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10042016 ssp seminar1_session2_holland
- 1. Advancing your CareerThrough Mentorship
- 2. Early career –not as formal – this was ok • No worried about having a formal mentor. • Content to watch and be supported as needed • Received support for ideas that I wanted to try • Got some good early advice from others that were mid to late career
- 3. Peer to Peermentoring • At points I did a lot of this as both a mentor and mentee • 3 of us were managers (all women) of small teams at the same time and we often went to each other for advice • This is very effective if you have a good colleague that you need advice from
- 4. Women to womenmentoring • The problems women face are unique to the gender • As it has been so eloquently pointed out even in the STM publishing industry, women hold fewer management positions. • Women need to help other women and for the most part this has rung true in my career
- 5. What happens whenyou don’t have a formal mentor? • No one to go to for career advice – mentally taxing, confidence waning • In a time of change no one to help you move your career forward or avoid stagnation • Cannot draw on someone else’s expert advice - particularly with women who are mothers that want to continue their career • Cannot avoid periods of career confusion
Editor's Notes
- #3 Good story, Betsy, connections – solid career advice and it turned out to be true. For example, how many times have you interviewed someone just because you knew them or they handed you a resume because they knew someone? Power in someone else’s recommendation and a network. Career can advance due to the power of connections. A solid connection might take a chance on your idea, etc.
- #4 The three of us were able to trade skills and learn from each other. We also provided a good network for venting and then after that was over problem solving. The collaboration was an important skill for career growth and development. Since mentorship is being guided by someone more knowledgeable this worked out well. You certainly have friends that know more about certain subjects than others, like taxes, or home renovations, etc. And when in need you might call them up and ask guidance. This is no different then in the workplace depending on what you need but as publishing is a small field much of this comes from our industry, getting involved and being on panels, etc.
- #5 Very important as women understand the complex problems of other women. While many modern couples still try to split housework and childcare duties much still falls on women so they need to do a balancing act that is important. I would not be where I am today if I did not have women bosses that believe in my potential and saw abilities. This let to promotions that I might not otherwise have received. For example, when I was pregnant I asked two highly respected accomplished women at AAAS what advice they would give a working mother. The former publisher of Science “let it go”. Once she said this it was almost as if I had permission to let the dust bunnies sit for a day or two in the interest of getting other things accomplished that were higher priority items. The Executive editor of Science warned me the time goes fast, so enjoy it. I have never forgotten these pieces of advice and have kept them close.
- #6 I am going to talk about my personal experience and what happens mid-career level when you do not have a mentor and life shifts in a major way. For me it was job stagnation when I should have progress further. Then my current company was going through a number of changes, as many society publishers are doing, and pile on top of that I had to go out on maternity leave during the changes. Needless to say when I came back from my leave the landscape had changed rather dramatically plus I went through a rather drastic life shift. After much agonizing I decided it was time to me to find a new adventure which is when I took the job with Digital Science. Had I had a mentor I would have realized a few things: I should have left a few years prior when I hit what I call job stagnation and was doing the same thing over and over and dealing with the same problems over and over. Part of career advancement comes from learning new skills and I was no longer learning new skills. I might have been able to discuss the current changes with someone that had a really good perspective or someone that had been through it already. Currently no one on my previous team had children and I did not feel many people understood what I was going through. I would have had support and known a light was at the end of the tunnel and that many other people survived an organizational shift and having kids and its not the end of the world. Overall having someone understand this would have been a huge benefit and it would have lessened stress and made me more confident and I could have focused on ways to solve the problem and what to do next with my career instead of just being confused. I find people with good experience can really cut through to the route of the issue and say “Cathy, you should be doing XYZ and you can, why aren’t you?” I will also point out, it is extremely important for women to advance since when women are also at the top, they are in a better position to help other women as they understand the unique circumstances.