by Elizabeth Harrin (London)
More than 700 women gathered at W-Tech in London, UK, on June 24th to take part in the one day recruitment, career development and networking event for women interested in working (and staying) in IT.
“It was a really buzzy atmosphere,” said Maggie Berry, director of womenintechnology.co.uk. She admits to being “frazzled” at the end of the event, and it’s hardly surprising given the amount of energy and effort poured into the planning. This is the second time Berry has planned for W-Tech – although only the first time the event has taken place. W-Tech was originally scheduled for February this year but it coincided with the heaviest snow fall London had seen for decades and unfortunately the event had to be cancelled as the capital shuddered to a freezing halt.
W-Tech aimed to connect the most well-known technology employers with women working in, or who are interested in working in, the IT profession. It was billed as “the networking event of 2009 for everyone wanting to learn out more about women working in, achieving in and staying in the IT workforce.” Many major recruiters were in attendance including Microsoft, Bloomberg, the British Library, the BBC, HP, Sky and GCHQ.
Berry had a chance to speak to most of the exhibitors and sponsors and said that many of them reported having “good conversations with interesting and intelligent women,” which she sees as testament to the high calibre of women who attended.
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Ask-a-Career-Coach: What Do You Do While You’re Waiting?
Ask A Career CoachA lot of the job search is waiting: drop your résumé and wait for the interview; attend the interview and wait for the decision; attend the second interview and wait for more interviews or the offer. Many jobseekers ask how long to wait before checking in and how otherwise to maximize the waiting time.
In short, you maximize the waiting time by moving on. You work on several job search leads concurrently so that, while you are waiting for one, another is invariably moving. Stopping and starting takes a lot more energy and is far less efficient than moving along systematically. You can only move systematically when you have multiple leads in play.
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Managing the Business of Asset Management
Featured, Industry Leaders, LeadershipIn the wake of plummeting revenue streams, particularly with client concerns over operational risk and managers’ needs to control costs, the lines between traditional investment managers and hedge funds have blurred and will continue to do so. Traditional investment managers and hedge funds alike need to focus on the business of managing money as well as the management of the assets. Though the industry’s historically high margins have allowed managers to pay scant attention to the decidedly unglamorous and hugely complex expense side of the business, they must do so now. The winners will be those who manage their firms as well as they manage their clients’ portfolios.
While buy-side revenues are driven by assets under management, costs and, ultimately, profit are driven primarily by the number of accounts and secondarily by the number of products or strategies the firm offers. Even with automation, more accounts or products equate to more people and salaries, typically the single biggest expense item. This disconnect between revenue and expense drivers frequently went unnoticed by many senior managers because of the industry’s incredible profitability. That clearly is no longer the case.
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VOE: Kit Chaskin, Partner and Firm-wide Chair of the Women’s Initiative Network of Reed Smith
Voices of ExperienceThe Glass Hammer Managing Editor Pamela Weinsaft recently spoke with attorney Kit Chaskin about Chaskin’s path from acting to the legal profession, her thoughts on tackling barriers to the advancement for women in law, and the importance of having a long-term vision for one’s career.
Despite the virtual apprenticeship at an early age, she first pursued a career as an actress. When she was ready to settle down and find a more financially rewarding career, the law was an obvious choice. But she knew from day one that she wanted to have a life outside of law. “The fact that I had been out on a totally different career path put some perspective on law school. I was more of a go-getter because it was such a privilege to be in law school and I appreciated the opportunity. On the other hand, I had a life and I was already married. I knew I was not going to put my life on hold until I made partner, which was the prevailing strategy for most of the women I went to law school with. Read more
Alternative Careers for Former Wall Street Women
Featured, NewsIs there life after Wall Street? With unemployment rates at an all time high and the financial industry in turmoil as a result of the economic downturn, some Wall Streeters are considering major career changes. Opportunities exist as long as the former investment types are willing to think outside of the traditional career trajectory to new livelihoods – counter terrorism, for example.
Recently the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been recruiting ex Wall Streeters. The agency seeks economic analysts to assess illicit financial activities, including networks used by terrorist and criminal groups, financing and procurement of weapons of mass destruction, money laundering and corruption among foreign governments and companies. Backgrounds in international finance, banking, or business are part of the requirements. But displaced and discouraged workers can put their backgrounds to work in less dramatic ways too.
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IBM Businesswoman Balances Demands of Work, MBA Studies, Home to Mentor Other Women
Women and PhilanthropyDorit Kagy, a Los Angeles businesswoman, is busy. While working full time for IBM, working towards an MBA, and working on getting used to being a new mother, she decided she wanted to help others. While looking for some online volunteer opportunities, she discovered MicroMentor, which would allow her to volunteer from the comfort of her own home, while using her business expertise to help other women in business. “I think this is the perfect opportunity,” said Kagy.
