Why Working Parents Should Be Networking More in 2013 and How to Make it Happen

on January 22, 2013

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Working mom

Photo by van city 197

Working parents, I invite you to add another resolution to your list this year: do more networking. While networking is important for everyone’s career, I’m aiming this post specifically toward working moms and dads. Why? Because it’s something we often let slip. We working parents are often so focused on being efficient at work so we can get home to little Oliver or Sophie as early as possible that networking get pushed to the back burner.

Adding a little bit more networking to your routine, however, — or simply having a networking mindset — can add a lot to your career and personal happiness this year.    Read More →

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Who Says Moms Can’t Launch Successful Startups?

on June 14, 2012

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Last Saturday the New York Times’ business section ran an article (“Nurturing a Baby and a Start-Up Business“) about women with small children who launch high-growth tech companies. It profiled several women launching and running highly successful start-ups while they are pregnant or have very young kids and how their success is “dispelling the image of the tech entrepreneur as a single, usually male, wunderkind.”

The article goes on to say that the investing world remains skeptical about a woman’s ability to launch a tech startup and make it work while also raising young kids. Apparently some — but not all — venture capital firms are concerned that women with small children won’t put in the long hours and give the 150% required to make a fast-growth tech company work in the first few crazy years.    Read More →

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Just Back from Maternity Leave? Get a Mentor Mom!

on June 4, 2012

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As you may have heard, the Big 4 accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has a program that matches experienced working moms with moms-to-be about to go out on maternity leave.

What an excellent program! It gives new moms an experienced “mentor mom” to talk to about all of the issues they are concerned about while on maternity leave and in those first few super-hard months back on the job. Issues like how to function on very little sleep, how to handle the separation from your little one, and the practicalities of pumping on the job. Love it!    Read More →

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Meet the Mentors: Laura Lubman Hamburg, Communications Pro

on May 3, 2012

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When both her kids were in their teens, Laura Lubman Hamburg left a major job working in communications at IBM. She’s now the head of her own communications agency, with an eye toward later working full-time in a new career. Here’s a taste of what she’ll have to say about re-entering the workforce and similar hot topics as part of next week’s Hired Guns panel for working mothers .

Do you have any advice for working women who are about to be moms? What should they be doing NOW if they plan on going back to work later?
People will ask if you plan on coming back immediately. Say yes, even if you aren’t sure. You may decide to stay home for a while. You may go back right away. Don’t play your hand. You want to have the option, not them.

Before you take maternity leave, transfer all email contacts to your home computer. Be sure to put them in a “@company.com” format, not in the internal-address format. Bulk up your Linkedin profile with recommendations, if you can do so without being obvious. Follow your industry news, and if you see something, send a few key emails mentioning it.    Read More →

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Meet the Mentors: Jacqui Stafford, Fashion and Style Maven

on May 3, 2012

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Next up in our series of interviews with the accomplished women who will be sharing their expert advice and ideas in next Tuesday’s mentorship panel for working mothers is Jacqui Stafford. You may recognize Jacqui from one of her many appearances on TV, or have read the style and beauty advice she’s given in the pages of Vogue, Town & Country, Cosmopolitan, and many other magazines. She’s also the mother of a four-year-old adopted daughter.

Do you have any style or fashion advice for working women who are about to be moms?
Look for uncomplicated, fuss-free separates that don’t require much thought in the morning. Go for coordinating colors that make getting dressed really easy. Punch up your “wow!” factor with statement necklaces, scarves, and a great bag rather than over-trendy clothes.    Read More →

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Meet the Mentors: Kelly Day, CEO of the Blip Video Network

on May 2, 2012

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Next Tuesday, May 8, The Hired Guns will be hosting How Does She Do It? — a panel and discussion that we believe working moms at all stages of their career will find inspiring and fun as well as incredibly useful. We’re interviewing each of the panelists to find out where they’re coming from. Today we chatted a bit with Kelly Day, who has two daughters and whose husband is the primary caregiver. Recently appointed CEO of the web network Blip, Kelly has a career that comes with a hefty amount of travel….

