In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up

Beth 005Contributed by Beth Collinge of CTG – a division of ILX Group plc.

In the UK, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will be abolished and replaced by a number of committees and agencies, The Bank of England will take on an expanded role as arbiter of both monetary and regulatory policy and a new Banking Commission has been established to review the future shape of the banking industry. The EU decided to publish results of “stress-tests” on 25 banks in July.

Economic Backdrop

  • Global equities rose for the second week running as tensions over the eurozone debt crisis showed signs of easing. The FTSE 100 dipped on Friday, breaking a run of seven consecutive daily gains, but over the week the index rose 1.7 per cent, cutting its loss for the year down to 3 per cent.
  • Meanwhile benign US consumer prices boosted US government bonds: the yield on the 10-year Treasury notes was 3.21 per cent, down 0.01% on the week.
  • In the currency market, the euro rallied again rising to a 3-week high of $1.2380 against the dollar, as concerns over Spain’s ability to service its debts waned, after the country raised €3.48bn in the bond market on Thursday.
  • In commodities, gold hit a nominal record high above $1,260 a troy ounce on Friday, boosted by investors buying bullion-backed exchange-traded funds. GFMS, the precious metals consultancy, says investors last year bought more gold than buyers of jewelery for the first time in three decades.

Read more

/by

Celebrating Two of LA’s History-Making Female Lawyers

,

iStock_000002362162XSmallBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Twelve of the nation’s largest law firms are centrally located in the city of Los Angeles and according to numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 556,790 lawyers in California – not including those who are self-employed. As a lawyer, making a name for yourself in this city may not be the easiest of tasks, but if you’re incredibly dedicated to your work, your clients, and your profession – such as the women heralded by the Los Angeles Times as the city’s Women Leaders in the Law – chances are, you’ll make a name for yourself.

The supplement to the Times featured a number of Los Angeles’ top female lawyers, including a revered firm’s first female attorney and a lawyer who was behind a landmark civil rights case. Let’s get to know Amy Fisch Solomon and Deborah Chang, two lawyers who took a different path to making history.

Amy Fisch Solomon, Girardi Keese

If it weren’t for a severe injury, Amy Solomon’s life might have turned out much differently. In third grade she made a deal with her mother: her mom would continue to pay for ballet lessons if Solomon promised to work hard in school and always have something to fall back on. The deal continued well after high school when Solomon began dancing professionally, but after sustaining an injury, she was forced to reevaluate her life. “I enrolled in college and was Pre-Med my first year. I decided that it was too much science and not enough ‘people stuff,’ so I focused on preparing to go to law school,” Solomon said.

Only a former dancer, still in love with the art, could equate her performances on the stage with her performance in front of a jury. “From the beginning I always knew I wanted to be a trial lawyer because of the similarity of performing as a dancer,” Solomon said. “It was the same idea: connecting with an audience to tell them a story that will move them. When I discovered that I could tell stories for people who had no voice – ‘the little guy’ – I was immediately drawn to that area.”

Read more

/by

Mary Schapiro, SEC Chairman, Talks at the FWA

,

Photo courtesy sec.gov

Photo courtesy sec.gov

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I’ve surrounded myself with great and talented people and that’s the secret of my success,” said Mary Schapiro, Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission. Schapiro was interviewed by CNBC‘s Maria Bartiromo Monday at New York Law School, for an event hosted by the Financial Women’s Association of New York.

Schapiro attributed her level of success to, “Not being afraid to hire people much smarter than I am.” She also mentioned the importance of “diversity of perspective.”

She continued, “The people make it worthwhile. …We are well-positioned to make a difference for American investors.”

Read more

/by

Ask-A-Career-Coach: How Do You Talk About A Personal Leave of Absence?

jobsearchThis week, The Glass Hammer is featuring two points of view on the issue of addressing a leave of absence on your resume. Our expert career coach makes one argument below – check back later this week for another.

Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart™

This question came after a webinar I led last week: “How The Hiring Process Really Works.”

It was mind blowing to learn that my resume will probably not make it through the resume screening stage due to my current year-long (and counting) resume gap due to having a child (Note: in the webinar I mentioned that gaps of any kind, not specifically family-leave, raise red flags in a resume screen). In the meantime, how do you recommend mothers address a resume gap for time taken off to have a child and/or raise a family? In the beginning of my job search, I was very open to explaining that the gap was due to having a child, but I sensed some hesitation from several prospective employers once I revealed that tidbit of information. Lately my strategy has been to ignore the gap and only volunteer my motherhood status if asked. Should I explain the gap in my resume? What about in a cover letter?

Yes, you should explain the gap in your resume. No, don’t highlight the gap in your cover letter. And definitely NO, don’t attribute the gap to your kid(s).

Read more

/by

Women in Tech: Building Confidence and Visibility

,

iStock_000008800639XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Friday’s 85 Broads NYC Internet Week panel “Hot & Bothered: It’s Time To Change The Gender Ratio in New Media & Tech” tackled the myth that there just aren’t that many women in the tech space. Moderator Rachel Sklar, Editor-at-Large at Mediaite, explained that she meets a lot of female leaders in the tech space, but they just aren’t getting recognition.

Panelists included Esther Dyson, angel investor, tech industry pioneer, and journalist; Michelle Madhok, founder, SheFinds Media; Alexa Hirschfeld, co-founder, PaperlessPost; and Joanna Stern, contributing editor, Engadget.

Sklar said she decided to put the panel together after reading New York Magazine’s recent piece “Tweet Tweet Boom Boom: How Tech Startups Like Foursquare and Meetup Are Trying to Overthrow Old Media and Build a Better New York,” Sklar said, “The ratio in the New York Magazine piece – 53 people and 6 female – didn’t reflect my experience, socially, in this space.”

