Guest contribution
Employment gaps are normal.
When a less an evolved employer looks at them, however, they can see them as a problem. If the gap is too big, the employer will assume there was some kind of problem. The hiring manager is not aware of the reasons for employment gaps. They will only make assumptions. To avoid negative assumptions, you want to justify or fill in those gaps.
When most people wonder how to fill employment gaps, they decide to stretch the dates of their jobs. If, for example, you left a job in May 2017 and you have a year-long gap since then, you might think it’s wise to extend that date and you write that you worked for that company until January 2018. Since the resume is not a legal document, most of you will assume you cannot suffer any consequences for doing this.
You’re wrong. There’s something called resume fraud. If this employer hires you and then finds out you lied, they will sue you for misleading them with false information in your resume. Maybe they won’t sue you, but you’ll surely get fired.
Tip 1: Write years and not actual dates
So the first tip in filling in gaps is this one: don’t lie about employment dates, but instead mention the years only.
This is not lying or misleading. If, for example, you left a job in January 2014 and started a new one in November 2014, you can make the gap look smaller if you leave out the months in the date format.
May 2012 – January 2014
November 2014 – Present
2012 – 2014
2014 – Present
Which one do you think looks better? This works only if you got another job during the same year. If not, it will make the gap look bigger. If you opt for this format, make sure to keep it consistent across the resume. You’ll also leave out the months when listing your education, certificates, and everything else that involves a date.
Tip 2: Focus on Your Qualifications
There are three main types of resume:
Chronological – it lists the job history in chronological order;
Functional – it focuses on skills and experience;
Combination – it combines the chronological and functional approach.
According to Michelle Wallas, career advisor at BestEssays, the functional resume is the best option for taking the focus off employment gaps she reminds us that if you’re trying to shift the focus off the employment dates, you still have to provide truthful information. You can do that with the functional resume format, which highlights your abilities instead of the job history. You’ll still summarize the job history, but it will be positioned at the bottom of the resume.”
This is a great solution, since it makes the employer consider your skills and competences before they wonder about your experience on actual jobs.
Tip 3: Consider Presenting the Gap as a Sabbatical Leave
The sabbatical leave is not really an employment gap. It’s an extended period off a particular job, which the employee uses to reflect on their accomplishments, focus on developing new skills, and decide what precise career path they want to follow. The typical sabbatical is one year long. Many employers allow their workers to take a sabbatical and then accept them back in their companies. If you returned to the same company after a longer break, you should definitely present that gap as a sabbatical leave. Show how you used that time for personal and professional growth.
If a sabbatical is not an option, you should think about presenting the gap as time you took with the intention to focus on your education and professional skills. Did you take any online courses and get certificates? Did you return to university to complete your degree or earn another one? Did you take any kind of training?
Hopefully, you didn’t waste all this time for nothing. If you were working on any kind of certificate, mention it in the Education section. Of course; you’ll need to present proof if the employer asks for it, so don’t lie about owning certificates you didn’t earn.
Tip 4: Mention the Temporary Jobs
Did you have any kind of job during that gap? Maybe you were selling homemade decorations. Maybe you were earning through freelance writing. Maybe you were committed on your blog. Maybe you engaged in volunteering activities or you got an actual temporary job.
Freelance jobs, in particular, are great for filling in employment gaps. They give you actual experience, which is relatable to any industry. Keep that in mind!
Tip 5: Give an Explanation
The resume is a pretty strict format that doesn’t allow you to elaborate on the employment gaps. The cover letter, however, gives you that space. If there’s an evident gap in your job history, address it in the cover letter and explain how you grew personally and professionally during that period. If you had health issues that prevented you from working, you may mention them in positive context, as an experience that made you grow.
If you get invited for an interview, the hiring manager will ask you about the gap. Be ready to explain. Talk about online learning, reading, traveling, or whatever else you engaged in. Show how these experiences were just as important for your qualifications as an actual job in the resume.
The gaps should not scare you. They are there, so it’s best to embrace them. You can fill them in with different experiences or temporary positions. If that’s not possible, you can explain them in the cover letter or during the interview. The tips above showed you how to deal with gaps in the job history, so it’s time to start perfecting that resume before you send it out.
About the author
Warren Fowler’s lifestyle is full of hiking adventures. When he’s not busy with his guitar or enjoying the sunny day outside, he excels at blogging skills and scrolls through social media. You can meet him on Twitter and Facebook.
Disclaimer: the opinions of guest columnists are their own and not necessarily representative of theglasshammer.com’s.
5 Tips on How to Fill Employment Gaps in Your Resume
Career AdviceGuest contribution
Employment gaps are normal.
When a less an evolved employer looks at them, however, they can see them as a problem. If the gap is too big, the employer will assume there was some kind of problem. The hiring manager is not aware of the reasons for employment gaps. They will only make assumptions. To avoid negative assumptions, you want to justify or fill in those gaps.
When most people wonder how to fill employment gaps, they decide to stretch the dates of their jobs. If, for example, you left a job in May 2017 and you have a year-long gap since then, you might think it’s wise to extend that date and you write that you worked for that company until January 2018. Since the resume is not a legal document, most of you will assume you cannot suffer any consequences for doing this.
You’re wrong. There’s something called resume fraud. If this employer hires you and then finds out you lied, they will sue you for misleading them with false information in your resume. Maybe they won’t sue you, but you’ll surely get fired.
