Heroines of Personal Finance and Entrepreneurship #4: Julie Jansen

July 23 3 Comments latest by H

Interview contributed by Cody McKibben –

Julie Jansen is a motivational speaker, career coach, meeting facilitator, and trainer. She’s consulted for corporations like TIME, Merrill Lynch, and General ElectricJulie is also the author of I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work and You Want Me to Work With Who? Eleven Keys to a Stress-Free, Satisfying and Successful Work Life…No Matter Who You Work With.

Julie, in your book I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This, you strive to help readers make satisfying career choices. In your experience, what are the core differences between men and women when it comes to making career decisions?

Women tend to talk to a larger number of people and be more open about discussing what their issues and problems are regarding their careers. They also seek out more opinions while men are more reticent to ask for advice from people.

Men typically internalize much more until they are at the end of their rope about how to move forward. They simply aren’t as comfortable with asking for help.

At the same time, people are people and my experience in my coaching practice shows that most people never think deeply or strategically about their careers or realize the importance of doing so until they are faced with a reason to do so. Even then, they are reactive and sporadic in their efforts rather then planful or anticipatory. People will plan weddings and vacations or financing their kid’s college education but rarely their careers. The elements are the same…What do you want? What do you need? What are your resources? What’s your ultimate desired outcome?

I believe we really need to get people to think more about career development and planning. What about assertiveness? Some lay wisdom I’ve seen from pop psychology books suggests that women aren’t as assertive with their careers or financial decisions. From your experience, is that true?

Unfortunately this is very true. Women aren’t comfortable promoting themselves and their achievements in their company to senior people or even peers. They are also very uncomfortable asking for raises or if self-employed, asking for higher fees. This is unfortunate because then women feel dissatisfied, unfulfilled, resentful, or disregarded if they don’t get what they need and want.

Men tend to view self-promotion and compensation negotiation as normal and appropriate behavior. Men like to talk about themselves more often up front and women are more interested in building relationships first and then when it’s safe, discussing money or achievements. Because men can be more direct in communicating their needs they usually get what they need.

Your second book You Want Me to Work With Who? focuses on building a stress-free workplace no matter who you work with. How do men and women deal with difficult people at work in different ways?

The most common technique for dealing with a difficult person is to ignore them and talk about them behind their back. By the way, both men and women deal with challenging people this way. Some reasons for this is because most people hate confrontation. They don’t think the person will change their behavior anyway or in some cases, they don’t want to hurt the person’s feelings.

On the other hand, while many people act passively, others are overtly aggressive. There is an appropriate process for dealing with tough people. Talk with them face-to-face with specific examples of how their behavior affects business. Talk with them two more times, again with documentation. If the behavior hasn’t changed, go over their head and tell them that this is what you plan on doing. Most people haven’t had coaching about this process though so they just don’t approach that difficult person in their life properly.

Good pointer! I need to practice that. Can you tell us about your research for both of your books? Who did you interview and how did you come by your conclusions?

I Don’t Know What I Want was based on approximately 50 case studies of real people whom I interviewed, and on my experience as a coach, trainer, and speaker.

I hired a researcher for You Want Me to Work With Who? He researched the content aspect of my Eleven Keys (Confidence, Curiosity, Decisiveness, Empathy, Flexibility, Humor, Intelligence, Optimism, Perseverance, Respect, and Self-awareness) and I sent out a survey to 50 people asking them to cite real examples of how they or others exhibited the Eleven Keys.

Any other advice for those of us fighting through the trenches at work (both men and women)?

* Keep a true sense of yourself – who you are, what’s important to you, and what you want in and from work. Be as aware as possible about these things constantly instead of waiting until you have to.

* Stop looking at work as tedious, adversarial or drudgery. It should be fun, rewarding and fulfilling most of the time. If it isn’t, realize that you have the power and accountability to make changes to get these things.

* Work (and personal) relationships aren’t usually easy. This means that you have to try hard to get along with people and change your behavior in order to help someone change his or her behavior.

Julie, thank you so much for giving us your time. Make sure to visit Julie at JulieJansen.net and get a copy of her most recent book if you’d like to learn more.

Cody McKibben is a student, blogger, designer, instigator and weekend entrepreneur. He enjoys interviewing entrepreneurs and other experts and blogs regularly at THRILLINGheroics.com and codymckibben.com.

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Heroines of Personal Finance and Entrepreneurship #3: Alexandra Levit

July 12 11 Comments latest by Looking for the Right Job After College? Alex Levit Provides Some Answers » Thrilling Heroics

Interview contributed by Cody McKibben –

Alexandra Levit is the author They Don’t Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something’s Guide to the Business World, and a regular corporate and university speaker on Gen-Y employees. She is the Founder and President of Inspiration@Work career consultancy and also serves as a Vice President at Edelman public relations agency. She blogs regularly at Water Cooler Wisdom, and has two books lined up for 2008: How’d You Score THAT Gig? and Solving the Talent Equation. Alexandra dedicates herself to helping acclimatize young employees to the corporate world, and she has some unique research on women in Corporate America which she shares with us:

Already in this series we’ve heard from Pam Slim, who specializes in helping people transition out of corporate life and into self-employment, but you actually encourage young people to stay and excel within the corporate world. Why?

