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Over the past year I have met a number of moms, including many Work It, Mom! members, bloggers, and contributors, who have two jobs. Many of them do it out of necessity — they can’t provide enough income for their family from just their day job so they take on another. This appears to be a common trend: According to one recent survey 50% of moms said that if they had more time they would take on another job. While I work a lot and often late into the night my hat is off to these moms — I think your stamina and energy are amazing!
But I also know several moms who work on their second job at night, after the kids are asleep, because they are passionate about it. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been going to a lot of meetings recently, more than usual. Most of them I really enjoy and while too many meetings in one day means staying up too late to get work done, I am realizing just how much I enjoy human interaction as part of my job.
This is going to sound like narcissistic bragging — which I don’t mean it to be — but I do really well in first meetings and interviews. It’s always come easily to me and while I’d like to take some credit, I attribute most of this innate skill to my dad, from whom I got my communication skills, my ability to read people quickly and relate to them, and you know, have presence or whatever you want to call it. (On the flip-side, I’ve never figured out who to have a great phone meeting, which probably has something to do with my phone phobia.)
So for whatever my personal experience of dozens of interviews and hundreds of important meetings is worth, here are my 3 easy tips to help you ace your interview or shine in a meeting: Read the rest of this entry »
… and I hate that I wonder if she is right.
Today was a big day for me and my parents. 19 years ago on May 21st we got on a plane from Russia to Austria — it was the day we left our country and began the process of immigration to the US. Every year we celebrate this day in some way and this year was super cool (don’t I sound like I am 12?) because we actually live close by and could celebrate together.
We went out to lunch and as soon as I walked in my mom asked me if I got any sleep last night. I actually thought I looked pretty good (thank you, MAC concealer!), but mom knows best. I havent’ gotten that much sleep all week and I made the mistake of telling her about it. Which led to a conversation we’ve been having a lot lately, in which my mom tells me that I am nuts for disregarding the fact that I am a woman and trying to live my life as a man and a woman at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »
I had lunch with a friend recently whose husband has been offered an amazing job… abroad. They have both worked abroad before and loved it, but this was before they had two kids. My friend had a super successful career in business before she took a bit of time off to be a mom, but has spent the last few years starting up a business of her own. It was just starting to pick up steam when this awesome job offer for her husband came through.
The decision to uproot your family and move a thousand miles away is never easy when you have kids (hey, we moved from New York to Boston and a year later, I am still recovering.) So much goes into consideration — living arrangements, schools, activities, work, etc. But when moving involves one spouse taking a dream job and another potentially slowing down her own career or business, it’s much more complicated. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most common and I think, quite good, pieces of advice I’ve heard about being a working mom is to look at my life in terms of phases or chapters. We all know that it’s almost impossible to “balance” work, family, and personal time/interests at the same time — there just isn’t enough time in each day and not enough mental and physical energy to give each the same level of attention. But if we look at life as a series of chapters — with some more focused on career, some more focused on kids and family, some on ourselves — perhaps the trade-offs we make all the time can be a bit less conflicting.
Like I said, I like this advice. Many times when I feel guilty about not spending enough time with my daughter because of work, I use it to make myself feel less horrible. “This phase of my life is work-heavy,” I think, “but it won’t be like this forever.”
But I’ll be honest with you — I only half buy this argument. Read the rest of this entry »
I know this is a completely theoretical question for 99.9% of us, but I like to think about it anyway.
I spent the last 10 years of my career, before launching Work It, Mom!, doing work that was interesting, stimulating, often exciting, but work that I was not passionate about. Due to a lot of factors, not the least of which is being an immigrant to this country, I’ve always known that I needed to support myself and in addition, be able to help my parents (and my grandparents), if possible. This meant that I chose my career path with money very much in mind.
Almost every working mom I know who works full-time has told me that she would love to do her job but on a part-time basis. And according to a survey that came out last year, nearly 80% of women want to work part-time. Part-time work seems to be an ideal, most coveted arrangement for working moms — one that would allow us enough time to pursue our career ambitions and spend time with our kids and families.