Tip 1: Write years and not actual dates
So the first tip in filling in gaps is this one: don’t lie about employment dates, but instead mention the years only.
This is not lying or misleading. If, for example, you left a job in January 2014 and started a new one in November 2014, you can make the gap look smaller if you leave out the months in the date format.
May 2012 – January 2014
November 2014 – Present
2012 – 2014
2014 – Present
Which one do you think looks better? This works only if you got another job during the same year. If not, it will make the gap look bigger. If you opt for this format, make sure to keep it consistent across the resume. You’ll also leave out the months when listing your education, certificates, and everything else that involves a date.
Tip 2: Focus on Your Qualifications
There are three main types of resume:
Chronological – it lists the job history in chronological order;
Functional – it focuses on skills and experience;
Combination – it combines the chronological and functional approach.
According to Michelle Wallas, career advisor at BestEssays, the functional resume is the best option for taking the focus off employment gaps she reminds us that if you’re trying to shift the focus off the employment dates, you still have to provide truthful information. You can do that with the functional resume format, which highlights your abilities instead of the job history. You’ll still summarize the job history, but it will be positioned at the bottom of the resume.”
This is a great solution, since it makes the employer consider your skills and competences before they wonder about your experience on actual jobs.
Tip 3: Consider Presenting the Gap as a Sabbatical Leave
The sabbatical leave is not really an employment gap. It’s an extended period off a particular job, which the employee uses to reflect on their accomplishments, focus on developing new skills, and decide what precise career path they want to follow. The typical sabbatical is one year long. Many employers allow their workers to take a sabbatical and then accept them back in their companies. If you returned to the same company after a longer break, you should definitely present that gap as a sabbatical leave. Show how you used that time for personal and professional growth.
If a sabbatical is not an option, you should think about presenting the gap as time you took with the intention to focus on your education and professional skills. Did you take any online courses and get certificates? Did you return to university to complete your degree or earn another one? Did you take any kind of training?
Hopefully, you didn’t waste all this time for nothing. If you were working on any kind of certificate, mention it in the Education section. Of course; you’ll need to present proof if the employer asks for it, so don’t lie about owning certificates you didn’t earn.
Tip 4: Mention the Temporary Jobs
Did you have any kind of job during that gap? Maybe you were selling homemade decorations. Maybe you were earning through freelance writing. Maybe you were committed on your blog. Maybe you engaged in volunteering activities or you got an actual temporary job.
Freelance jobs, in particular, are great for filling in employment gaps. They give you actual experience, which is relatable to any industry. Keep that in mind!
Tip 5: Give an Explanation
The resume is a pretty strict format that doesn’t allow you to elaborate on the employment gaps. The cover letter, however, gives you that space. If there’s an evident gap in your job history, address it in the cover letter and explain how you grew personally and professionally during that period. If you had health issues that prevented you from working, you may mention them in positive context, as an experience that made you grow.
If you get invited for an interview, the hiring manager will ask you about the gap. Be ready to explain. Talk about online learning, reading, traveling, or whatever else you engaged in. Show how these experiences were just as important for your qualifications as an actual job in the resume.
The gaps should not scare you. They are there, so it’s best to embrace them. You can fill them in with different experiences or temporary positions. If that’s not possible, you can explain them in the cover letter or during the interview. The tips above showed you how to deal with gaps in the job history, so it’s time to start perfecting that resume before you send it out.
About the author
Warren Fowler’s lifestyle is full of hiking adventures. When he’s not busy with his guitar or enjoying the sunny day outside, he excels at blogging skills and scrolls through social media. You can meet him on Twitter and Facebook.
Disclaimer: the opinions of guest columnists are their own and not necessarily representative of theglasshammer.com’s.
Voice of Experience: Ayesha K. Farooqi, Head of Debt Capital Markets, Commitments & Risk; Macquarie Capital
Voices of ExperienceWomen need to focus on building professional relationships within their companies as well as their industries as a whole, which can be a huge benefit considering how narrow most industries tend to be — and how small the world is, says Ayesha K. Farooqi of Macquarie Capital.
“It’s vital to build relationships with your colleagues, both junior and senior, and one way to accomplish that, in addition to social interaction, is by taking on as much responsibility as you can handle, being proactive but also reliable so you can earn stretch assignments that will help you grow,” she says.
Proactively Finding Opportunities to Grow Her Skills and Reputation
Farooqi began her career as a tax attorney specializing in cross-border transactions, but realized there was a lack of such work during the economic downturn caused by the dot.com bubble burst. She proactively visited her managing partner’s office and said that she wasn’t in an area where she was learning and growing as much as she would like and asked to switch to, at the time, the more dynamic bankruptcy practice. He complied, as the bankruptcy group was expanding, and this request fit a need where the firm was looking to hire an additional bankruptcy associate. She began splitting her time between her tax practice and doing litigation and transactional bankruptcy work, which quickly evolved into financing companies that were entering or exiting bankruptcy, that further segued into leveraged finance.