Founded in 2002, MicroMentor offers business professionals a chance to engage in meaningful volunteer opportunities by helping small business owners take their businesses to the next level. “MicroMentor is a free online service that connects small business owners with business mentors. Mentors “give back” by sharing their experience and expertise. [The matching of mentor and mentee is] kind of like online dating,” said Samantha Mafchir, Program Associate at MicroMentor.
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Voice of Experience: Berenice Corral, Vice President of Promotions, Mexican Derivatives Exchange
Voices of ExperienceAs part of our on going Voices of Experience series, contributing writer Jessica Titlebaum spoke with this top-ranking executive woman from MexDer on her career in derivatives and balancing work and life.
After graduating with a degree in business and finance, Corral joined Scotia Bank Inverlat, a global brokerage house in Mexico. She was responsible for developing an international procedural manual and supervised every transaction that took place from their New York office. While at Inverlat, Corral never gave up on her goal of working at the Mexican Stock Exchange. So when, about a year later, she was offered the opportunity to work in the Exchange’s market development department, she jumped at the chance.
From there, she moved into a role at SIF ICAP, a joint venture between the Mexican Stock Exchange and ICAP, where she was responsible for developing new products including a fixed income trading platform very similar to the Mexican Stock Exchange’s electronic equity system.
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The Need for Women Leaders on Wall Street
NewsWhat if there were more women leaders on Wall Street? This is the question raised by a new report from The National Council for Research on Women, a network of 120 leading U.S. research, policy and advocacy centers. The report, entitled “Women in Fund Management: Achieving Critical Mass and Why It Matters,” takes a close look at the lack of women in leadership roles in fund management.
Today, only 16 percent of executive and board positions in the financial services are held by women and just 10 percent of fund managers are women. In fact, in 2008, women managed only three percent of the approximately $1.9 trillion invested in hedge funds. These low numbers don’t align with the number of women in the workplace, the number of women who own businesses, or the amount of wealth represented by women. Almost half of all workers in the U.S., and one third of all business owners, are women. And women comprise 43 percent of all Americans with gross assets of $1.5 million or more.
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Practicing Sustainability in Asset Management
Green is GoodThe US Congress appears poised to pass carbon cap and trade legislation, perhaps as soon as the third quarter of this year. Although there has been a market price on carbon in the UK and Europe for some time now, the US has no broad mechanism for factoring in an implicit price for carbon. Until now, efforts have been limited to regional attempts to develop progressive responses to climate change risks, in the absence of formal policy. But, the world is changing, and the heightened awareness surrounding sustainability is making an appearance in the asset management industry.
In the world of those who manage money or other assets, sustainability has a specific definition: the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into the investment decision-making process. How does this particular application of sustainability enhance risk assessment, and how can this enhanced analysis allow managers to seize opportunities and manage risks that are associated with these emerging ESG factors?
The beauty of practicing sustainability in the setting of an asset manager is that you have the opportunity to learn and look at major emerging issues across diverse industries and sectors, as that is how the institutional business is generally structured. Managers, initiate manage, and close out positions in many sectors, unless they are focused more exclusively by their investment mandate on select industries.
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Ask-A-Recruiter: Where Do You Meet Corporate Decision-makers?
Ask A Career CoachContributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart
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W-Tech: More Than Just Jobs
Pipeline, What's OnMore than 700 women gathered at W-Tech in London, UK, on June 24th to take part in the one day recruitment, career development and networking event for women interested in working (and staying) in IT.
“It was a really buzzy atmosphere,” said Maggie Berry, director of womenintechnology.co.uk. She admits to being “frazzled” at the end of the event, and it’s hardly surprising given the amount of energy and effort poured into the planning. This is the second time Berry has planned for W-Tech – although only the first time the event has taken place. W-Tech was originally scheduled for February this year but it coincided with the heaviest snow fall London had seen for decades and unfortunately the event had to be cancelled as the capital shuddered to a freezing halt.
W-Tech aimed to connect the most well-known technology employers with women working in, or who are interested in working in, the IT profession. It was billed as “the networking event of 2009 for everyone wanting to learn out more about women working in, achieving in and staying in the IT workforce.” Many major recruiters were in attendance including Microsoft, Bloomberg, the British Library, the BBC, HP, Sky and GCHQ.
Berry had a chance to speak to most of the exhibitors and sponsors and said that many of them reported having “good conversations with interesting and intelligent women,” which she sees as testament to the high calibre of women who attended.
Read more