience in addition to earning some pocket money. This experience was also viewed positively when I started applying for work experience within my chosen field of study (law). Although my prior experience had nothing to do with the legal world, it still showed that I had an active interest in working and in getting general experience. During my studies at university, I did some work experience in law firms and later applied for internship programs at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland. Although many of the legal work experience weren't remunerated, or minimally so, it allowed me to build a CV and be able to answer the question of "do you have any previous experience?" which often feels like a hurdle when you are at the beginning of your career.
In layperson terms, what do you actually do at work?
As a Compliance Manager, my job is to make sure that the employees in the company do not undertake any activities that could constitute or be perceived as corruption. I try to ensure that we follow the law in terms anti-corruption. I am not a company lawyer, but I work in close collaboration with my legal colleagues to ensure we interpret the law as it applies to interactions with doctors and Governments. Selling and advertising ("promoting") medicines is very strictly controlled by laws and my job is to make sure we follow those laws. This is because in the end, working in an ethically correct way, is good for the patient and the general public, because they want to be sure that when they go to see a doctor or get treated in a hospital, they get medicine because it will cure them, and not because the doctor gets money (bribes) for using a particular brand of medicine. Also, corruption impacts safety and innovation (if I can sell my product by paying bribes, why would I need to work on improving it?), so it's important to ensure we do things in a transparent and correct way to continue to produce better products to cure disease. In practice, this means that I train and explain to my colleagues how they can make sure that they follow the law. I also evaluate existing processes to check if they are sufficiently clear to be understood and that they cover any potential loopholes. I also support colleagues in making sure that we check who our suppliers are and require them to follow the same strict rules as us. This way we help to increase compliant behaviour in other companies too to create a fairer business environment. I help my colleagues to assess their activities at work to make sure that they are in line with regulations and cannot be interpreted as attempted bribery (or so-called "disguised promotion"). I perform checks of their past activities to make sure that everything was done correctly and documented (i.e. that I can find written evidence of what exactly was done) and if I find any errors, I will take steps to correct them and to interact with the responsible employee to find out if it was accidental or deliberate. Sometimes, errors can lead to investigations and "disciplinary action", which can range from a warning to termination of employment. This is because bribery is a crime and it can severely damage the reputation of the company. For me personally, working in compliance is making sure we do things "the right way". That is why I decided to study law - to ensure "justice". Many business-related legal branches are more related to finding loopholes in the law to benefit a company, and I personally felt like it didn't satisfy my search for "justice". By working in compliance, I feel like I contribute to a fairer society and a fairer world every day.
What is the biggest challenge you had to overcome to get to where you are now professionally? How did you overcome it?
My biggest challenge was to believe in myself and have the courage to step into some very big shoes and show what I can do and to do all of this in a foreign country. This happened after my move from Europe to Tunisia. The first job I found in Tunisia was totally unrelated to my career choice - I worked as a so-called "Publications & Web Officer" in a small offshore IT-company. The reason for this was that preferred to do any job, instead of having a long period of unemployment in my CV (this is also an important tip! don't get hung up on finding a job in your area of expertise if it puts you in danger of remaining unemployed - take on something else and then start looking for a job in your field. Employers will appreciate this). I had no legal experience in the country, and did not yet have a vast amount of overall work experience. I had only interviewed at a couple of local law firms. Eventually I managed to meet the CEO of a large conglomerate at a career fair and knew I had to impress him. I made sure I followed up with him regularly to maintain the contact and continue showing my interest, and once the job for a Legal Counsel was published, I was invited for interviews. I was very transparent about my experience and the fact I was working in an unrelated field since 2 years and also emphasised my willingness to learn and evolve. I believe I was very lucky to be offered the job (I was late told they were super impressed by my interview), as this was my foot in the door for the career path I've been on for the past 10 years. I knew I had some very big shoes to fill and had to make up my lack of experience with enthusiasm and an interest to learn. It was very scary, as I was taking on a huge responsibility, but it paid off - I was praised for my courage and bravery in taking on the job, and it gave me a lot of experience to learn and develop into the professional I am today.