She worked for a number of leading law firms over several years until an opportunity to move into a new role being created at Macquarie Capital presented itself. Farooqi saw the new role that would sit within the debt capital markets business requiring a mix of legal, business and risk management acumen as a challenging yet exciting opportunity that would add further depth and breadth to her diverse background. The self-described adventurous Farooqi said “Sign me up.” It proved to be a smart move, as she just marked her fifth anniversary there and has organized a team within the debt capital markets business that is thriving and has become an integral part of the business.
“The fact that I am open to opportunities and have been able to fluidly transition from one practice area to another, allowing me to build on my expertise and gain valuable experience, has been a boon to my career,” she notes. However, she says that while she has been proactive in acquiring diverse work, she sees now that things that she felt stress over as she went along, particularly those outside her control, tended to work out over time. “I could have worked more strategically,” she says, adding that along the way she has learned that hard work alone is not enough to help you climb the corporate ladder — equal consideration has to be given to building lasting relationships.
Right now she is enjoying her work on a number of exciting transactions as she helps the business operate in a nimble fashion. “I can work at multiple levels of a transaction focusing on both the commercial and legal perspective of a deal,” she says.
“Over time, I’ve learned that the transactions that were the most complex were the ones where I learned the most and still draw upon,” she adds.
A Company That Embraces Diversity
Farooqi is proud to work for a company that maintains a focus on gender equity; in fact, while investment banking as a whole is having a relatively challenging time attracting women, the new class of analysts who just finished their summer internships in the debt capital markets group at Macquarie Capital were all women, but one. In addition, roughly one-third of the managing directors in the debt capital markets group are women, and Macquarie Group recently promoted Shemara Wikramanayake as its next CEO, hardly the typical investment banking CEO mold. Wikramanayake was recently named the fifth-most powerful woman in business outside the U.S. by Fortune International.
The company encourages gender success at multiple levels; for example, the Lean In circles that were established four years ago have evolved into a formal Women at Macquarie group. The firm-wide initiative has a budget aimed at promoting gender quality and attracting and retaining women. “I am proud to have seen the Women at Macquarie group grow so rapidly,” she says.
The company also offers a variety of work/life tools to employees, such as guidance for healthy balance regarding flexibility in the workplace, and even financial and other advisory information, such as a recent session to help employees learn the ins and outs of getting a child into a private school or some of the most competitive public schools in New York City.
She says she’s seen a positive trend of more women entering the legal and investment banking fields, which means there needs to be hyper vigilance on retaining them. “We have to build the pipeline, and mentorship is a key way to do that. Women need to build relationships from both sides: Those in the junior ranks should concentrate on doing good work and building relationships with senior folks so others on the team can vouch for you when needed; senior women should seek out promising junior women on the team and help groom them to become leaders in their chosen field.”
In her free time, Farooqi loves to travel, the more adventurous the better, including hiking the Inca Trail and Patagonia, trekking in Chile and scaling Kilimanjaro in just five days. Always looking for a new challenge, she expands her hobbies regularly, and recently has taken up golf and bird hunting.
Mover and Shaker: Jodi-ann Johnson; Director, Executive Communications and Strategic Initiatives; WEX
Movers and Shakers“I value my relationships and act with intention to make strong connections with people,” she says. “You have to be bold and brave, but also true to who you are: When you act authentically, you can build trust.”
That instinct to be bold was the catalyst for an important moment in her career, that didn’t necessarily seem so at the time. She was attending an internal leadership event, but arrived late due to travel delays. She ended up being seated at the same table as the new CEO; she figured that this was her opportunity to ask him if he would be the featured speaker at an upcoming customer meeting. The ask and event went well, cementing her reputation as someone who gets things done. “You can’t wait for things to happen; you have to ask for what you need,” Johnson advises.
A Career That Revolves Around Leading through Change
With 25 years of career success under her belt, Johnson has worn a wide variety of hats, which gives her a strong background to draw from. Over the years, she’s tackled organizational and business change and been involved with strategic planning, program management and communications – broad experience she can tap into it for whatever work adventure comes next.
Although she has lived in the corporate world for the bulk of her career, she actually started in an entrepreneurial environment, the kind of start-up company where employees knew their “number.” As the company grew, she grew with it, experiencing everything from internal marketing communication to customer-facing outreach and consulting.
The customers she visited around the country were Fortune 100-level companies who were launching work/family benefit programs, a sector that was groundbreaking at the time. The company was a pioneer in the work management and training world, and since her boss was a woman, Johnson never experienced the male-dominated hierarchy that seemed prevalent in other companies.
“The founder started the company based on an idea that became a mission and passion so that intent has always been core to my beliefs,” she says.
Even in the corporate environment, she still found herself working among strong women, and Johnson noticed that one of the women she worked for had become the president of the division without ever going to college. To her that signaled that there were no boundaries, and she found that to be true as the company grew and evolved, and she was always able to jump into new things.
After working in Minneapolis and Boston and traveling globally, she decided it was time to pivot to being “home,” which for Johnson is Portland, Maine, so she sought an opportunity at WEX—a company with a strong growth story—and has been there almost nine years in different roles in both corporate communications and program management, most notably assisting with the CEO transition. What she immediately recognized and appreciates about WEX is that there’s a spirit of entrepreneurism; it’s a place where what matters most is if you deliver, rather than your title and level. What really matters, she says, is what happens when you walk in the door.
“The best parts of my job are helping others manage through change and ambiguity, whether that’s bringing structure and clarity to multifaceted initiatives, facilitating an efficient meeting or helping our senior executives craft the right message,” Johnson says.
