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Mary Riedel leaves IT for humanity
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Just two months ago, Mary Reidel gave up her job in San Francisco to begin a new humanitarian role bringing microloans to impoverished borrowers in the Philippines. She searched for the right career her whole life, but once Riedel began discovering who she was, her new career found her.
Who were you in your corporate life before?
One day I woke up and found myself following in the footsteps of my father. He works in telecommunications in New Jersey. I worked in telecom in San Francisco. As a consultant, he manages operational projects. I was a technical operations project manager. He climbed to the top, but I wasn’t into it. I love my dad, but that’s his path, not mine. I was unfulfilled, underutilized, unmentored and lost. I’m a people person, not a back-office IT person! It was purely accidental – or unconscious – that I ended up in his shoes.
Who are you now, post-corporate?
I’m posted in Cabanatuan City on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, where I help connect small (very small – think roadside stands) business borrowers to lenders through a nonprofit organization called Kiva. Kiva connects people through lending in order to alleviate poverty. I’m a volunteer liaison responsible for the relationship with local borrowers who are organized through the microfinance partner Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI). I get to personally know the borrowers and publicly document their stories and progress on kiva.org for the world to follow. The average loan among my borrowers is US$200 repaid over five months. 88% of borrowers are women.
Microfinance is so specialized. How did you know that was what you wanted to do?
I was never one of those people who knew she wanted to do. Even in college my family recommended undergraduate business, since I didn’t know what to study. I’ve been searching since I was 18. When I moved from Manhattan to San Francisco, I stumbled into the tech industry for five years. Then two years ago, at 29 and miserable, I began a full-fledged career search. I tried being a fashion consultant to explore my creative side and empower women. But after starting with a few clients, something didn't feel right. Around the same time I helped start a community outreach program called "Make a Difference" at work. It connected employee volunteers with third parties like Habitat for Humanity, and was where I first heard about Kiva. The experience hit a nerve, and I started researching nonprofits. I feel like I’ve always known in my heart that I wanted to be in nonprofit, but it's taken years of trial and error to find – and admit – it.
What kept you from the nonprofit world?
It wasn’t part of my inherited value system. I thought being in nonprofit meant being poor. My family is made up of successful business professionals whose goal is to make a profit. The idea of nonprofit sounded like socialism to them! After college I taught English in Southeast Asia, loved it and wanted to do more, but didn’t know how. In New York, it seemed like people didn’t do that. My people didn’t do that.
A career guided by values seems intuitive and ideal. How did you find your own value system?
I started to re-examine my whole life. I wanted to be more creative, be of service and connect with people. In my search, I took acting classes, joined clubs, saw speakers like the founder of Kiva, who inspired me and planted that seed. Then I read something that made me remember a lost part of myself. A book from my fashion class, Deluxe: The Loss of Luxury, talked about how the counterfeit market fuels black markets, wars, slave labor and prostitution. So the fake Gucci bags for your purse party have larger implications. It reminded me of my college project on Nike’s human rights violations. After all these years, the same issues – overseas exploitation, human rights, social change, my travels and teaching in Southeast Asia – still really excited me. I was beginning to connect the dots.
By this point fashion was really not feeling right anymore. I was freaking out. I thought, “Crap, I’m so lost!” So I hired a career counselor/therapist who helped me voice my real values and uncover more of my identity. In our very first session, I unexpectedly confessed my lifelong interest in nonprofits. The therapy helped me individuate from my family and establish my own values. The support of career counseling inspired me to join organizations, network, do vision boards. Now that I knew what I wanted, I explored everything – five paths at the same time! [Note: I met Mary though career counselor Elayne Chou.]
What’s a “vision board?”
It’s formal way of exploring a subject on paper. I outlined my career mission and tangible steps to achieve it, like research, networking, informational interviews and joining associations. I actively pursued five prescribed scenarios:
1. Same company/different job – I was about to transfer into a creative marketing position working with a mentor when my company halted all internal transfers.
