Strike A Pose - Boston, MA

Art: Zenos Frudakis

One of our best units during the ReacHIRE training course was in public speaking. Yes, it was also one of the most painful. According to popular lore, people rank public speaking fear as a close second to fear of death. I used to feel this way but I have to say that Toastmasters in the early 1990s and a whole lot of no-choice-but-to-get-up-there in my corporate career makes me rank this fear as somewhere after losing my children, after being overcome by a large wave, and slightly before spiders. I don't lose sleep over it anymore. 

Which isn't to say that I am a good public speaker.  Nerves get anyone, I suppose, and I get hives probably noticeable from space, and yes, I generally forget about 20% of what I was going to say but as far as I know I have yet to make people fall asleep. Perhaps they are fascinated that anyone can talk so fast and turn so red that they forget to yawn. Whatever it is, I do not love public speaking but I think I do okay. 

In preparation for our public speaking session, we all watched a TED Talk by Amy Cuddy. She is amazing--fought back from a life-threatening car accident, tamed an inner critic that fiercely protested against her going to college, and tells us all to believe in ourselves. That is a terrible summary of a very fine talk. 

One of the fun parts of her talk is the Power Pose. There are certain poses that show we are in charge--arms lifted in victory, leaning powerfully forward over a desk, etc--and we all need to practice them before taking on new challenges--in our case, public speaking. You can see one sculpture demonstrating this pose at the top of this blog post. 

Image credit: thesun.co.uk

The bottom line is that you need to go troop into the bathroom before your talk, get into a stall or in front of the mirror and visualize crossing the finish line--victory!! And all your little bitty brain pieces (I am good at science) will buy into this. 

Or, to paraphrase from her biography: "Amy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can change other people’s perceptions — and even our own body chemistry — simply by changing body positions." Yes, our body chemistry. Sounds better than bitty brain pieces. 

This is fascinating stuff. Take time to watch the Ted talk here: 

So we all watched this presentation before class, and then arrived at our host company to meet Charlotte, our  public speaking trainer. And she built on this confidence and gave us tools to make our presentations better now that our body chemistry had changed. One of the tools for this is what she called the Starting Five (as opposed to the Big Five which all live in Africa and you had better be scared of them. Meeting them would change your body chemistry in a different way--as in maybe RUN!). The starting five are:

1. Posture
2. Connection
3. Gestures
4. Voice
5. Pace

And I think you know what goes along with each of these five points, at least intuitively. Posture is all about owning your body, standing straight and tall and not crossing your legs and hunching inwards like you're about to get tackled by my insane dog. Might be good to practice that though if you come to visit. 

Connection is also a challenge. Trying to connect with each person in your audience is tough. Usually I find one or two friendly audience members (let's be frank, all the ReacHIRE women are friendly) and stay mostly with them. But in our training exercise, we had to maintain eye contact with each of the four watching for five seconds. Five seconds is a really long time. Yes, Usain Bolt can run between Boston and New York in that time but you try talking about something staring into someone's eyes for five seconds. Someone you don't know very well. Someone you don't want to creep out.

Gestures. First of all, no arm flapping. I love this admonishment--it's like we're all try to fly our way out of there. No hands in pockets, no arms crossed. It's tough. I can now understand why all our presidential candidates use the same gestures all the time. I want to use different gestures towards some of these self-same candidates, but that is not the point here. Nor polite, really. You want gestures that go along with what you're saying and without looking like a crane. The birdy kind.

Voice. If they can't hear you, well, what's the point really? And you don't want to end every sentence with a question mark? Because that is annoying? And what teenagers do? Get me? 

Pace. Ah, here it is. My waterloo. I tend to zoomy zoom through the beginning of presentation because I'm still getting the butterflies out, right? Those question marks at the end of sentences are addictive right?  So yes. I did finish my 5 minute presentation in 3 minutes and 50 seconds. And I wonder where my child gets his impatience. From me.

We also talked about the pyramid principle. This is where you get to the point first, support with three arguments, then share your call to action. I like this principle as it is similar to one I learned in consulting engagements--always with the three arguments. In consulting you use three bullet points. In this case, Charlotte hates bullet points. How can you hate bullet point? Bullet points are your friends. This is not an advert for the NRA. 

So our presentations. Two days ago was our final class including five-minute presentations by each of us. We could choose our topic as long as it included some data research. I chose to speak about Setting Up for Success--what to expect in a meeting in Brazil. Everyone pretended to be new sales guys on their way to Brazil to sell medical devices. 