Her desire to play the helper role has always been prominent in her career and came to its largest light right after 9/11 when she was working with the company that provided counseling programs to those directly impacted by the tragedy. She helped develop educational materials to support employees and organizations, overseeing a constant evolution of needs in what she feels was one of the most meaningful times in her career.
Currently, she is proud of the forward-thinking planning WEX is doing as they look ahead to 2019 and maximizing the opportunities for a newly acquired company that will spur growth as they consider expanding into additional markets. “It’s exciting to be part of the process and help bring together new ideas and concepts that will help us become a richer, deeper place as we hone our focus and find alignment among a wide variety of critical initiatives for 2019.”
Finding and Sharing Strength With Colleagues and Family
Although Johnson says she has been fortunate to have been mentored by phenomenal women over the years, none stands brighter than her own mom, who supported two kids while leading a busy working life. Johnson views her mom as a pioneer in her day who paved the way as a strong role model in both career and family life.
And she knows the importance of relying on strong relationships as the cornerstone of a career, whether it’s the leaders she supports, her peers or her own team.
Johnson appreciates being part of Women at WEX, particularly when she is able to help people navigate the company and their career. “There’s this great spirit here, and we have a lot of Type A personalities, but finding a way to volunteer and give back has been really exciting,” she says.
In addition she has forged strong connections with many women outside of WEX who have been pioneers in their own career, such as one who became one of the first women partners at a financial services company. “I have learned lot about being honest, open and brave from this network of women,” she says.
Married to her high school sweetheart, they have two girls and a boy — two in high school and one in college. While it’s not easy to get together, she says they are fortunate to have a family camp two hours north on Green Lake. Aptly called “Second Wind,” it’s where they can recharge and reconnect even if they can only grab 48 hours as they did recently.
In addition, they love to travel; they have hiked throughout Utah, Maine and New England and are excited about an upcoming trip to Italy.
Women in Technology: 4 Tips to Advance in your career in tech
Career Advice, Guest ContributionGuest contributed by Avery Phillips
Interestingly, despite the noise, the number of women in computer science jobs is actually lower than it was in 1995 — by 37 percent.
Research from Ohio University shows that organizations with greater levels of gender diversity can see sales revenue up to 1325 percent higher than those with the least amount of gender diversity. Still, the stereotypical Silicon Valley crowd remains predominantly male, despite the gains being documented on several levels.
Set Yourself Up for Success
It’s still an uphill climb, unfortunately — women are granted less than 2 percent of venture capital funding, despite accounting for 38 percent of small business ownership. Networking is incredibly valuable before you take the plunge and head to Silicon Valley. Arm yourself with great people, good ideas, and a lot of perseverance.
Here are 4 tips for setting yourself up for success:
Taking Advantage of Current Opportunities
Advances in augmented reality, device connectivity, and remote monitoring are changing the way we look at education and personal health. Historically, these fields (sans technology) have been dominated by women, which makes a female tech-takeover more widely palatable although not a given.
Though it may unfairly gendered, investors perceive women as having more authority in these fields based on previous career trends, making investment in female-founded startups more likely in the health and education sector.
Classrooms are quickly becoming highly digital, requiring students to use laptops and tablets proficiently for many activities. Education requires applications designed to be understood by a variety of learning styles, applicable across subjects, and available at a cost reasonable to educational institutes. Unfortunately, the lack of a consumer market makes it less appealing to existing tech companies; there simply isn’t as much money to be made, despite the long-term benefits of a more educated population.
Healthcare is becoming increasingly digitized, with individual health data being collected and used to make treatment decisions from afar or to monitor patient adherence to treatment plans. While this presents an incredible advancement in the accessibility of care, it places patient data at high risk. The tech sector is charged with responding to the risk and protecting patient information — whatever that may look like.
Currently, solutions in both markets lack efficacy and practicality, creating huge opportunity for innovative thinkers to disrupt the industry. With women being more welcome in these sectors, it’s the perfect bridge to a Silicon Valley C-Suite.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
5 Tips For Avoiding Miscommunication in the Workplace
Career Advice, Guest ContributionBy Guest Contributor
New research into communication in the workplace has revealed that 56% of all workers have committed some kind of miscommunication in the office (defined in the study as unintentionally sending a communication to the wrong person at work).
Communication is a key aspect of your everyday working life but, clearly, there is work to be done when trying to get your point across. Follow these five tips and minimize the likelihood of a misunderstanding in your office.
1. Use the best methods available
Alongside investigating how often miscommunication occurs in the workplace, TollFreeForwarding’s recent research uncovered the mediums with which it takes places.
Email was the chief culprit, with just over a third (34%) saying they’d sent an email to the wrong person when at work. Other platforms where regular miscommunication occurs include texts or instant messages (such as Whatsapp) at 22%.
Despite it probably being your go-to method for communicating in the office (269 billion are sent worldwide every day), email isn’t actually the most efficient way of communicating at work.
This is particularly true when communicating internally, so take a look at which platforms you predominantly use and look to give new ones a try. Try collaboration tools like Skype (which had a much lower 16% miscommunication rate in the survey) or Slack, which are designed for inter-team comms. You could even go a little old-fashioned and encourage more face-to-face communication. Some companies have incorporated tech-free office hours in a bid to encourage more verbal communication.