Not everyone is cut out for the life of working for oneself. Not only is being an entrepreneur costly, nerve-wracking, and incredibly hard work, but because of the way our economy is structured, it’s simply impossible for everyone to be one. When considering employment, young people should look at an array of options, including those that involve working in the business world. At the end of the day, most people will end up employed in a more conventional work environment, so it may be wiser to develop the skills and the attitude that allow you to succeed and achieve your professional goals within the context of that setting.

What has your personal experience been like as a young employee climbing the corporate ladder?

In the beginning of my career, I was really frustrated and confused. I didn’t understand why I tried so hard in position after position but never seemed to get anywhere. Things started to turn around when I put myself under a microscope and took a close look at the persona I presented to the companies I worked for. After polishing the package and learning how to promote it, I practiced human relations skills like diplomacy and cooperation, as well as personal development skills such as organization and time management. I started getting the promotions I deserved, and finally I could say I was happy working in Corporate America.

A few years ago, I went out on my own and formed Inspiration@Work, a career and marketing communications consultancy, and I’m now part-time VP at Edelman, a Top 5 PR agency, where I’m still able to spend a few days a week writing and speaking at corporations and universities about business issues affecting young employees.

So tell us about your book They Don’t Teach Corporate in College. What makes you an expert on the challenges facing young employees in the workplace?

I graduated from college as a straight-A student hell bent on skipping up New York City’s corporate ladder. But after six months on the job, I was so stressed out that I was ready to join the large numbers leaving the business world for graduate or law school. Eventually, though, by sticking around and paying attention to the few people around me who weren’t dropping from stress-induced coronaries, I developed many of the skills crucial to staying sane and building a career.

I wrote They Don’t Teach Corporate in College because I thought that if I shared my experiences with other twenty-somethings, maybe I would save them some of the pain I went through. The premise of the book is that the business world is not a natural fit for graduates who leave school expecting results from a logical combination of education and effort. Suddenly, the tenets of success they were taught since kindergarten don’t apply, because getting ahead in the business world has little to do with intelligence or exceeding a set of defined expectations. The book focuses on tangible tactics that twenty-somethings can put to work immediately to be successful and satisfied working in the business world.

What about young women on the career track — what specific obstacles do women face within professional life that the men don’t?

I think that women face two primary obstacles: the obstacle of assertiveness and the obstacle of work/life balance. With assertiveness, the same behavior that is rewarded in men is often looked down upon in women because of gender-role stereotypes that are still in place. I’ve even had young women tell me that they are afraid to greet people with a strong handshake because they are worried about being perceived as too aggressive! More experienced women, on the other hand, are always watching themselves to make sure that they’re being agreeable with superiors and subordinates, for god forbid they come across as the dreaded “b word.”

Women are also in a bind when it comes to reaching a certain level of seniority, but at the same time wanting to have enough time for their families. Generally, executives are still expected to be available 24/7, but even if they work, women are still considered the primary caregivers and the ones to take off when a child is sick, for example. Those two expectations are often in direct conflict with one another.

You’ve got two more books on the way for 2008: How’d You Score THAT Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs — and How to Get Them (pre-order here) and Solving the Talent Equation. Any interesting thoughts on the gender issue based on research for those two upcoming books?

There have been a few interesting studies lately. Most have heard that women in business still lag behind men, and the overall wage gap means that women earn 77 cents to every dollar earned by a man. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, found that the gap narrowed to 93 percent for workers under 25 years old, indicating that the gap only widens as women move through their careers and face increasing obstacles to pay equity as they become more senior.

I also like the study by the Simmons School of Management that reported that women with informal mentors reported a greater number of promotions and higher promotion rates than those without mentors.

Thanks so much for your participation, Alexandra! So glad to have your viewpoint. Alexandra Levit will be visiting California in August. To have her speak at your organization, leave a comment on this post.

Cody McKibben is a student, blogger, designer, instigator and weekend entrepreneur. He enjoys interviewing entrepreneurs and other experts and blogs regularly at THRILLINGheroics.com and codymckibben.com.

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Heroines of Personal Finance and Entrepreneurship #2: Anya Kamenetz

July 6 18 Comments latest by Johnny Debacle

Interview contributed by Cody McKibben.