I think it went fine. I made mistakes. I forgot to say stuff. I had chosen to go first (I always choose to go first if allowed) and had forgotten that the hand-up signal from one person meant 2 1/2 minutes left, not one minute, so I roared to an end at 3 minutes and 50 seconds. We spent the last minute staring at each other and power posing. Just kidding. Pace needs help, but it was fine. Friendly audience, topic that I love. 

All ten of us presented--topics ranging from social media to computer languages to small talk to boxing. All of them were good. Great. Excellent. And none of us were totally happy with how they turned out, but as most of us said "at least they're done" or when asked what went well, the answer came "well, at least I didn't faint!"  

I am so proud of my group from ReacHIRE and I am glad they've got my back as we all go out into the great big world. We plan to meet up every month--maybe we should start the meeting with a power pose. And a behavioral interview question. And end it with a tootsie roll pop. Why not? Make your own rules.

Fit and Flare - Boston, MA

What not to wear to an interview--see below. Image credit: www.fashiontranslated.com

Last Friday, my cohort at ReacHIRE visited with a personal shopper at a large department store in downtown Boston. I admit it is my favorite department store so please bear that in mind in terms of any bias. I am not, however, a shopper. I am a firm believer in LL Bean, hand-me-down sweaters and the consignment shop. Yes, for me as well as the kids. So, that's what Alexa (name changed for privacy) the personal shopper had to work with.

We squished ten of us into a tiny office behind the HeeBGB (wait that can't be right) Max Mara section and from there Alexa pulled out various pieces to show us what works and what doesn't work in terms of interview clothes vs daily clothes in business casual or business formal environments. She had been informed that we were currently jobless so clearly she could imagine our clothing budgets (I texted my husband during the presentation about what my budget was for the day. He didn't answer. I assumed that meant "use your own judgement"). 

Answering questions: Alexa

Now some of the rules of the fashion game were perfectly known to me. Bare legs are a "no" for an interview. Folks, I cannot understand the women here in Boston who go bare-legged in 45 degrees. It's true! I've seen it! Brrrrrrrrrr! I am as likely to be wearing long grundies under my Calvins (something DOES come between me and my Calvins, if any of you are old enough to get the allusion).

As if we needed this review, Alexa let us know that suntan-hued stockings are a faux pas. Haven't they been out since say, 1984? I have never ever ever had a tan that dark on any part of my body. My "suntan" hue would be pink-to-lobster.  Anyway, bare legs no. Suntan, no. Check, check.

I think Amanda was intimidated by us for the first hour. She was pretty serious. I was cracking bad jokes about tucking stuff in (shirts, people, what did you think I was talking about?) and she was not cracking a smile. But then I asked about shoes that show the tops of your toes...and she immediately said "toe cleavage and stockings? Why don't you just stab me?" She was in the swing of things after that. 

We then reviewed that there are comfortable shoes and then there are shoes made by men. Yes, Mr. Laboutin, I am talking about you. My toes hurt just thinking about you. Anne Klein, you're the woman for me. Wait, Enzo Angiolini used to...what happened to him? Killed by a stiletto?

I must have tuned out for a second because the next thing I heard was "you don't want your peplum longer than your jacket." What is a peplum? Have I even spelled that right? Oh it's greek for tunic. I missed the tunic discussion sorry. But no tucking in the handkerchief point from your swingy new top. No. It's a whole new world out there for me, folks. 

So rose quartz is the pantone color of the year so expect a lot of blush and bashful theming (does anyone get the Steel Magnolias reference? No?) Okay, I hate rose quartz so it won't be on me. Also fit and flare dresses are in. Fit through the waist and then flaring. I love this term. Fit and Flare. Must try to use as much as possible. I think it used to be "A-line" but that is so boring.

We then saw a lot of really nice stuff. St. Johns seems to be the middle-aged corporate lady uniform, but I haven't got $395 to spend on a trouser. One jacket ($1650) Alexa termed as an "investment piece." I dunno, I think I would rather invest in say, Facebook stock. Or Slack. Whatever. 

One of our crew asked about scarves and best ways to tie them. And Alexa did a great job of demonstrating some perfect swooshes and whatever. She mentioned that "turning your head is probably required for your job, so don't do a huge bow on the side." Hadn't occurred to me, but I was starting to get her dry sense of humor. 