How do you deal with all the business travel you do? How do you make it all work?
I’ve always traveled a lot, so my family is fairly used to it. I work hard to try to condense my trips as much as possible. I (almost) always try to make sure I’m home for the important things — school plays, recitals, etc. And I try to be as engaged with my kids as possible on the weekends, when I am home. I’m also a planner. I make sure that on Sundays everything is ready to go for the week — lunches planned, homework checked, appointments on the calendar, etc., to avoid as much chaos as possible while I’m on the road.    Read More →

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Meet the Mentors: Meeta Kapadia, Digital Ops Specialist

on April 27, 2012

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The first in our series of mentorship panels will be on Tuesday, May 8. Titled How Does She Do It?, it’s for working moms at all stages of their careers. As the date approaches, we wanted to find out a little more about the many ways in which the panelists approach working outside the home while also being caregivers. Today we spoke with Meeta Kapadia, whose career has taken her from a high-ranking corporate job at a large bank to being the head of digital operations at a startup. During the panel, we suspect she’ll have a lot to say about how different styles of work end up affecting life at home as well as at the office.

Do you have any advice for working women who are about to be moms? What should they be doing NOW if they plan on going back to work later?
Talk to as many women who have done it as possible. This really helped me with figuring out what conversations to have with my manager (and which ones not to have). Get to know your company’s leave policies very well, and talk to someone in HR if you’re unclear on anything. Talk through a plan for reconnecting with your manager prior to coming back so that you know what to expect. Try not to commit to working remotely (i.e. just a conference call here and there, etc.) during your leave before you actually have your baby and know if that’s going to be possible. And it’s important to try to appreciate the time you have with your new baby before you go back to work, whether that’s six weeks or six months. It’ll be over before you know it.    Read More →

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Meet the Mentors: Jan Brown, Our Working-Mom Coach

on April 25, 2012

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The first in our series of mentorship panels will be on Tuesday, May 8. Titled How Does She Do It?, it’s for working moms at all stages of their careers. As the date approaches, we wanted to find out a little more about the diverse ways in which the panelists approach working outside the home while also being caregivers. First up: Jan Brown, a life coach who focuses on helping moms grow, develop, and maintain their careers.

Are any careers better than others for working moms, in your experience? I would say that it’s not about the career, field, or company per se. It’s about the amount of control you have over your schedule. A higher degree of control over one’s schedule makes it easier for a working mom. That can be sought and found in lots of careers and fields.    Read More →

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Just Keep Swimming: Survival Tips for the Really Rough Patches—from a Working Mom

on March 28, 2012

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Have you ever had one of those days? When the carefully crafted “balance” between work and home just comes crashing down on you like a house of cards?

Maybe it’s your babysitter getting sick while your husband is on a business trip (true story – mine), or the call from the day-care center to say your child has a fever in the middle of an all-day client meeting you’re leading (true story -– my sister’s), or your kitchen ceiling caving in from a burst pipe just as the babysitter shows up so you can get to an interview (true story –- my friend’s).    Read More →

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The Five Best Things About Being a Working Mom

on January 17, 2012

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Jan Brown recently left corporate life to work as a life and career coach. She blogs for The Hired Guns about ways that working moms can achieve balance in their life, and also about methods that stay-at-home moms can use the reenter the workplace effectively. Before heading out on her own, Jan advised Fortune 500 companies on philanthropy.

If you are a working mom like me, you already know what’s hard about it. And pretty much every portrayal of a working mom on TV and in movies and magazines depicts the stressed-out, crazy nature of it.

I’m not saying it ain’t so. But just as there are so many things I love about being a parent, there are also many things I like — sometimes even love — about working outside the home. To kick off the New Year, I want to spend some time celebrating a few of my favorite things about working.    Read More →

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Working Moms — How Do You Handle the Guilt?

on December 5, 2011

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We’d like to welcome to the blog Jan Brown, a life and career coach who will be blogging for us about working mothers and the unique challenges they sometimes face. As she does in her workshops and coaching sessions, she’ll cover ways that working moms can make their lives more fulfilling and a lot less stressful; she’ll also be providing guidance for stay-at-home moms who are thinking about going back to working outside the home. Before heading out on her own, Jan served as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, advising them on their philanthropic giving.

How do you handle the occasional twinge of guilt?I have a lot to say about guilt this week — recently, my six-year-old daughter declared that she “wished there were no babysitters. Only mommies and daddies to take care of their kids.” This was after I explained that she was about to start swimming lessons (yay!) and that her after-school babysitter would be taking her instead of me (boo!).

I am no stranger to guilt. There was a period from when my daughter was 1 ½ to 2 ½ when I swear every single morning when I left for work, she would literally cling to me — my leg, torso, bag, whatever she could reach — and sob “Mommy don’t go!!!! Staaaayy with me.” Our nanny would have to physically remove her from me. I would then cheerfully say goodbye and head to the subway platform to cry. Every. Single. Morning. It was rough. So what to do about guilt?    Read More →

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