2. Know your data restrictions
Data compliance is everyone’s responsibility in business, but the research revealed how often information is leaked by employees. Almost a quarter (23%) of the workforce said they had sent some form of confidential information to the wrong person at work. Most of this was personal information about another colleague (13%), but that still leaves 10% of workers who have admitted to miscommunicating confidential business information. This can often be down to not applying the correct level of protection for your data, or simply using the wrong platform. Again, emails aren’t terribly secure, so communicating across them with confidential information can lead to disaster. Be extra vigilant with what you’re saying, who you’re saying it to and what medium you’re using to say it.
3. Separate work and personal communication
Methods for work and personal communication are often blurred. If using instant messaging to chat with others becomes the norm at home, chances are you’ll begin to adopt it in working life.
This does come with its own complications, particularly if you’re using the same device in both instances. Almost one in five (19%) said they’d left a voicemail on a colleague’s mobile phone that it wasn’t intended for, and just over one in five (21%) said they have accidentally sent a photo or video to a colleague.Depending on the content, this can be embarrassing for both the sender and receiver of these communications.
17% of workers said they had sent insulting comments to the wrong person by accident. The majority of these instances (10%) were comments about someone who wasn’t the receiver of the communication, but the remaining 7% admitted to accidentally sending insulting comments about the person who received it.
There are vastly different communicative expectations between work life and home life. Get it wrong, and this can lead to inappropriate content being sent to a colleague at work. To avoid the potential pitfalls, look to separate work and personal communication wherever possible. As an easy starter, pick up a cheap work mobile phone and don’t use your personal email address for any work-based communications.
4. Don’t be afraid to speak up
That last point should be applied as a general rule in your communicative habits. Bad communication at work happens – it’s a skill to get it right and sometimes we fail to hit the mark. This can lead to unwarranted stress, confusion, unclear strategies and missed deadlines.Sometimes, it can be daunting to approach your boss if you didn’t understand their instruction, but it’s a key part of avoiding miscommunication in the office. If in doubt, just ask.
5. Try something new
Like an earlier suggestion, you could choose to switch up your daily communication methods and attempt to loosen your reliance on technology. Frank, face-to-face conversation is always going to be the most efficient way to discuss workplace problems and bring about solutions. So, how can you incorporate more of it into your working day?
An alternative to the tech-free hour mentioned above is the “Scrum” or “Daily Standup”. This is essentially a brief, daily team meeting that gives everyone an opportunity to mention blockages and barriers to success. Issues can be addressed early at the start of the day and you can avoid a back-and-forth email exchange that can so easily be misinterpreted or ignored.
Where miscommunication occurs in the office
Alarmingly, throughout the research conducted, men were found to miscommunicate at work with much more regularity. In every aspect of miscommunication investigated in the survey, men were found to do it more.
Earlier, we said that 56% of workers had miscommunicated in the office – but break it down by gender and the story is different. 70% of men say they have miscommunicated in the office, compared to just 49% of women. The same is true of the method of communication. For example, 43% of men have accidentally sent an email to the wrong person at work – 12 percentage points higher than women.
As for the content of the communication, the trend continues. Over a third of men have accidentally sent some confidential information (35%), almost double that of women (18%). Similarly, more than a quarter of men (26%) have sent insulting comments to the wrong person at work – the same category is just 15% for women.
In summary, women are much better at avoiding miscommunication in the office than their male counterparts – but that too comes with its own risks. To boost productivity and avoid the embarrassing pitfalls of poor office communication, we’ll need to give and take instructions from both men and women. Following the tips above, and encouraging others to do the same, could lead to a decrease in the level of miscommunication we see today.
Voice of Experience: Vilaiporn Taweelappontong | PwC Thailand
Voices of Experience“In our culture, many young women still shy away from sharing their dreams, as they do not want to be seen as aggressive. But my message is that it’s ok to speak up. It’s your career, and you are the one responsible for it,” she says.
She notes that in Asian cultures, employees are taught to look to supervisors for approval before proceeding with any tasks or making big decisions and that if you work hard enough and do a really good job, you will be noticed and considered for promotion. But while in the United States office, she realized she was missing opportunities by not speaking up, and soon decided that being more vocal and visible and sharing career aspirations and then aggressively pursuing them would lead to success. That, combined with a strong network and supportive mentors, have propelled her career.
From Consulting to Leading
Taweelappontong has spent more than 20 years in IT consulting, with the past five as a country leader. She started her career in Thailand with a different global consulting firm, with the intent to just stay for a few years before moving to the corporate environment. But after a few projects, she fell in love with the speed of the consulting business and the opportunity to meet people and learn from the best, along with working with different technologies. She had the opportunity to work in many countries, including three years in the United States, where she learned a great deal about leadership, practice building and people management.
One of the professional achievements she’s most proud of is building the Thailand practice, achieving more than 75 percent growth in the past five years and growing the team substantially.
Earlier in her career, she preferred working with technology, rather than dealing with people. “Technologies are much easier to handle, since you don’t need to address emotional people or tough characters,” says Taweelappontong.