Demonstrating how to tie a scarf (model blurred for privacy!)

I also learned a new word which I will have a challenge to spell. Alexa matched a shiny pretty jacket with a red dress, saying that this would give you a bit more "jhujghzzz". No, "zhuzsh" I have no clue. But I plan to use the term frequently. Like fit and flare. 

After an hour and a half we were released out into the store for our own fun. There was a big promotion going on, and I have to admit I did take advantage of it. Not one, but two fit & flare dresses from my buddy at Ralph Lauren. Men can't make comfy shoes but they can fit & flare. 

And now we are dressed for success.Or most of us are: of course we had to have ONE problem child ;)

What Not to Wear

The Secret is Eggs

Image credit: www.frugal-cafe.com

Yesterday we had our last class with ReacHIRE. Technically we still have "Dress for Success" at Lord & Taylor on Friday, and final presentations and graduation on Tuesday, but the program is essentially done. Next week I'll sum up my takeaways on the program as well as any heretofore unspoken catty comments about its participants. I am just kidding, folks!! Give this mother-of-twins re-entering the workforce a break!! Okay, the twins are not re-entering-- nine-year old boys have a truly terrible work ethic.  Today one completed a homework assignment with "Na Na". When I asked, he said "it's tuna, get it?" What this had to do with math, I cannot say. Oh, two. Hunh.

Anyway, yesterday. Yesterday we spent quite some time with LinkedIn. The class was billed as social media but it was heavily concentrated on LinkedIn. I had been hoping to learn how to tweet all my incredibly earth-shattering comments on snapchat or instagram (okay, I get that tweeting goes with the bird) but no. Instead, I learned to stalk my old corporate buddies. No, stalk is the wrong word. There is no single word--it was a walk down memory lane as I looked through the pages of some of my former colleagues and what they are doing today. 

We covered many valuable insights about networking and posting and being involved. I won't be a walking ad campaign for Linked In but I will say that it has gotten much more powerful since I left the workforce nine years ago. Also more expensive. Yeah, everything is. I enjoyed the class and wrote down a to-do list about forty items long,  Then it was time for Nuts & Bolts--a summary of what was next for us as we continued on the ReacHIRE path.

What's next is a project assignment. ReacHIRE works with its hiring partners to find us short-term projects that may or may not turn into full-time or permanent roles. It's the part of the dance where we line up on one wall and the dance partners on the other, hoping to find the partner who is neither too short nor too tall, and won't step on your feet. I cannot spill what is ReacHIRE's "special sauce", as they put it, but I definitely feel like there is quite a team working with me as I step onto that dance floor. Bring on the Dancing Queen!

This morning I went for a walk in the conservation woods as I do every day with my dog Coal. For the first time, one of my neighbors decided to join me on the three-mile loop. She is a working mom who I see mostly at the bus stop with her third grade and first grade kids. We chatted about all kinds of things, including town meetings (do NOT get me started), historic homes (hers) and many other topics. Then we started talking about how I was going back to work.

I was just telling my neighbor about how I was interviewing a new babysitter today and I was excited and nervous about re-entering the workforce and making the rest of my life work. Such as helping kids with homework Na Nas, commuting to wherever, and still making dinner that is edible. And she looked at me and said "you can do it. We can all do it. The secret is eggs." I laughed and said "what???" (oh, all right I admit that I questioned her sanity for just one second...just one...)

And she explained that eggs were the root of successful women everywhere. Eggs. Why? Eggs can be dinner. If you're working late and can't think of what's for dinner, there are so many ways to make eggs. Eggs with broccoli. Egg sandwich. Omelettes, frittatas, whatever. It's protein and your kids will eat them. Well, mine eat them. Mine eat everything. 

Okay, don't expect this, kids! image credit: www.fitnessrepublic.com

And I admit that I got home from the walk and thought "whhhaaaaaaat? All these years there has been a secret to making career and family work and no one told me?"  Eggs. Hunh.

Behavioral Interviewing vs. Sticking a Fork in Your Eye - Marlborough, MA

Photo credit: revision3.com

Today's ReacHIRE class was about "Surviving the Behavioral Interview."  I think we could re-title it "Which would you rather? Stick a fork in your eye or get asked about a time you failed?" Well, okay, that's a little long.  But before I get into that, I must first tell you about our host company's awesomeness. Without telling you the awesome company's name. 

