PROFESSIONAL
How do we craft a career
where we can learn, contribute, and be happy?
Craft a career
Build a community
Advice from leaders
CRAFT A CAREER
How can we choose and craft the right career?
When you we transition?
How to start a career
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Start with the values (refer to "Fundamentals" page)
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Make sure that your values and the company’s values synchronize. It is hard not to assimilate to your company’s culture to be effective, so join the firm where you can be yourself.
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When you start working in a team, be clear about what you need to be effective and communicate with your team members, especially the “red lines” over which you will always say no.
(Some assessment tools on the “values” section of fundamentals will give you suggestions on what to say) -
Once you join, keep in touch with the community of people outside your company! Remember the analogy of the frog in the boiling water…
How to transition a career
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When to make a shift in your life
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Reflect and be honest about how you feel about your current work situation
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Is your work hour worth it? Is there an alternative option that provides you more opportunity with less working hours?
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Are you creating impact? (cf. spending too much time in corporate politics)
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Are you having fun?
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Are you evaluated fairly? (cf. specialists evaluated based on generalist criteria)
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How
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If the answer of the above question is no, try to understand what it takes to make them yes
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no need to define your passion in the job category, it could be what you like/ good at (e.g., “venture into chaos with grace”)
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BUILD A SUPPORT COMMUNITY
How do we develop a meaningful, supportive, and reciprocal relationship with other?
Develop a "personal advisory board"
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A research shows women lack relationships critical for development and advancement compared to men. (https://www.hbs.edu/gender/Pages/default.aspx)
Who do we need on our “personal advisory board” and how do we develop meaningful relationships with them? -
Conclusion from our discussion was that while having a certain kind of framework around networking is helpful, we should not force categorizing our relationship or filling up all these roles. Clarify what we need and build a relationship first.
Summary from the discussion
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Definition of “personal advisory board”
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Landit recommends that we establish a “personal advisory board.” Given our past discussions, below is a modified version of Landit's personal advisory board that we may want to construct.
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Framework of “personal advisory board”
Q : “This sounds a bit too strategic. Shouldn’t we treat others as people, and not as resources?
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A1: Definitely true. At the same time, sometimes the other side expects us to be transactional. (You don't want to be asking time for senior people just to catch up.) As long as we are clear and thoughtful for our asks in professional contexts, a "strategic" approach can be win-win.
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A2: Let me propose “Housewives approach.” In many cases, when women go out together, we tend to end up talking about challenges and emotions, rather than sharing/ discussing actual, tangible solutions. On the other hand, I have seen men forming merit based relationship quite easily. However, this doesn't mean that it is difficult for women to form such relationships. For instance, if you look at housewives, they are very strategic and “merit based” (e.g., sharing tips, exchanging stuffs) So as long as we can find a community of people with similar goals, challenges, and experiences - which could be difficult as it seems that women have broader definitions of successes - women can form meaningful and also merit-based relationship.
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Finding the right person
Q: “I work in a start-up so it is difficult to find the right mentor. What approach should I take?”
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A: “Try to find a community outside your immediate surroundings, but with different interests (e.g., education sector, but in non profit; volunteering opportunities) to establish a relationship.”
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A: “Note that there is a value in NOT having a support network. We may want to reframe that this is the time to learn how to be self-reliant.”
Q: “Is there any “spontaneous” person that led you to a meaningful directional change other than the roles we discussed today? For me, a head hunter turned out to be an amazing "connector"
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A: I recently got connected with someone that I never thought I would connect, by simply following who I already know and asking them to introduce me to the people they knew. So even though you can't find the right person immediately, try to be persistent and follow through.
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A: College alumni - or any network where you have shared experiences - might help too. These people tend to share similar values and want to help you out. It is important to have a network outside your work as they may open your minds around what a success means to you.
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Developing a meaningful relationship
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Q: “As a junior person, how can I make sure that I make this relationship reciprocal? I feel that I don't have a lot to give,”
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A. Your mentors/ sponsors were also mentored and sponsored, so they tend to want to “pay it forward.” You don’t need to give back to them necessarily, but your responsibility would be to pay it forward to those who come after you.
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A. At the same time, make sure that you are very thoughtful about how to reach out.
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A. Use the time during coronavirus to clarify what you want in the long term! Once you are clear, what you need, who you need to reach out to etc will also become clearer.
Q: “My manager recently told me that he would be willing to be my “coach”. I am very thankful, but what does this mean?”
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A: “Coach should be someone who is outside the organization for confidentiality perspective. Therefore, I would assume that what he means is more around mentoring. So I would craft the relationship with the person so that it is mutually beneficial and that you don't feel the responsibility to listen to this person."
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A: "This is a great lesson for us as future mentors/sponsors/coaches that we should self-manage our desire to help. When they do ask, they are also ready to receive."
Q: “What if I don’t agree with their advice? Would it offend them if I don’t act upon their advice?”
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A. Ideally your mentors don't assume that you will be following everything that they said, but if they do, try to have a discussion during your mentor-mentee conversation to craft the strategies together.
ADVICE FROM LEADERS
Snippets from the interviews we conducted with leaders
Working as a woman
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Be realistic
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“You can’t change the fact that you are a woman. At the end of the day, career is a marathon so those who don’t quit are the ones that win. So don’t try to force to change the environment when you are not senior enough.”
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Leverage the fact that you are a minority
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“Good thing about climbing up the career ladder fast is that you become a minority in many situations, so you get to take on assignments that other people may not have the chance to.”
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The competition will get intense in 10 years
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"I believe that in 10 years, the opportunities between men and women will be the same.”
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“That is not necessarily a great news, because then the men will compete with you, and you will be surprised by how jealous men can be. I have seen cases where they formed a group and pressured women”
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"For some reasons, I haven’t seen many cases where women supported each other.”
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“People have employed various strategies – those who continue their original strategies despite the challenges, those who are woman on the surface but men inside, and those who pretend to be a cute, innocent woman but employed many strategies behind the scenes.”
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Challenges of involving men to promote more women
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"Men want to mentor people with 10 year time frame. Given that many women leave companies for marriage, they tend to choose men over women to promote, mentor, and sponsor"
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"Also, men would not like people with similar age as they might perceive you as threat. If you are 10 year younger, then they will feel psychological secure to support you"
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"Another thing to note is that men tend to focus on position rather than work once they are in their 40s. Know what they care about."
Dilemma between being quiet for efficiency v.s. participating to contribute
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Sometimes I thought that maybe I should be quiet, and there is indeed such times.
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However, you should also know that some people pressure you just because they want to see you struggle. Don’t be a victim of such people
Training targeted for women
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Probably there is not a training or skills that women specifically need.
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However, the value of training is a) acquisition of skills and b) to foster team spirit. To satisfy the latter, I believe there are values in conducting women specific training program
Lack of urgency around promoting women
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"To be honest, many companies, especially the major companies, do not believe in the value of promoting women. They are doing it because they are told so."
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"This is different for some medium size companies though, especially in food related business"
Network
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Network is very important because it is too late if you are learning about the information once it becomes public
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One advice I have is that you should organize a discussion group with 5-6 people, instead of attending a big networking event. I tend to host many home parties.
How to survive in a competitive world
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There is no one size fits all solution, so you will need to find your own style
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However, one thing that is true is that if you don’t show your values, people will not want you.