3 Questions with Malvina Courouble-Or, International eBusiness & Call Centers Manager, Van Cleef & Arpels
For Contentsquare’s annual CX Circle magazine, we posed three questions to Malvina Courouble-Or, the International eBusiness & Call Centers Manager at French luxury jewelry, watch, and perfume company, Van Cleef & Arpels. We spoke to Courouble-Or about her work and what it’s like being a woman in eCommerce. Here’s what she had to say:
1. What’s one thing you love about working for Van Cleef & Arpels?
More than 70% of our employees are women and almost half of our executive committee members are women too. It’s really great, because as a woman it’s really inspiring to have this kind of environment.
Being a woman doesn’t prevent you from getting promoted. I was even promoted when I was pregnant!
Two months later when I discovered I was expecting twins, there was still no questions, no discrimination. At this time, the digital team were really growing, and I was moving from the European team to the Headquarters. But I still felt supported by my managers and by the other teams.
2. What advice would you give your younger self?
We often hear that “Women are often hired and promoted based on past accomplishments, while men may be hired and promoted based on future potential.”
It’s easy to doubt yourself, but it’s important not to focus on your limitations, but on how you want to progress. Choose a role model, or try to learn from people who inspire you. And make time to work on yourself and use your new skills and habits regularly
For more advice, check out Courouble-Or’s article, “4 Lessons I Wish I Knew Earlier in My Career as a Woman in eCommerce.”
3. As a mother of twins, how do you balance your personal and professional life?
I often felt overwhelmed and ended up working overnight. It helped in the short term but I ended up more stressed and exhausted in the long term. I learned the value of investing time in myself — where I could relax and do things that made me happy.
I also had this feeling that I could always do more, that what I’ve accomplished in a day was just not enough. I was replaying the day in my head, thinking of all the things I could have done instead of spending so much time in meetings and not enough on actual work. I’m still trying to disconnect my self-worth from daily achievements.
Setting realistic goals and focusing on priorities is obviously really helping (even if days rarely go as planned), as did using collaborative tools (like Monday.com) or switching to 30-45 minute meetings with forced breaks between them!