We were hosted out in Marlborough by a large medical company. A locally-grown company that has recently moved headquarters into farm country. At least I think of Marlborough (when I don't think of smoking cowboys) as farm country--my gorgeous 35-minute drive from home was past colonial homes, Christmas tree farms, and Assabet Wildlife Refuge. A small-road commute. Love. If I have to commute by car, gimme a single lane road with an absence of deer and snow (yeah, I know, it's December and it kind of feels like for whom the bell tolls...). 

So Awesome Host Company (AHC for short) set us up in a nice space called the Collaboratory (catchy, no?). On our way to the Collaboratory, we walked like hamsters in a habitrail (do they still sell these things?) from one building to another through glass windowed above-ground tunnels. And I saw the first glimpse that I would love this company--signs for Service Animals down certain corridors. Perhaps the nightmare I had last week about being late to this day (I wasn't) and with my dog mysteriously in my car was AHC-sent? Next time I have this nightmare I will admonish myself that perhaps Coal will be invited to stay. Probably not as he has a habit of eating everything off the tops of tables.

Anyway, after snagging a coffee and some fruit (note that this medical company had healthy breakfast and healthy lunch for us--I was hoping for scones and fries, but no luck), we sat down. First we heard about the businesses of AHC--and let me tell you only that they do some very cool research and have massively important products --- and why the company thinks the ReacHIRE program is great. I love to hear that companies think it is great because I do too.

Then we were briefed by our ReacHIRE human resources associate on what exactly is a behavioral interview. In a nutshell it's a process that uses past behavior as a predictor of future performance. My 9-year old twins had better hope that they do not meet this interview to get into private school (if they do go someday) because it's going to get ugly on the past behavior. And good luck to all you real criminals out there.

Behavioral interviewing uses open-ended questions that are  not easy to answer off-cuff. Here are three of the ones (8 pages of them!) that we were provided prior to our class today:

1. What situation has motivated you to put in extra effort?
2. Tell me a time when you took a stand on something? What resistance did you encounter and how did you overcome this? (by the way, this particular question was asked by the mock interviewer--and I was prepared, yay me!)
3. Give me some examples of when you've shown initiative at work.

And on and on. These are tough questions, especially for some of us who have been away from paying jobs for a while. Sure I could use examples from my volunteering with Wellesley and college application mentoring but it's important to also have "real-life" (as if volunteering is not real) examples. Actually number 2 would be awesome to answer as a mom: like when I took a stand on no screens before 5 pm, and I can tell you how successfully I did with my minecraft-obsessed mini-men. Or not.

To prepare for the interview, I trotted out my career story last night and thought about it. I like my career story. I don't really know if anyone else does, but I do. I loved my alma mater, my taking a chance on San Francisco, working at Visa, going for my MBA at Kellogg, moving to Brazil, etc. It makes me proud. But then I have to communicate it, right? 

One of the most important learnings for me on answering interview questions is the methodology of Circumstance Action Result. In each response, I needed to include circumstance (context or real life-situation), then actions I took to resolve it and then what was the result, hopefully quantifiable. It is a helpful framework in answering any question anywhere. 

After a few minutes of practice with our cohort, we broke up into groups of two cohort members and two AHC managers--one was a hiring manager, and one was a talent acquisition person. These were mock interviews--not one of us was trying for a job at AHC (yet...). It was completely amazing to have these corporate managers take at least two hours out of their days to meet with us, interview us, and then give us feedback on our answers. 

It helped to have a ReacHIRE colleague in the interview process--I went second so I could hear how she answered certain questions and answer them in my mind. We have much different work histories but similar interests, and the manager who interviewed us was in our field (marketing). The interviewing manager was helpful about telling us how to make some answers better, how to really build the stories and which buzz words are current in his industry. He almost caught me off-balance when he asked me if I had any questions for him about working with AHC (pretending it was a real interview) but I had some up my sleeve. Good fun.

I no longer want to stick a fork in my eye rather than interview. I have a lot of work to do, of course, especially in remembering the results of long-ago projects. As in last week's. Does anyone remember Thanksgiving? Try a C-A-R on that. 

Now, in the comment box below, please tell me how you would answer this one: "Did you achieve your objectives for last year? How do you know?"   Go.

One With The Table - Cambridge, MA

An example of a spreadsheet program...not necessarily our host...

