Drive to study initially spurred by feeling of ‘imposter syndrome’

DEAN Delaney could not wait to enter the workforce. Just after he turned 16, he left school and entered the retail industry. Work was nothing new to him — he had been working part time since he was 10, sorting and delivering mail.

He candidly acknowledges that school ‘‘just wasn’t for me’’ and all he wanted to do was start a working career. None of his family had ever had a tertiary education.

Mr Delaney’s career progressed from retail to digital imaging and the FMCG (fastmoving consumer goods) sector before he moved into recruitment in 2014.

Dealing with lots of senior leaders, he was often asked where he attended university and his journey to acquire a tertiary qualification was initially born out of a feeling of ‘‘imposter syndrome’’.

‘‘I literally didn’t feel good enough to be at the table. I thought I needed a piece of paper to prove I was good enough.’’

After doing one paper a semester over seven years, he graduated last weekend from the University of Otago with a bachelor of commerce, with a double major in human resource management and management.

While it started out driven by imposter syndrome, that changed and it quickly developed into being more about him, and he had learned and grown more than he ever could have imagined, Mr Delaney said.

Completing the degree was something he was ‘‘immensely proud of’’ and he was grateful to everyone who had supported him over the years. There was no doubt it had been a balancing act, as he juggled both busy family and work lives, along with governance roles within the notforprofit sector.

He encouraged anyone contemplating tertiary education to take a gap year and either work or travel and get some life experience as it was such a valuable thing to have.

A director at Platinum Recruitment in Dunedin, he relished being part of the recruitment industry because of the relationships, and also the scope to be connected to ‘‘amazing ecosystems’’ both in Dunedin and further afield.

He genuinely enjoyed helping and connecting people and there was a real sense of achievement when a positive outcome was achieved.

‘‘I love recruitment. I love the brutality, the fastpaced nature of it. It’s a tough gig sometimes, but one I enjoy.’’