Be Yourself at Work: An International Women’s Day Event, Hosted by Capco

Jarod Cerf

Featuring a panel of senior partners, top clients, and thought leaders, Capco’s 2014 International Women’s Day Event, “What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?”, provided the 63 attendees with an opportunity to speak frankly about their career aspirations and hear from the panelists, first-hand, about how to create opportunities and reach for the top. As founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, Jen Prosek, stated, in quoting author Jim Collins: “we all have the same amount of and return on luck.”

Prosek, who at twenty-four and lacking the credentials she sought, joined a local financial communications firm in Greenwich, CT, noted how her circumstances at the time conflicted with her desire to run an internationally-acknowledged firm: “We were going to be in New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore. And we were going to work for the biggest companies.”

Regarding her first few years at the consultancy, Prosek remarked: “It still wasn’t the job I wanted. And I made a promise to myself, that if every year I could make it closer to what I wanted, I would make it work.” Currently, Prosek serves as the chief executive and managing partner of the company, which was named Corporate Agency of the Year by the Holmes Report in 2013.
“The people who are entrepreneurial,” she advised, “know how to recognize good luck. […] They also know how to turn the unfortunate moments around.”

Make the Most of Every Opportunity
For author Shari Harley, whose business management consultancy, Candid Culture, trains employees to be more up front about their needs and concerns, the opportunity to move her career forward stemmed from an unlikely moment.

Harley, who opened the panel discussion, admitted that she learned how to ask the right questions and seek out advisors the hard way. “I’d just left a job that I loved,” she said, “And I went deep into the technical realm. And I was completely out of my element.”

“And I remember being twenty seven years old,” she continued, “and sitting on my couch thinking: ‘what have I done to my career?” To resolve her issue, Harley sought out three of her peers and granted them permission to speak, honestly, about how other people saw her.

Though she found their responses bracing, what followed was a career dedicated to exploring how people can deliver insightful and effective feedback. “I’m a believer in knowing how you’re perceived,” Harley stated. “You need to know your reputation.”

Understand How You Affect Your Career
Scott Claus, a Senior Technology Partner at Capco, echoed Harley’s sentiments when he discussed how his passion for work has both informed and challenged the growth of his career. “Whoever says that women are more emotional than men,” he declared, “I’m living proof that that’s [sic] not true.”

Claus also mentioned that while the people he works with daily view his enthusiasm as “authentic and real,” those who only meet him on occasion are often unsure of how to respond. The difference became more prominent as he advanced in seniority; though Claus himself acknowledges that he wasn’t fully aware of impact until a mentor at the company advised him of the need to moderate.

“The one thing I’ve learned, that I’m still learning,” Claus admitted, “is how to control my emotions: how to channel for the positive and tone down the rest.”

Find the Right People to Guide and Sponsor You
While the event allowed for (a full range of freedom in responses), the panelists and open forum focused heavily on the need for proactive mentors and sponsors, particularly those beyond the immediate work environment.

“It’s often better to have someone outside of your department or organization who can give an unbiased perspective,” Stacey Alioto, the Head of Change Delivery US for HSBC attested, when asked about the qualities she would seek in a mentor. “It’s also important to have a sponsor,” she added, “somebody that fully believes in your brand and will speak up for you.”

In her role as an advisor and mentor, Alioto also stressed the necessity to provide results: “start with small deliverables and grow from there and over time, people will see you as someone they can count on, who’s dependable and has a good work ethic.”

Eva Pittas, Citi’s Head of Information Technology Risk and Control, Institutional Clients Group, expressed a similar line of thought, one that she gives to every individual she advocates for: “When we have conversations in my team, we talk about ‘what you aspire to do’ and ‘what you want to do next’.
And then we’ll talk about either a certain job or what we need to develop.”

As for her own experiences? “I can’t say that I wanted to be in a particular role,” Pitta explained. “I just had a work ethic that was ‘work hard, make change, be curious, and always go beyond what’s asked’. And every year and a half to two years, I would enter into a different role—whether I raised my hand and said I wanted more or I was tapped on the shoulder.”

“It’s a willingness to learn and the ability to plan for what you need,” she claimed, in sum, “that get you the job.”