Category Archives: Career Choices
4 Ways You Can Help Grow Female Representation in STEM Organizations
By Irene Lam, VP, Product Development, Johnson Controls, and Melissa Jean, Product Marketing Specialist, Johnson Controls Last year, women made strides in the professional world. We showed that we have a strong collective voice that can create palpable change across the nation. That momentum will no doubt continue in 2019, and will hopefully extend into previously male-dominated spaces, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Businesses in the STEM … [ more ]
Real Advice for Women Seeking Mentors and Allies
If your mentors all look like you, you have a mentor problem. Same goes if they all have similar backgrounds and work histories or if you have only one—or none. “Your mentors should be a diverse network,” says David Smith, an expert on gender workplace issues and co-author of Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women. “If they’re not, you’re missing out on key perspectives and information, and … [ more ]
Making It Work at Work Is a Family Affair
By Renee Connolly, Global Head of Communications and Corporate Responsibility, MilliporeSigma After the loud “thump” comes an even louder cry. It’s 3:15 a.m. “I’ve got this…you have an important meeting today…get yourself a couple more hours,” one parent says to the other. Sound like a scene from a TV show? Or like one taken from your life? Unsettled nights are common among young families, but for an increasing number, what’s … [ more ]
How to Stop a Bad Boss from Impeding Your Career
If you have a difficult boss, you know what it is to feel stuck. You can always quit, of course, but leaving without a new job is risky. Most people can’t take the financial or professional hit. Or maybe you are at a great company and simply don’t want to leave. The thing to remember in this situation: “Your career is a marathon and not a sprint,” says Mary Abbajay, … [ more ]
5 Mantras for Entrepreneurs Who Want to Do Good
We all know how start-ups have been disrupting business, changing how we shop, bank, dine out, meet up and get around. From sector to sector, technology is removing inefficiencies, and as a result, our lives are more convenient and improved. Yet one part of the start-up landscape that we don’t often hear about is the social enterprise space: for-profit companies that are using technology to help advance humankind.
Thinking of Joining a Non-Profit Board?
About 20 years ago, when she worked for the Seattle Mariners, Gail Hunter reached out to the YMCA of Greater Seattle about joining its board. “My family had been members forever and it was a big part of my childhood,” says Hunter, now vice president of public affairs and event management for the Golden State Warriors. “I wanted to give back.” But expanding your network, acquiring new skills or even … [ more ]
How She Got There: Alison Quirk’s Path to Becoming Executive Vice President at State Street Corporation
If you want to know what a leader sounds like, talk to Alison Quirk. Direct and articulate while also unhurried and kind, she is clearly used to telling people what to do in a way that makes them want to do it. You get the sense that her meetings were never boring or overlong. You also get the sense that there are a lot of people out there who loved … [ more ]
How She Got There: Pam Wickham’s Path to Becoming Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Communications at Raytheon
As you might guess about someone who says to use the shortened version of her name even in a published profile, Pam Wickham is as down-to-earth as people come. It’s probably no surprise, then, that she’s a native of western Massachusetts. Or that she has a pragmatic approach to life, balancing her passion for work with her desire to spend time with her family and friends. Two traits have held Wickham in good … [ more ]
How She Got There: Micho Spring’s Path to Becoming Chair of Global Corporate Practice and New England for Weber Shandwick
Take a young woman coming of age in the 60s, when many careers were closed to her gender. Mix in political awareness from having fled communist Cuba as a child and add courage and flexibility from forging a new life with her family in New York. What you get: a college dropout, a 31-year-old deputy mayor of Boston, a top executive at one of the largest communications firms in the … [ more ]
How Women Can Get Ahead in Technology
What’s really holding women back in technology? You may have read about the “pipeline problem”—girls don’t study science, technology, engineering or math in equal numbers to boys—but that’s a red herring, says Gina Helfrich, founder and organizer of Feminist Hack ATX. “The biggest obstacle, in my opinion, is poor retention numbers,” Helfrich says. “Research shows that more than half of women in technology leave the field by mid-career.”