by Elizabeth Harrin (London)

The perfect job appears on the company intranet. You know you could do the job; it would be just the stretch you need to shake yourself out of your rut and make the next career move. But it comes with line management responsibilities. Is that too long a leap?

Professional women are often very good at making a name for themselves as market specialists. Many are happy to stay in the specialist role, taking on leadership positions within their company that play to their strengths without having to manage a team. However, companies need fewer thought leaders than middle managers, and that means the route of career progress is paved with people management.

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Contributed By Kiersten Mitchell of www.KierstenMitchell.com

Ah, the millennial. We’ve grown up with a strong achievement orientation. Our helicopter parents ensured that we got the best education, practiced our instruments, and participated in team sports to hone key skills like collaboration. We took collaboration and applied it a step further to the web. As a result, we live in a world where we can be the first drafters of history with our blogs. A world where you can find a virtual best friend faster than you can say QWERTY. We are idealistic, innovative, and entitled. We are Generation Y—hear us roar!—then give us feedback on its virility, tone, diction, and ferocity.

Yes, that’s right. Give us feedback on our ROOOAAAAR…Ooh, how was that one?

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This Sunday, I opened up my New York Times, and was excited when I spied the headline “Becoming the Boss,” which appeared to be an article about women entrepreneurs starting their own businesses.

The article opened by reporting that, in New York City, more than a half million businesses are owned by women, and these businesses employ 533,437 people. The article quoted a study by the Center for Women’s Business Research which found that these businesses have brought in $93 million so far in 2008.

I read on, hoping to find some inspiring stories about women who had branched out to start their own financial services firms, law firms, and businesses in growing sectors like energy, technology, communications and health care. I was hoping to learn a thing or two about the new female movers and shakers running companies in New York City.

However, upon closer inspection, I realized that most of the “successful women business leaders” described in this article clearly fell into the dreaded “pink ghetto” of decidedly women’s work. They were from industries that are universally acknowledged to be the province of women, and the kind of jobs that high achieving men would more than willingly cede entirely to the other gender.
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By: Robin Barone

Imagine the start of a cocktail party: the setting is a terrace of a midtown office building with an impeccable view of Bryant Park. The bar is full stacked with a selection of good wine and attended by two attractive bar tenders. Tables and chairs scatter the balcony with a selection of antipasta, crudite, and cheese to dine on. God held up his promise of good weather and you can feel good karma spreading in the air through the beats of background music.

As the event progressed, I noticed a trend. As each woman arrived, they would enter the terrace, look around, grab a glass of wine, find their friends, sit down, and get comfortable for the remainder of the evening. I will admit the chairs were really comfortable and the food was really good. But in the back of my head I kept thinking, “Aren’t they here to meet other women in our field?”

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By: Bailey McCann

1457984966_d3504fbe29_m.jpgRecently I spoke with Charlene Li co-author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technology and analyst at Forrester Research. She spoke to me about how women can utilize the strategies in her book and the power of social media to leverage their networks and engage customers. Li presents five core strategies for using the power of social media, they are:

  1. Listening
  2. Talking
  3. Energizing
  4. Supporting
  5. Embracing

Each of these strategies are outlined in detail in the book. In our interview, Li focused specifically on listening, “listening can help market research by engaging the audience and finding what people are saying.” She also went on to point out that by listening to what people are saying, you can avoid social media fatigue by presenting only the most highly relevant content.

“Connecting customers to other customers,” and being a “one stop shop,” for all the information in your business, including information on your competitors can put you ahead in the marketplace.
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By Erin Abrams

While the lack of women occupying the role of CEO at Fortune 500 companies and Wall Street firms has been often lamented and debated on The Glass Hammer, a quieter revolution is taking place. Women are ascending to positions of power and influence as Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Legal Officers (CLOs) or General Counsel, with increasing frequency. Indeed, a growing trend of women occupying C-suite offices as CFOs and CLOs has led to more women at the top slots of major companies and serving on their corporate boards. For a case in point, look to Erin Callan, CFO of Lehman Brothers, who was recently profiled in a Glass Hammer article.

This phenomenon is not going unnoticed. June 2008 cover story of CFO Magazine “Secrets of Their Success” which surveyed 12 female CFOs to learn more about how they staked their claims to their executive jobs. The CFOs profiled offered some excellent advice to women interested in getting ahead.

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Contributed By: Sue Kaye

656924000_ed810cc6b3_m.jpgGo to any top-level business meeting and you’ll find two languages spoken or, to be more precise, unspoken. There’s power talk – direct,muscular and sure. And there’s the gentler give-and-take of conciliatory, careful conversation. Guess which approach gets the job done in a tough situation.

“We spend so much time thinking about what’s going into our mouths and so little time thinking about what comes out “ complains Laurie Puhn, a Harvard family and divorce attorney/mediator, and best-selling author of Instant Persuasion: How to Change Your Words to Change Your Life. Differences in language and style can put women at such an inadvertent disadvantage that Lois Frankel, author of See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work , has made a career of building awareness among her female colleagues.
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Contributed By: Maureen Frank, Managing Director of Emberin.com.au

Men are a big key to our success. As an advocate for women in the workforce, I never thought I would be putting that in writing!

Recently, I attended the Catalyst Conference in the US – Catalyst is a research firm associated with working women (it is an esteemed institution in the US with fortune 500 members and high profile board members – I was excited to see our very own Sol Trujillo amongst the other global CEO’s on the stage!). In true American style, and using the ‘Oprahesque’ language that became the buzz word for the conference – I had an ‘ah – ha’ moment. I now understand how critical male involvement is to the whole gender equity challenge.

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By Bailey McCann

2401674702_8d2928ec1c_m.jpgRecently, the Wall Street Journal released its ranking of top business gurus, compiled by Babson College professor Thomas H. Davenport. The top 20 included household names like Bill Gates, as well as several authors currently featured the business section at your local bookstore. The one thing missing was women. Only one woman made it onto the list in 2003 and this year’s update saw none get added to the list. We weren’t the only ones to notice – several other sources including New York Magazine and Independent Street, one of the Wall Street Journal’s own blogs, have commented on the dearth of female gurus in business. The lack of women on this list begs the obvious question, where are we?

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Contributed by Elizabeth Ezratty, Senior Recruitment Consultant at Huxley New York Banking Technology

As a recruitment consultant in the Banking Technology sector, I organize interviews for my candidates on a daily basis for roles in investment banks and hedge funds with salaries up to $400,000.

For some people I work with, the job interview can be an extremely stressful experience, whereas others seem to relish the challenge and the opportunity to sell themselves to prospective employers.

So what are the important things to bear in mind? What makes the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful interview?

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