Read more

/by

Why Female Stars Succeed in New Jobs

Elegant leaderBy Hua Wang (Chicago)

According to a recent study, when changing jobs, women are more likely to continue to shine than men. Harvard Business School professors compiled data on 1,052 star Wall Street research analysts (defined by their Institutional Investor rankings) in the United States from 1988 to 1996. They found that a significant number of stars show a decline in performance in their new jobs and were likely to leave their new firms within five years. However, the decline in performance was found mostly in men.

The research showed that women who switched firms were able to maintain their star status, unlike their male counterparts. Talented women who switch firms tend to maintain their stardom, and their new employer’s share price holds steady. The implication of the study is that firms seeking to hire a top performer cannot accurately value the likely return on their investment based purely on that individual’s accomplishments in another organization.

Power of Relationships

Women, who made up 18% of the analysts in the study, were more likely than men to have built their success on relationships with clients and companies they covered. High-performing female analysts are boundary spanners—they tend to forge relationships with people outside their work environment and are connected to disparate groups of people. The network of support may contribute significantly to an individual’s ability to maintain top performance.

Read more

/by

In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up

Beth 005Contributed by Beth Collinge of CTG – a division of ILX Group plc.

Global equities rebounded this week. Santander purchased Bank of America’s stake in its Mexican operations, seizing back full control of the business. BP may suspend its dividend to fund the cleanup of the Gulf oil spill. EU finance ministers backed Estonia’s bid to become the 17th member of the eurozone.

Economic Backdrop

  • After a poor start to the week, global equities rebounded on news that China’s exports in May rose 48.5 per cent year-on-year, cooling fears that the eurozone debt crisis and planned austerity measures would damp global growth.
  • The dollar slipped while the euro rebounded from a four-year low on Tuesday in volatile currency trading. A decision from the German constitutional court to reject an injunction to prevent the country from contributing to the eurozone rescue package also boosted the euro. The euro recovered to stand up 1.2 per cent to $1.2115 against the dollar on the week, and 0.4 per cent stronger against the pound at £0.8305.
  • In government bonds, US long-term debt sales attracted solid demand and the yield on 10-year notes was up 3bp on the week at 3.23 per cent.
  • In commodities, U.S. light crude oil for July delivery fell $1.70 to $73.78 a barrel: gold hit an all-time high of $1,252 on Tuesday and closed at $1,217 spot.
  • At central bank meetings this week the Bank of England and European Central Bank left rates unchanged at record low levels.

Read more

/by

Voice of Experience: Agnès Hussherr, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

agnesBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

For the last five years, Agnès Hussherr, Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, has led the Women in PwC project in France. It’s part of a challenging and interesting role that has kept her at the company for over twenty years.

“I joined PwC twenty years ago just after graduation, aged 22, as an auditor, and was appointed partner at 33,” she says. “In the early days of my career, I worked on a variety of projects including non-audit work. Also, I had the opportunity to be on one job which widened my knowledge of the banking sector. This meant I didn’t become too specialised which might have limited my opportunities to become a partner.”

As a young partner, for six years Hussherr split her work 50/50 as a client partner and as a technical partner specialised in IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), which gave her a strong technical background and the opportunity to work within a worldwide global and virtual team. However, while the technical background has given her a good grounding, it is not the most critical part of her road to success. “Working long hours and being a technical expert are not the most important things,” she says. “The most important are relationships, both with clients and internally.”

Read more

/by

Technology Helps Work/Life Balance: It’s Official

technology and worklife balanceBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

What does your boss think about giving you gadgets for work? And what do you think about carrying around a smart phone or BlackBerry? While it might feel like technology means you are chained to the office – even when you aren’t actually there – new research shows that gadgets actually have a positive impact on happiness and work/life balance.

A new study from BCS, the UK’s Chartered Institute for IT, shows that access to information technology has a ‘statistically significant, positive impact on life satisfaction’. The report is based on an analysis of the World Values Survey, and contains responses from over 35,000 people around the world. The research, carried out by Trajectory Partnership, suggests that there is a personal and social benefit which results from access to technology, a result they call the ‘information dividend’ and you probably benefit from it.

“Put simply, people with IT access are more satisfied with life even when taking account of income,” says Michael Willmott, the social scientist who authored the report and co-founder of The Future Foundation. “Our analysis suggests that IT has an enabling and empowering role in people’s lives by increasing their sense of freedom and control, which has a positive impact on wellbeing or happiness.”

Read more

/by

The Athena Collaborative: Putting Women in the Investment Banking Pipeline

,

internsBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“The pipeline leaks start very, very early,” said Christina DelliSanti Miller, founder of the Athena Collaborative, an organization whose mission is to expand the population of women entering and thriving in quantitative careers. She explained that research shows “girls check out of math in 6th grade.” On the other hand, “Math and STEM careers are the most lucrative. Girls are socialized or self-selecting out before they realize what business is.”

“More than half the people going to college are women. In the securities industry, only 14% of people at the highest level are women,” she said. Shouldn’t these numbers be closer to parity?

Patching the Leaky Pipeline

Providing mentoring and internships to young women is one way the Athena Collaborative works to plug those pipeline leaks.

Miller, former Head of Diversity at Barclays and a social psychologist, has 20 years of experience working in diversity functions in big business – and the last 10 years in the financial services industry. She founded the organization after seeing not only a decrease in the number of women in the industry, but also the difficulties companies were facing in building diverse teams. She said, “We were competing for a small pool of women,” she said. “The higher up you go, there are less women.”

Read more

/by