So when offered opportunities to step up and lead, she was hesitant at first, but having good coaches and mentors supported her confidence by allowing her to make mistakes and share her worst fears in order to learn and grow. Although she has conquered that reticence and has proven to be an effective leader, technology remains her area of most interest. She is currently working on several projects where the team is assessing how emerging technologies can help improve clients’ back office operations by automating tasks that are currently done by humans and using analytics to help inform better decisions. The goal is not necessarily to reduce costs but to improve efficiency, reduce human error and redeploy employees to more interesting and strategic roles, such as customer service and analytics.
“As a business technologist, I’m always passionate about learning the new technologies, like how robotics can perform a surgery, how AI can help with screening candidates and how analytics can help predict customers’ and employees’ behavior and needs,” Taweelappontong says.
Helping Create Balance
IT consulting is a demanding job and that can lead many women to resign once they reach the manager level in order to gain more time for their families. Taweelappontong says that as exit interviews continued to show the parallel path of promotions coinciding with family, they worked with HR to introduce flexible work arrangements.
For example, one single mom who needed to come in later in the morning after school drop-off or leave early some days to help with homework, received a 60 percent work arrangement that allowed her to coordinate with colleagues to meet those needs. Another manager whose husband asked her to resign for more family time was given a three-day-a-week schedule. “These flexible work arrangement programs help retain many of our talents in the workplace, and when we expanded the program to all genders, many men also applied.”
Taweelappontong helps maintain her own balance as a serious yoga practitioner, finding that the mind-body practice releases stress and relaxes her mind. She has blocked three hours every Saturday morning to go to the studio and practice yoga, and over the years has developed a network with a group of people who enjoy full-body stretching.
“Typically people who practice yoga also have an overall healthy life style — eating well and living well,” she notes, adding that she has picked up many health tips from the class.
Voice of Experience: Emma Maconick, Partner, Shearman & Sterling
Voices of Experience“If I could, I would tell the junior version of myself to focus on relationships because they will all matter in some way,” she says. “Giving without expecting anything in return will do more to enhance your career than anything else. The act of being a helpful, useful person in your network is an incredibly valuable skill.”
Seizing Opportunities Provides A Strong Foundation
“Meandering.” That’s how Maconick describes her career, which began in England in the mid- 90s. Back then, she was doing computer and tech work for corporate entities and capital markets. And the more she heard about private equity investing in the then-new “internet,” the more interested she became in the sector.
Thanks to a contact she made at a casual party, she ended up working for an Australian law firm’s Auckland, New Zealand office, which in retrospect she believes was an excellent career move. She found herself traveling up the career ladder, becoming a big fish in a little pond with tremendous exposure to a host of smaller tech companies.
Later on, thanks to a former colleague in the San Francisco Bay Area who knew she was interested in transactional law, she came back to the United States to work at Davis Polk. She worked there for several years before moving to Shearman in June.
While Maconick has spearheaded a variety of impressive technology projects, product launches and fascinating deals over the years, she is most proud of the teams she’s built throughout her career. “My legacy isn’t as much what I personally will do, but what the people I have managed will do,” she says. “I tend to give them a lot of rope to venture out on their own, but I am also there to catch them before they fall. My job is to make them not need me, but always want me,” she says.
Her current work is focused on data, sitting at the intersection of intellectual property, cybersecurity and governance. While an Economist article had famously stated that “data is the new oil,” Maconick goes a step further. “I think it’s even more elemental; it’s the new carbon,” she says, adding that everything will be data-driven, which is why issues around artificial intelligence and ethics and how we build the upcoming digital world are so crucial.
Standing Out To Get Ahead
Maconick recommends that professional women develop an indispensable set of skills, and put their own spin on it.
She says it’s imperative to find out what’s valued in a particular organization — whether it’s culture, sales, creativity or something else — and focus on that. “Nothing magnifies your voice more than being able to generate work for your team.”
As women move up in the corporate world, Maconick believes women can take advantage of their inherent disposition for being relationship and empathy-focused. As computers take over manual tasks, interconnectedness, an area where women excel, will be a real value driver, allowing them to understand clients and their business challenges.
“These skills can shift the balance of power in your favor,” she says.
Professional women can help uplift others through tiny, incremental changes. For instance, if there is a spot open on a key project, suggest it be staffed with a woman capable of doing the job.
Shearman places a lot of importance on diversity. The firm provides skill-building sessions such as “practice your pitch,” and encourages associates to take the time to participate in conferences. It also holds monthly meetings featuring new opportunities or support with professional growth.
Finding Balance With Varied Interests
Maconick is active with the national group Ellevate, as well as Shearman’s WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention) group. She also sits on the board of Upward Women, which focuses on elevating senior-level women. “The key is to find or form your own stiletto network or book club or whatever works for you, as a way to connect with other professionals.”
Most of her time outside work is devoted to her two sons, ages three and seven. Although her schedule is limited, she also enjoys ceramic arts and pottery, which provide both a mental and creative boost.
A travel junkie, Maconick is proud of her 6 x 8 foot map covered in pins marking all the places she’s been. “My life is oriented toward the next cool trip,” she says, adding that her kids are becoming highly adept travelers as well. She continues, “I traveled a lot as a kid and love other cultures, food and languages; whether we seek them in the next state or on the other side of the world, I find it enormously enriching.”
Why Gender Equality is Good for Men – Part Three of Three
Career AdviceGuest Contibuted column by Lisa Levey
Parts one and two of Exploring Why Gender Equality is Good for Men have highlighted how the familiar trope that gender equality is a boon for women and a bust for men is just plain wrong.