Yesterday we spent some time with the products of a very large and very Seattle-based company. I am not going to name it no matter what, but considering most of us use its products every day, it is going to be fairly obvious to you all.  

Our cohort was invited to use their space in Kendall Square (lovingly referred to as NERD - the New England Research and Development center--ummm, oops?), and what a wonderful space it was! Big, airy, open, and filled with computers for our use.  Also enough stalls for the girls in the women's bathroom--I am keeping a separate file of best cohort hosts and yes, bathroom stalls do play into the equation. Chalk one up for NERD.

After a great introduction and life history from a general manager at said company, we were ready to hit the computers. Not literally, as that is frowned upon. Also, that is usually done by my kids. With a football. Which reminds me that I am from the generation when if our TV was not working, my brother and I would wallop it on the side and suddenly the static was gone.  I kind of miss that wallop--if the TV is not working now, I just have to wait for FiOS to figure itself out. 

Anyway, our class was on home computing and business computer products (it is soooooo hard not to name this company) was led by a hilarious and contracted non-host-company-employee. She taught us some tricks on the spreadsheet product (errgh) and what "contextual ribbons" are. After about a half hour and some silence as we figured out these ribbons, she looks up and comments "Is anyone learning anything?" in such a desperate way, I had to laugh. 

And we were learning. My favorite learning: you must "Be One With the Table." As in, before you started changing any calculations or charts, you had to make sure you had selected a cell within the spreadsheet's table. We ran into problems consistently not following the "one with the table" admonition and she would repeat the mantra. She cracked a number of jokes and when we did not immediately respond, she told us that "These are funny jokes, people." And they were. I loved her. Most fun learning spreadsheets ever. 

Then we moved on to the company's integrated messaging, presentation, spreadsheet and who knows, perhaps it also makes dinner. And our teacher says "it's smarter than all the guys I dated in high school" and I clarify "combined?" and she says yes. This is the humor I love. This is what I miss about the work world--the smart comments, the building off each other's ideas. Not that building off my kids' lego ideas hasn't been fun, but come on. This morning at the bus stop I had to hear why the elephant crossed the road (the chicken was busy). 

Now, I will say this. I think I should name the company that hosted us because I LOVED their products. LOVED. Their updated 2013 and 2016 versions are fabulous and intelligent (not, so far, smarter than my high school boyfriends, but definitely more malleable).  But I won't, because a promise is a promise (made at the beginning of this blog).  

In any case, the cohort is off next week so I probably will not be posting. Maybe turkey pictures. Me being one with the table of food. Is anyone learning anything?

Scrambled on a Plate - Wellesley, MA

Photo credit: www.center4oe.com

One of the central tenets of the ReacHIRE program is providing refreshment of professional on-the-job skills. Halfway through the program we have covered data analysis, software coding, google products, pivot table and powerpoint. All have been at the very least valuable, and at their very best, full of "a-has" and proud moments of "hey, this is kind of cool!" 

One of the most tired adages of life is that what comes around, goes around. Yes, you laugh about your elders  being outdated (anyone remember going to mom's house to find that they've covered the blinking time on the DVD player with black electric tape? Yes)....and then suddenly you are yelling at Siri who does not seem to know what "call home" actually means.

There is a cartoon I still remember, I think it was from the New Yorker, but could be a newspaper, in 1992. It was about a visit of then-president George H Bush to a supermarket in Orlando where he was "amazed" by supermarket technology such as the electronic scanner that shows the price. Here he is, quoted in the New York Times:

"I just took a tour through the exhibits here," he told the grocers later. "Amazed by some of the technology."- New York Times, February 4, 1992.

(By the way, the above article has been found to be faulty on research (look here) and the incident is really urban legend). 

The cartoon, which I cannot find, showed him looking at a carton of eggs and saying something like "Wow! They come this way? I thought they came scrambled on a plate!"  And we all laughed about how out of touch our president was in his White House with his chef.

But I've just had my first scrambled on a plate moment. Not, actually, technology-induced as frankly, Powerpoint and Excel haven't changed THAT much. In fact, they've gotten easier. No, my moment came with project management, a skill I learned in my first "real" job out of college at Visa. I was never project manager, but always part of a team as we looked to launch new fraud monitoring and risk management products in Latin America and Europe. 

