{bubble tea love}

A great Linkedin career advice post from Shane Rodgers appeared on my Facebook feed this morning.  Although it is titled advice for 25 year olds I think it rings true for all ages and all careers.  The full post is here but I have extracted a few I particularly liked:  A career is a marathon, not a sprint Chill. When we are younger we tend to be impatient... Most success comes from repetition, not new things ...The lesson here is to get good at things before you try to move to the next thing. Genuine expertise belongs to an elite few. They seldom have superpowers. They usually have endurance, patience and take a long-term view. They also love what they do. If your find that, don’t let it go. Deprioritise your career when your kids are young If you have skills, commitment and passion, careers tend to take care of themselves. Over the long haul, it really doesn’t matter if you have a few years when your career is in canter mode while you prior...

As a mum working in the finance industry I was really interested to read a recent  Financial Times feature called " London: Sexism and the City " on women, leadership and the finance industry.  It focuses on London but I think a lot of it applies and is relevant to other countries. The statistics are pretty telling - only 16.2% of the managing director level positions at banks are held by women.   The report touches on the reasons behind the statistic including gender stereotypes and bias, sexual harassment and sexist cultures and career disruptions due to parenthood.   It also suggests some possible solutions including incentives for diversity, adequate maternity leave and return to work policies. Some very good food for thought.

I recently saw this post titled "From Mothers to Daughters: Do as I Say, Not as I Do" and I wanted to share it as it was a nice little reminder for me and I hope it is for others too. Prompted by an article in the Atlantic titled "the Confidence Gap ' (which is also an interesting read), Kathryn Sollman writes, Too many professional women hold themselves back from the big promotion or raise and too many others believe they made an irrevocable choice to leave the workforce. All wish much bigger career achievements—and more confidence–for their daughters...  In my view, however, there is a big disconnect. I see this spectrum of women—those who work in and out of the paid workforce—in my community, at my child’s school and in my professional work. All of these women encourage the utmost confidence and achievement in their daughters—but not in themselves...     It would be hard to find a woman in my personal and professional circles who isn’t ...

One of my frequent blog reads, A Cup of Jo  is featuring career themed posts this week. Her first post from earlier this week set out some quotes and tips from some inspiring women... below are some of my favourites (mostly from the hilarious and cool Tina Fey !).  Although a career driven post, I think a lot of the below applies to life generally.  On being confident:   I love women who are bosses and who don't constantly worry about what their employees think of them. I love women who don't ask, "Is that OK?" after everything they say. I love when women are courageous in the face of unthinkable circumstances, like my mother when she was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Or like Gabrielle Giffords writing editorials for the New York Times about the cowardice of Congress regarding gun laws and using phrases like "mark my words" like she is Clint Eastwood. How many women say stuff like that? — Mindy Kaling Speak in statements instead of ...

I love reading about inspiring women in the business world. Last night, I read a couple of great articles from one of my favourite publications, Fast Company , about Tory Burch  and how she has built her brand and her business.  Read the articles here .  In just under 10 years she has built a global lifestyle brand which will pass $1bn in revenue this year.   It is reported that the secret to her success is that her business is such a personal reflection of who she is.  I don't own anything from Tory Burch (yet) but I have visited a couple of her stores.  It really does feel like you are visiting somebody's beautiful home when you step into one of her stores.    Another secret is being authentic and accessible.   As the article notes,   "Bur ch “is all about the ‘and’,” says creative director Honor Brodie, who oversees the Tory Blog and  social media . “She’s a tomboy and she’s feminine. She’s an entrepreneur and a phil...

Most of us have heard about glass ceilings , but what about the bamboo ceiling ? The Australian Financial Review and the Guardian both ran articles this week about "Asians" in executive corporate management after an Australian Diversity Council report was released.  The Council found that only 4.9% of the labour force of Asian heritage make it to senior executive level in Australia and only 1.9% of executives in ASX200 companies have Asian cultural origins.  Some interesting statistics. Read the full articles  here  and here . There are so many different ideas thrown out about about how we can increase diversity at the higher echelons of the corporate world (eg quotas, affirmative action).  I don't know what the answer is as I don't think there is a 'one size fits all' solution. As a young female Australian full time working mum/career woman of Vietnamese heritage, I have certainly been the subject of my fair share of stereotypes and gossip in the c...

What a tiring day to start the week.. It started off with me reading up on financial markets regulatory reform to prepare for an industry conference I am speaking at on Wednesday and ended up with me googling 'how to deal with toddler tantrums' after a big and quite a long tanty thrown by the little Miss... I am tired! But I do genuinely love being challenged by both in my life (on most days anyway). For those parents out there, I did find an interesting article talking about the science behind toddler tantrums. Apparently they are primarily caused by their little brains not having developed the ability to understand reasoning, logic and self control yet.  I don't know.. I think the little Miss understands a lot more than she lets on sometimes and is just super duper determined.  So I don't think I will or should stop saying no to her #poorkidwithatigermum #imaginewhatshewillbelikeasateen I hope the week ahead will be a little more drama (and tantrum) free!

I recently wrote about success when I was making a difficult career decision.  Today I read a post by Deepak Chopra on Linkedin . A little bit new age and some may think a bit airy fairy but I thought it was worth sharing as good food for thought when making work and life decisions. I have extracted some of the article below but the full article is in the link above.  As he writes: Success is a magic word, and I believe in it too. When people are given the opportunity, almost all will pursue some kind of success. But matching opportunity with success is trickier than one might suppose. If Bill Gates had had the opportunity to fill Mother Teresa’s shoes, or vice versa, what would have happened? ...   In India there's a term for the life that leads a person to the right path of success: Dharma. The word comes from the Sanskrit verb "to uphold," implying that the universe will support you when you find the path that is right for you. How do you know if you are...

I recently made a very difficult career decision and it made me think about how we define success.  I was faced with two very different and compelling opportunities - a senior demanding role with significant money attached to it compared to a senior role in a totally different environment that could offer me greater flexibility. A lot of things swirled around my head during the decision making process, including: how could each role offer me career progression and interesting work.  I was very conscious of not taking any backward steps.   what impact would each role have on me at home in terms of being available, the Mr's work and conflicts with his travel etc the differences in pay and benefits (monetary and otherwise) what potential impact would each role have on me personally - stress levels and my health etc what opportunities could come with each role I ended up choosing the role that meant less money but greater flexibility, primarily for family r...

Uni mates of ours own two fantastic and successful online retail businesses Shoes of Prey (for customised bespoke shoes) and Sneaking Duck  (for funky and trendy glasses) - definitely check them out if you haven't heard of them yet.   They also write about their various entrepreneurial adventures on their blog  which gives some great insights into the start up world and owning your own business (another must read to add to your google reader). Recently Michael linked to this great TED talk by Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg about women in senior leadership roles in the workplace.   When you watch it, remember this talk is targeted at women who choose  to be in the workforce.    We all know that not all women choose to be in the workforce (especially after having kids). The talk was very inspiring and particularly resonated with me.  I work in a very male dominated industry. I wan...