Today, we spotlight how gender equality is linked to positive career, and most significantly overall life, satisfaction.
Gender equality supports men’s satisfaction in the workplace and in their lives
Men in more egalitarian couples report greater job satisfaction and less intention to leave their jobs. It follows that men who don’t feel as beholden to problematic work norms [having more flexibility and choices] and who spend more time with their children, developing stronger relationships, are better able to enjoy rather than feeling trapped by their work.
Men who feel less pressure to conform to rigid stereotypical gender roles have a stronger sense of being in a high quality relationship with their partner, and may even have more, and better, sex. A controversial 2014 New York Times article Does a More Equal Marriage Mean Less Sex?, that reported more traditional gender norms meant less sex when it came to household chores, caused a stir. The problem was the 1980’s data meant many of the couples married in the 1970’s or earlier, when changing gender norms were far less acceptable.
A Cornell professor and her colleagues analyzed 2006 data and found more egalitarian couples indicated having sex as frequently, if not more so, in addition to reporting as great or greater satisfaction, than peers in more traditional relationships.
Based on data for men across European countries and American states, a 2010 study concluded that men in more gender equal societies – compared with those in more traditional ones – had a better quality of life overall based on factors such as less violence and stronger marriages.
It’s not difficult to understand why many men feel disoriented as shifting gender norms continue to redefine what it means to be a man. The masculinity code – translated as needing to always be in control, focusing disproportionately on accomplishment, suppressing emotions of sadness and tenderness, and perhaps most challenging of all, continually needing to prove one’s manliness, day in and day out – was clear.
But that definition of masculinity, while accruing benefits for men, also does great harm. Ironically, that masculine worldview is largely responsible for the challenges plaguing men today – jobs sent overseas to maximize profits, a revised employer- employee value proposition that’s transactional in nature, an implosion of the financial markets brought on by out-sized risks, technology without safeguards, and the list goes on.
Men demonizing gender equality are sadly fighting the wrong enemy. Gender equality is about men having more choices and less pressure, more support and less isolation. Males live in a gender straight jacket with a long list of “shoulds”that define how men must behave – and not behave – to be deemed worthy.
In recent decades the world has opened up for women to new possibilities and ways of being [and yes, big challenges remain] yet men are deeply constrained by old gender scripts.
Gender equality is not the enemy of men. In fact, it just may be thing that can finally set them free.
Contributor Bio
Lisa Levey is a veteran diversity consultant, having worked with leading organizations for more than two decades to assist them in realizing the underutilized leadership potential of women. Her current work focuses on engaging men as allies and partners. She led the design and development of the Forte Foundation’s Male Ally signature resource platform for engaging men in diversity work and architected a pilot program to launch corporate male ally groups. She blogs for the Huffington Post and the Good Men Project on gender norms at work and at home. In the spring of 2018 partnering with her husband Bryan, Lisa is launching Genderworks, a coaching practice for dual-career professional parents to support them in navigating the obstacles to gender equality at work and at home. Lisa earned an MBA with highest honors from the Simmons School of Management and a BS with distinction from Cornell University in applied economics.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
Can a Notepad and Pencil Save your Sanity?
Career Advice, Guest ContributionImage via Shutterstock
Guest contributed by Sarah Dixon
You may have caught the headlines recently that being a mother is the equivalent of working two and a half jobs.
Mothers put in a whopping 98 hours of work in a week, between their actual jobs and time spent caring for children. Ms Average starts at 6:23am and carries on until 8:31pm. Although this information (gathered from a study by the US juice company, Welch’s) may grab headlines, it really only confirms to women what we already know; our plates are full.
Another survey, back in 2013, claimed that 85% of women feel over-burdened, and listed 26 jobs that women ‘have to’ do on top of their paid work. Participants revealed that they often had so much to remember that things inevitably got forgotten – 1 in 8 said they’d forgotten to pick their kids up from school!
Of course, what we need to do is to change society to make sure that women don’t take on the brunt of the caring duties (whether it’s for children or older family members) and that men truly co-parent and take on a bigger share of the parenting. But while we’re working towards a change in society, how can we save our sanity?
Go Analog
While there are any number of apps out there that claim to help you manage a busy schedule, many people are finding the key to managing the tasks in their lives by going analogue. The system that is helping people all over the world to get organized is called Bullet Journalling or BuJo for short. It was developed by Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer from New York but is now used by converts all over the world.
From the relatively simple beginnings of Carroll’s system, bullet journalling has gone on to become a catch-all term for a pen and paper system. The Bullet Journal Junkies group on Facebook has almost one hundred and fifty thousand members, who share their own take on the idea. The most commonly used features are: An index to help you find information, and a daily/weekly to-do list that is kept deliberately brief. Tasks that don’t get done are migrated to the next day/week so they don’t get forgotten. Double page ‘spreads’ of reference information or long-term goals/challenges are also common; for example weight-loss trackers.
Of course, this isn’t the only system. Pen and paper journaling has become an industry in recent years with some systems launching via Kickstarter campaigns and others using more traditional means. What do they have I common? They tend to either be in a hardback journal or a binder which means they can be carried around with you, without getting damaged. They also make it a pleasure to use; focusing on good paper, including inspirational quotes or the opportunity to personalise or colour them in.