But according to new Australian study (thanks Elizabeth for this heads up!) the reality of part-time work is far from what we might idealize it to be. Read the rest of this entry »
I know, you’re thinking “OK, Nataly, why don’t you tell us how you really feel about networking?”
But in all seriousness, I feel that networking is a task that we — and yes, by this huge generalization, I mean we = women — overlook most often and don’t do enough of in our careers, businesses, and life in general. I know this from my personal experiences and from those of my female colleagues and friends. I am sure there are plenty of reasons for it, but this post isn’t about that. It is about what I’ve learned about networking and my desire to encourage you to make it a regular part of our routine, whatever your career or business might be. Believe me when I say it’s really good for you.
My 5 golden rules of networking:
Rule #1: If you want to succeed in your business, your career, or your life, you MUST network.
My first job out of college was for a huge consulting firm famous for the way it invested in training its business analysts. They put us through tons of training — financial analysis, client management, presentation skills, and much more — but we were never taught about networking. My next job was in strategy for a small company, where I had a great boss who taught me about business, running companies, and sales and marketing — but I don’t remember him saying anything about networking. When I took a job in venture capital my boss told me that to find new deals I had to network, but that was it. In my 10+ year career, no-one ever taught me about networking but I so much wish someone had.
I learned the importance of networking only when I decided to start my own company (Work It, Mom!, of course). My partner, Victoria, and I were introduced by someone I worked with and after a year of business lunches we decided to start a company together. When it came time to find our great team of bloggers, I started reaching out to several whose personal blogs I liked and always asked if there were others they’d recommend. I have a great group of extremely sharp and experienced people to whom I go for advice about growing my own company and I’ve met them all through networking. Networking means connecting with people, creating relationships, and expanding the circle of people to whom you can go for advice, support, career direction, job leads, and answers to specific questions. I don’t know a single person successful person who doesn’t make networking part of their daily life.
Rule #2: The best time to network is when you don’t need anything. Read the rest of this entry »
A friend of mine recently got a pathetically low raise at work after having a spectacular year there. Sure, the economy is in bad shape, but her company did great and she contributed to the performance. She’s been there a few years and she knows for a fact that two of her colleagues — both men — received higher raises for similar performance. When she told me, I immediately said that she has to talk to her boss and negotiate for a better package. “Be confident in your work and your abilities, and go in there knowing that what you’re asking for is right,” I said, in my most convincing voice.
I stand behind my advice, but I’d be lying if I pretended that I’ve always followed it in my career. In truth, when I read articles about things women do at work that make it more difficult for them to earn more money or attain leadership roles, I nod not only because I’ve seen this type of behavior but also because I’ve been guilty of it. And I thought this would be as good a time as any to come clean about (at least) three stereotypes about women at work that I helped prove right: Read the rest of this entry »
I was going through our files the other day, exercising my anti-clutter gene, and came across a document I’d put together during one of my internships in college (yes, a long, long time ago). I was interning with a biotech company but my job was one of the most boring I remember — a lot less about biotech and a lot more about filing, as internships often go. I guess I got so bored that I started creating projects for myself and this was one of them — a little 10-page pamphlet that I called How to Make The Most Out of an Internship. It was pretty funny to read it — I had some silly ideas — but it made me think of boring jobs and what we can all do to get something out of them anyway. I have been lucky and I’ve not had a boring job in a long while, but I’ve definitely had my share.
So here are my ideas — I hope you’ll add yours in the comments — about how to make the most of a boring job:
Learn something that has nothing to do with your job.
Unless you’re unlucky enough to have a job that boring AND intense, you probably have some extra time on your hands. Use that time to learn something — either related to your industry, your company, a different job function in your company, or something completely unrelated to your work. I’ve found that spending time to learn new things, that don’t have to do with my job, is one of the things I’ve had to cut down on since my daughter was born. If I had a boring job right now, I’d be learning about graphic design, art history, or wine.
Become a master networker. Read the rest of this entry »