A couple of Saturdays ago, we spent six hours at Babson, which graciously hosted us as we brushed up on project management. To be honest, the first four hours were a bit of a snooze for me since I knew so-called "waterfall" project management and really not much has changed there. Still have nightmares about Gantt charts. 

Photo credit: agile-scrum-master-training.com

But then suddenly we were building paper airplanes and throwing them. And that was my introduction to Agile Project Methodology--a new-to-me project management theory that has nothing to do with paper airplane building and everything to do with it. It was a scrambled egg moment.....oooh, project management is FUN for once, and not a Gantt chart in sight! The point of the paper airplane exercise was doing a short-term project with multiple iterations that would improve the overall results. Yeah, okay, it's more complex that that.

I won't go into all of the workings of Agile. There is a whole new set of vocabulary including "scrum masters", "scrum teams", "sprints", "burndown charts" and "user stories." For more helpful information, you can visit here. It seems to be mostly mentioned as a methodology for software development projects, but it has practical application everywhere. In my opinion. 

Here's what I love about Agile. It is, as they say, incremental, iterative and empirical. Instead of a long project horizon, there is a "sprint" set up for two-four weeks for a "scrum team" with a "scrum master" who helps clear the path for the team and communicates progress. And one of the best parts of Agile--instead of those interminable project meetings, there is a "daily scrum", a stand-up meeting of 15 minutes when the 3-7 person team talks about what they are working on and what may be standing in the way. Issues that come up are added to a backlog and are put into play on the following sprints.

Agile is cool. I decided to put it into daily use as of two weeks ago planning for my twins' 9th birthday party last Wednesday. That was the sprint. Two weeks til party. I was the scrum master because I am the queen of communications in my household. Okay, I was also part of the development team which is where things fall apart a bit on the analogy but work with me.

Stand-up meetings, check. Short-time frame, check. Prioritization of user stories (mostly twins' requests for whatever), check. I loved when I could say "sorry, that Gronk-frosted cake is not on this sprint. You get the Patriots colors and that's it." Oh, all right, the kid cried so we moved up the user request. 

 

 

 

Yeah, the edible Gronk photo was my one scrum master fail

So, yes, I do feel a bit like George H Bush (and that will be the LAST time you ever hear me say that) as I was "amazed" at current times in the business world. Eggs that don't come scrambled on a plate. A project methodology that moves fast like today's development cycles. Love.

The Inner Critic - Boston, MA

 

image credit: franticbutfabulous.com

One of the hardest parts of joining a career re-entry program is having to look hard at yourself. The easy parts for me are software coding (just kidding, that's incomprehensible but entertaining) and hearing from our training partners about what they do and how we can use their technologies. Frankly it's fun to be invited into these different companies and cultures and getting an inside look at free lunch, key cards to get into parking lots and taking the wrong elevator which means you are 10 minutes late to a meeting and locked out. Well, not me personally. In all seriousness, I am grateful to these companies that have volunteered space and time to support women going back to work.

The hard parts: elevator pitch writing, profile summaries, re-writing the resume, etc. And when I say "etc." I mean pulling out your strengths and weaknesses without cringing and beating yourself up about decisions of the past. Dusting off what you did and making it shine. Trying to explain what you've been doing for the last eight years.

Here's the root of the root (as ee cummings would say): I have no regrets about taking time off. In fact the whole phrase "taking time off" is hilarious to me. I have twins. I have boys. They both began life with health issues. And even now resolved, there is no "time off." There is no off-ramping--who comes up with phrases? I didn't off-ramp, I got into the craziest dang rotary of my life--picture the Arc de Triomphe one where you can't even figure out which exit is next.

In fact, going to an office would be quite relaxing for me. If I get asked in an interview about whether or not I am a good multi-tasker, I promise that I will not burst into hysterical laughter. Okay, kinda promise. Depends on how many soccer games, PTO meetings, kung fu, homework meltdowns and Nutcracker practices I have had the night before. 

I spent the last six years in Brazil. That experience I would never trade for more time in the meeting rooms. I learned how to do business in another culture and language, found ways to turn my own impressions into helpful information for fellow expatriates (I blogged about security issues in the big city of São Paulo) and volunteered in my kids' international school. I have friends from all over the world, not only from Kellogg where I got my MBA, but the expatriates posted to Brazil. I have learned out to say sit down in German (hinsetzen!) when super-tall blonde people get in my view of the TVs at the World Cup party at the German Institute. It could be useful; one never knows.