Brain Dump
Part of the reason that being busy is stressful, is because our brains are working overtime to remember all the things we need to do. That’s why a brain-dump is so helpful when dealing with anxiety. Rather than mentally juggling a hundred different things, you can just ‘download’ them into your journal and relax, knowing that you won’t forget them.
A journal becomes a permanent brain dump. Once you get into using a system, you come to trust that you won’t forget things; everything you need to remember is there, even that appointment in six-months-time and which episode of the Gilmore Girls you need to watch next. That frees up brain-space because the only thing you need to hold onto is ‘remember to check your journal’.
Your journal can also become a useful source of reference information. The Bullet Journal Junkies facebook group is filled with stories of how someone got a job, or a promotion, because they were in a meeting and had the information they needed at hand, because they had their journal with them.
Getting Started
Although journalling addicts may spend a fortune on journals, pens and washi tape, to get started you only need the nearest notepad and a pencil. Use the system for a while, and if it works for you? Then you can invest in something that will last longer. You may become one of the people who finds their busy life is much more manageable using this system.
The important part of any journaling system is that you should want to use it. It’s no use persisting with a pre-printed journal that doesn’t have the features you need or drawing up your own every week if your time is better spent elsewhere. Experiment with different ideas and see what works best for you.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
Voice of Experience: Laura Takacs, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs
Voices of ExperienceThroughout her career she has successfully operated through many exciting times, from navigating the financial crisis from a tech perspective to building systems for a new business venture to a myriad of technical issues that can arise day to day – and she has learned through each of them that nothing is insurmountable.
“The strongest collaboration, teamwork and creative solutions have come during these tough periods, and I have emerged with unparalleled experience and an attitude to tackle anything,” she says.
Engineering a Successful Career
After earning a BCE in Computer Engineering from Villanova University and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, Takacs started her career hacking into computers, as one of the “good guys,” finding vulnerabilities in military systems.
She joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst engineer in 1999 and has spent the past 20 years working in several different areas of the firm, from developing electronic trading and risk systems to her current role as global head of Human Capital Management (HCM), Compensation Accounting and Services Engineering. Takacs notes that the mobility Goldman Sachs encourages has allowed her to have incredibly broad experiences as an engineer.
Her career trajectory has been gratifying. The adrenaline rush from earlier experiences of hacking has continued as technology has shaken up every aspect of finance. “Earlier in my career, most of the tech disruption was happening in the trading businesses, so I spent my time engineering the exciting world of Fixed Income. But now a lot of the innovation and energy has spread to other areas of the firm, including HCM and our real estate technology groups.”
In her current role, she helps determine the future state technology for the firms’ global building footprint, influences infrastructure for security surveillance and protection of the firm’s assets and people globally, and applies analytics to help drive informed decisions regarding our people.
Building the Pipeline
Takacs mentions something that is top-of-mind for most people today in education and technology: the fact that many girls opt out from a potential career in engineering at an early stage. “We have a lot of work to do to ensure that girls don’t decide engineering is not a viable path before they have even had exposure to technology,” she says. “Unfortunately, even though technology and engineering can be such an adventure, many girls don’t even have it on their radar as a career path.”
She is working hard to combat this issue and is involved in a number of initiatives inside and outside the firm.
Throughout her time at GS, Takacs has been actively involved in the Women in Engineering Network, an organization built around the mission of recruiting, developing, retaining and promoting women in Engineering, and has served as its co-head in the Americas for the past seven years. The organization also focuses on community outreach to girls through programs including teaching computer topics in schools and working with groups like Girls Who Code, all contributing to the purpose of developing the pipeline.
“It’s rewarding to give back, help influence some of these programs and work with women and girls who are equally passionate, supportive and engaged in the importance of these programs at a firm like Goldman Sachs that is highly supportive and takes concrete actions to improve diversity,” she says.
Takacs says that early in her career engineering was less supported and more scrappy. “When I started working, I had to assemble my own circuit boards. Now engineers get the benefit of open source software and cloud infrastructure. But, I still carry a Leatherman in my purse just in case I need to cobble together some electronics.”
As a mom to three kids, ages 9, 7 and 6, she knows it’s vital to have women in senior positions whom other women can look up to as role models. “As senior professionals in Finance, we work hard and sometimes that hard work trickles into personal time,” she says, “For example, this past weekend, my team and I spent hours fixing a challenging issue to ensure it was resolved for the entire firm by start of business Monday morning. This happens periodically but I’ve still managed to go to over 170 of my kids sporting events and activities last year – baseball, basketball, softball, soccer matches, tumbling, cheerleading and dance performances as well as being a classroom mom and active in the school Parent Teacher Organization. It is rewarding when my kids see how hard I work, but also that I am able to participate in their activities. It is not easy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Having women in leadership positions allows more junior colleagues to see that it is possible to balance work, family and other obligations and interests. “The number of questions I get about my career path when I speak to other female engineers underscores that this is on their mind,” she notes.
She believes in balancing her mental activities at work with physical activities, including running and participating in endurance and obstacle races. She enjoys the fast pace that comes with balancing family time and work responsibilities, so it is no surprise she is excited about an upcoming event – a gift from her husband of a trip to a speedway to race cars . “I enjoy action in whatever form it comes,” she notes.