The second expert panelist for our women & money series is Anya Kamenetz, a respectable twentysomething author, columnist, and blogger from Manhattan. The daughter of a poet and a novelist, she graduated from Yale University in 2002. She has worked with the New York Times, the Washington Post, Salon, Slate, the Village Voice, and more, and in 2006 she released her first book, Generation Debt: How Our Future Was Sold Out for Student Loans, Bad Jobs, No Benefits, and Tax Cuts for Rich Geezers — And How to Fight Back. She talks with us today about being a freelance writer and about young people and money.

You were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for the series “Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young” in 2004. What were your main findings?

The series ran in 2004; I also did a Generation Debt column for the Village Voice for all of 2005.

Student loans and student credit cards have multiplied very fast and under the radar so that large amounts of debt are now a rite of passage for a majority of young people. Two thirds of college graduates borrow loans to get through college, up from less than half as recently as 1993, and they graduate with an average of $20,000 in loans and almost $3000 in credit card debt. Combine that with a changing job market that offers fewer benefits, and a higher cost of living, especially housing, in many metropolises and you have a lot of middle-class, educated young people falling behind, to say nothing of the fate of McJob Nation; the two out of three kids with no college degree have seriously fallen behind in income and stability.

Since graduating in 2002 you’ve freelanced as a writer and editor for several publications. Ramit hosts lots of readers who want to be professional writers, but you seem to have done it successfully. What are some recommendations you can make for aspiring professional writers?

Think hard about it. I don’t know many “professional writers” as opposed to people who happen to be lucky enough to occasionally get paid to write. Boyce Rensberger, head of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships at MIT, told the New York Times on June 10: ”I feel a little queasy encouraging young people into journalism. It’s such a precarious industry right now.”

I think if you want to write for a living you need to be pretty hardcore about your craft and your subject area or field. You can build up knowledge of your field by working a related job (in politics, the law, nonprofits, fashion, etc.) and you can build up your craft by writing, writing, writing, and being in a writers’ group, and taking classes or workshops, and working in media-related fields. I freelanced as a writer’s assistant, fact-checker, and copy editor before I started writing full time. If I were starting out now I would definitely blog too.

Good tip! *wink* And how did the Generation Debt column evolve into a book? What do you bring to this research on youth and personal finance that others don’t?

I think it’s just a case of being at the right place at the right time. My articles were clearly part of a larger wave and as a young person myself (I was 23 when I sold the book) I guess my agent and editor felt I brought a unique immediacy to the issue. Nowadays, three years later, I’ve built up a lot more credibility by knowing my subject pretty well and lecturing, writing, and commenting about it in various media.

iwillteachyoutoberich.com readers are young, so they understand the challenges of being young and dealing with money. Who did you write this book for, and what challenges have you faced in getting your audience to pay attention?

I wrote the book for a dual audience of young adults and their parents. Parents were occasionally skeptical and young people don’t really buy a lot of books! But I’ve gotten great feedback from people of all ages who felt like they related to the book’s message. I’ve tried hard to emphasize that endowing young people with the resources they need to succeed will ultimately benefit everyone in America.

So you focus on the huge rate of student loans and credit card debt among twentysomethings…do you think women in this age bracket tend to handle these challenges differently than males?

Young women are still earning less than young men, even recent college graduates. They are more likely to be living paycheck to paycheck and sometimes less confident about investing. But when they do start to take finances seriously they are often more tenacious and better decisionmakers, better at tracking expenses and sticking to a budget.

Yes, I remember some 2005 research from Merrill Lynch about how women make fewer investment mistakes! Now regarding the credit companies and lending institutions, there are always raging debates about “taking personal responsibility” vs. “the finance companies are out to get young people, who don’t stand a chance.” Where do you stand?

The positive, personal side of my message is that you always have the power to take better control of your finances. Development studies have shown that even people who live on a dollar a day somehow manage to save to celebrate weddings and festivals. If it’s important to you, you can find a way.

The political action side of my message is that we have to reform the credit and student loan industries. Responsibility goes both ways — it is also the responsibility of lenders to provide complete, non-deceptive information to borrowers and to try to ensure to the best of their ability that they don’t lend more money than people will be able to pay back. I believe there is starting to be a shift in awareness of this issue and reforms are coming.

I hope so! I wish you the best in your political action. Anything else you’d like to share about your work?

My new Generation Debt column for Yahoo! Finance starts on July 2! And you can also find me blogging at Anyakamenetz.blogspot.com.

Thanks for joining us, Anya! It was a pleasure learning about your freelancing career and hearing about your research on college students and debt. For those of you who are interested, be sure to grab Anya’s book Generation Debt and check for her Yahoo! Finance column starting next month!

Cody McKibben is a student, blogger, designer, instigator and weekend entrepreneur. He enjoys interviewing entrepreneurs and other experts and blogs regularly at THRILLINGheroics.com and codymckibben.com.

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