But I digress. What else is new? Oh yes, the self-awareness and self-appraisal--notice how I found a way to avoid it again? So the first assignment was the elevator pitch. That is really tough. I hope I get on an elevator that goes really fast and I can just get out two sentences like "I am a market development and management professional who enjoys working with new products and tailoring messages to target audiences." How does one summarize who they are and what they enjoy in a sentence? And not I like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain which would never get me a job because I don't have a singing voice. See how nicely that can be changed from "warbles like a sick heron".  It's all in your phrasing.

We spent time looking at how former co-workers would describe us. I talked to one former boss in Miami who gave me such a lovely long positive list, I literally blushed in front of my computer. I thought to myself "wow, I really was pretty good at what I did." Because sometimes we forget. Sometimes we also forget our children at the bus stop but who's counting? And then another former colleague I asked for my strengths also sent me my weaknesses (without me asking! Be nice!) and I thought "hey, wtf?" and then I read it and I said, yes those are true. Mostly when he said that I could be a little direct in my feedback. Ummm, yes, true story. I am not mean. Just direct. 

Now I am working on my resume. The format has all changed from when I was a wee thing (eight years ago) and apparently some of my really proud moments are not relevant to my resume. Like learning Portuguese in six months. Like getting appointed to a town committee and two PTO roles in the first year I was here (maybe I was supposed to duck? Wait, I think I just figured out why those are not positives). A friend just gave me a set of napkins that read "Stop me before I volunteer again." Sigh.

One of the best presentations for me so far in this program has been a talk by Susan Brady about Coaching Your Inner Critic. You can see her here.  Her inner critic training is really about telling yourself that you have to be on the lookout for those moments when you feel like being critical of others ("He just doesn't get it." or "what an idiot") -- One-Up moments -- and those moments when you are overcritical of yourself "I can't believe I said that" or " what a dumb thing I just did" -- One-down moments.The simple concept is to try to "right size" our self-image. 

On this journey from stay-at-home mom (and awesomely interesting blogger, let's be truthful here, oops back to the lesson above) to severely-delayed-at-Alewife-going-to-work-again, the challenge will be confidence. Yes, I did that, yes I am doing that, and yes, I am ready to do the other thing now. Did that make sense? Note to self: work on elevator pitch.

And to all you self-doubts, hinsetzen!!

 

Vulnerability Management - Boston, MA

Image courtesy of the customizewindows.com

So yesterday my ReacHIRE cohort visited a data security firm in downtown Boston. The day reminded me of many things about my life as a full-time worker. 

The day started with unwarranted elation. I got my kids dressed, fed and on the yellow bus all by myself (BH --my husband --is traveling). I am pretty sure their pants were on frontwards but possibly one was inside out. Whatever. 

I hopped in the car for what is usually a 25 minute drive to the Alewife T station...I was singing to the Eagles (I love Sirius) when the traffic came to a dead halt in Lexington. So instead of arriving at 8:05 at the station (I was already fantasizing about a huge latte at the Starbucks in Boston and taking my time getting to the company), I got there at 8:32. I ran down the escalator, chucked my card in the tollbooth, and hopped onto the subway car just as the doors were closing. Yep sweating and puffing, but I was on. So much for unwarranted elation.

But enough about the commute. That was the bad stuff about working days. Back to the good stuff: The company we visited was only 2 minutes from the T station at Downtown Crossing so I was at the reception desk at 8:58 and sitting at the conference table at 9:01. Love high speed elevators. 

As the first two presenters got started on talking about the company, I admit I fell a little bit in love. Not with the presenters, which would be inappropriate, but with the company. What they are doing is much like my first job except fast-forwarded to the 21st Century (yep, I had the other job in the last century). The ideas are the same: the execution completely different. The company is different; a startup where I worked for a large "non-profit" association. But the fun is there.

My first job was in risk management and security for a large credit card company in California. Oh, all right, it was Visa, you can see that on my resume. That job was SO MUCH FUN! It was like cops and robbers -- and we really did have former FBI agents on staff. We were always trying to keep one step ahead, but usually trying to be less than one step behind, the bad guys. Visa would put a hologram on the credit card: within days the bad guys had copied it. Ditto magnetic strips, coded numbers around the banners, whatever. We had a top secret lab where a chosen few got to see the latest in bad guy hi-jinks. I only visited once in three years but I still remember thinking "THIS IS SO COOL!"  Too bad I had to get an MBA. Oh, okay, maybe I would have gotten tired of the job in the end but mostly it was always a new challenge and a new solution.