2. Same job/different company – I looked, but honestly my heart wasn’t in it.
3. Entry-level in your desired industry – I applied for admin nonprofit jobs that were very competitive for someone with no nonprofit experience.
4. Part-time work while exploring – I explored graduate schools for social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility, and volunteered with the World Affairs Council and Dress for Success.
5. Interning in your desired industry – This was my Kiva fellowship, which is what I ultimately wanted, and got.
Was money ever a concern in your decision?
I saved money, a year’s salary, for this. I used to have a really weird thing with money. I was very vague about it. My parents gave me a credit card in college, and when I graduated, the party was over. I didn’t budget and racked up $20,000 in debt, which I paid off little by little. Over time, money changed meaning for me. Now I need more than the bells and whistles that money can buy. I tried that, but there was always this hole inside, this yearning. For me it’s a spiritual hole. Filling it with money or the perfect life on paper didn’t work. Maybe it’s just getting older, but somehow the card has become more important to me than the gift.
In two years, you changed identities, careers and gained independence from family, all of which take great emotional strength. Where did you get the courage to evolve?
My courage comes from my spiritual life, without which this career change couldn’t have happened. I was always wondering when my life was going to begin. It was always later, later, when I marry the rich husband so I can go out and save the world. But no one was coming to rescue me. Spiritual honesty and accountability gave me great strength, but it took years to change my perspective.
I spent my twenties feeling lost in a haze, looking for answers in the wrong places. I felt really alone until I found people who made me feel safe and supported me finding myself, which I consider a spiritual search. I think of these friends as God with skin on! So I recommend support groups to not feel so alone. By being open and vulnerable, I connected with my own humanity, instead of just my ego. I practiced seeing the class half full. I stopped looking at myself from the outside. I started re-evaluating how I talked to myself. I had to consciously change my harsh inner voice. Choice was a revelation to me, that I could choose another voice, another life. So I made myself practice over and over things like gratitude prayers, affirmations and journaling, which I wanted to resist, but I did it in a gradual way instead of taking out the whip. That’s how I stopped acting out of fear and began to love. In my spirituality, God is how I love myself.
You’re right on the verge of a new life. What’s the reaction been? What life lessons have you learned?
I feel really hopeful and excited. My friends tell me I light up when I talk about it. My family…hmm…I'm not sure they totally understand but they support my decision. They even contributed to my fundraising! It was a big move to tell my family after I decided, made a plan and got the details sorted out. I didn’t want to “fail” again in front of them. Now I realize the only real failure is never trying. I learned to persevere. Real change is so slow, you don’t even see it happening. Fast change doesn’t last because it hasn’t changed you to the core. Also I found my community. One of my teachers advised that if you want to be a longshore fisherman, you need to hang out with longshore fishermen, go to their restaurants and ballgames. There’s great power in groups.
What happens if Kiva isn’t the right thing for you? What else does the future hold?
It’s too soon to say. I don’t know what the world will look like tomorrow, or in five minutes even. Who knew the Philippines would have two major typhoons the week I arrived? So I’m going to live in the moment. If I like it, I’d continue this work in the U.S. I see myself staying in humanitarian nonprofits, working to empower women and children, and contributing toward the greater social good in some way. That’s my value system. But for now I’ve packed up my apartment, not subletted it. Because when and if I come back, I’ll be on a different journey.
Mary Riedel's Resource List
- Lend to the ASKI team that Mary supports. Also, see Kiva's borrowers from around the world.
- Read Mary's Kiva blog posts, the posts of other volunteers, as well as Mary's personal blog. Find out how to get a Kiva volunteer fellowship.
- Visit idealist.org, a central resource for researching nonprofit jobs, volunteer opportunities and organizations.
- Donate to Dress for Success, which provides professional attire, career development and mentoring to disadvantaged women.
- Join the World Affairs Council, Young Professionals International Forum.
- For inspiration, read everything you can by the American Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron.
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