Data security reminds me much of this. Continually checking networks and assets for known threats, and being ready for unknown threats by practicing "disaster recovery". 

The new term I learned for all of this is "vulnerability management." And it reminded me of talking with one Visa risk management guy who said to me "it is no wonder that we are always behind--bad guys take this even more seriously than we do. They spend all their time being bad while we treat this as a job. To them it is life." That makes us vulnerable.

I love what they are doing. One of their offerings is hacking into their clients' computers and showing them where they didn't take the appropriate protection or recovery steps. They have programs to discover and fight the vulnerabilities. They are the cops to the data robbers of today. 

A reminder perhaps that one can find fun jobs. Maybe in two different centuries. Millenia even.

Hello, World! Learning software development - Boston, MA

Today my ReacHIRE cohort of 10 (fabulous) women went to Launch Academy in downtown Boston for a session of learning software coding and development. I admit that I was a bit worried about this session, since I have not been known to have the patience to be a software developer.  Or the vocabulary. Or occasionally, the body art.

I was late, which is a big faux pas in ReacHIRE land, because I figured out in Lexington (two towns away) that I had left my computer at home. Hard to code without a computer unless you know punch tickets and I don't. So I risked another type of ticket to zoom home, get the errant computer and get back to the Red Line. Which was running with delays. Of course. Welcome to Boston!

In any case, I walked in 20 minutes late, which left me a bit behind as our friendly software developer guy (SDG? I love acronyms...I had better since html, http, css and whatever else rapidly came up) went through the "basics." I spent that first 40 minutes just like Nemo and Dory listening to the Australian sea turtle in Finding Nemo...clip here. As in, you're really cute, but I have no idea what you're saying.

So here's the reality. If you're smart, regardless of how many years you've been off the corporate market, you can figure things out. By the end of class (extremely well-taught, and humorously too! Check out Launch Academy) I knew the difference between variables and methods and strings and a whole bunch of other stuff. It's fun! Who knew it would be fun? Yeah, when I had to practice on my own computer at the end of class I am pretty sure I accidentally hacked the PTO site, but who needs to know what's for lunch tomorrow anyway? It's pizza day...tudo acaba em pizza (from my Brazil in My Eyes blog.

Day 2 tomorrow. Watch your servers, folks.

Day 1 - The Jungle Gym - Waltham MA

So today was the first day of moving my hands from the rungs on the jungle gym where they have been for eight years. Until today, I have been a stay-at-home mom--a term I studiously avoided for the first years as I took on small ad-hoc projects and started my own marketing agency. It is a term I now use with a great deal of happiness--I have loved staying home with my kids. Not everyone has the opportunity--which was largely brought about by my husband who has always supported me being home or me being at work, or me being where I need to be at that time. I have no regrets about stepping out. I think.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a "re-launch" conference in New York. It was amazing for me in several ways. Not the least of which was finding out that Amtrak is so much better than driving. But I digress. Here's what I learned:

One: There are so many amazing women who are out of the workforce and some (lucky world) want back in. The woman sitting next to me held a PhD in health policy and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She had stepped out because her husband had a stroke. Now she was teaching at a community college as she tried to find her way back in. There were others like her, and not like her--each of us has our own story on stepping out and stepping in. We just need someone to listen to why we want back in.

Two: When the leader of the conference asked the women conference attendees to raise their hands if they are a current or past president of the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) in their time away, about 80% of the room raised their hands. We are all still Type A. We all know how to manage, how to multi-task, how to deal with the world's toughest and sometimes unreasonable clients (yep, the little tiny ones). The only clients who are not always right.

Three: The biggest challenge to most of us was how to network and show our abilities. This is ironic as most of us are pretty good at networking for our children, or for our households or for our non-profit work. But when it comes to ourselves getting back to business, we don't know how to start. 

The way to start is to just get out of the house. Make an appointment with a former work colleague--she or he does not remember you from hair-up-in-a-scrunchy, dribbled-on-sweats and no-shower-for-days days. No, they remember you from Brooks Brothers suits and possibly, unfortunately, the shoulder pad days. 

Join a career relaunch program. That's what I did. Nine women who are just like me. Just looking for their next rung on their own personal jungle gym of life. And are looking to give each other a leg up.

Let's go.