My guests on this episode are the authors of Back To Business and founders of The Swing Shift Nancy Jensen and Sarah Duenwald. I am joined by my colleague Elaine Newtson for a really interesting conversation about coming back to work after taking a career pause.  Nancy and Sarah's company, The Swing Shift offers women programs and services to compete in the modern job search. Their book, Back To Business: Finding Your Confidence, Embracing Your Skills, and Landing Your Dream Job After A Career Pause shares the lessons and strategies they have developed through their one-on-one and cohort based work at The Swing Shift with readers everywhere. As I finished up production on this episode, I read in the September issue of Harvard Business Review that 57% of male and 74% of female Millennials anticipate taking a career break for childcare, eldercare or to support a partner in a job.  Career pauses are becoming more common, and smart companies are developing programs to keep their employees engaged and pave the way for their eventual return to the company when they are ready. We covered a lot of territory in the conversation, so the episode is longer than most, but I think it is  worth the listen for anyone contemplating taking a break from work, or thinking about coming back from one.  Graduate students certainly fall into this category. The Foster MBA program takes students out of the workplace for 22 months (with a 3 month internship in the middle) and many of the lessons from the Swing Shift apply, especially around networking and mindset. The authors share their recommendations about activating your networking, keeping your LinkedIn profile current, staying in touch with hiring managers regardless of the outcome of the interview process, handling rejections, identifying family friendly workplaces (look for women in leadership roles, parental leave policies, executives who have kids, even pictures of families on an office desk are good indicators.) We talked about the importance of making a childcare plan if you are thinking about starting a family, or returning from work after taking a break to start one.  Childcare (the difficulty finding it, and the cost of it) are some of the biggest obstacles to people returning to work. On networking, my conversations with Asal Mirsalimi, and colleagues Stacy Duhon and Elaine Newtson may be interesting listens. I also had a good conversation with author Alexandra Samuel about networking during the pandemic when in-person interaction may not be a possibility. On rejection, and reframing failure, something we cover in this episode, a conversation I had with my colleague Julie Boden may be a good supplement. We also talked about the importance of reflection, and on this topic, I've talked with a number of guests about journaling and reflective practices, Andy Hafenbrack, Tabitha Kirkland and Ryan Fehr among them. You can learn more about The Swing Shift and their programs at TheSwingShift.co, and follow the links from there to learn more about Back To Business. Until October 9th, 2021, LinkedIn Learning is making 40 course on career changing available for free. You can also watch Elaine Newtson's University Book Store book event with the authors on YouTube. If you enjoy the podcast, please take a few moments to answer a short survey that will help me plan season 7, coming out in winter 2022. 

Conversations on Careers and Professional Life

Back to Business With Authors Nancy Jensen & Sarah Duenwald Founders of The Swing Shift

Evan Gray, Andrew Wen -- both members of Foster MBA class of 2022 and participants in the Foster Venture Fellows program -- and Cameron Borumand, the Founding Partner of Fuse VC join me to talk about the Foster Venture Fellows Program and more broadly about careers in venture capital.  Some of the resources we mentioned include: https://johngannonblog.com/ https://www.strictlyvc.com/ https://www.axios.com/authors/danprimack Acquired, the podcast from Pioneer Square Labs Venture Deals  (book) Geekwire.com Techcrunch.com If you enjoyed this episode and are interested in venture capital, another you might like is my conversation with Austin Guyette. Whether this is your first or 40th episode of Conversations On Careers and Professional Life, I'd love to get your feedback. Please take a short survey. 

The Foster Venture Fellows Program

Style consultant Audrey Beaulac returns to discuss how the Covid-19 Pandemic, and Work From Home policies have impacted workplace fashions and style as many prepare to return to the office. We talk about online shopping, men's grooming, make-up, looking your best on Zoom (hint: it's about the lighting!) Trends in eyewear and finding great deals on clothing as the fashion retail industry continues to experience pandemic induced challenges. You can listen to an earlier conversation with Audrey from March, 2019 on the podcast, but of the general advice still stands. And if you have an extra minute, I'd appreciate your feedback on a short survey. 

Audrey Beaulac on How the Pandemic Has Impacted Workplace Style and Fashion

This episode features compiled advice for incoming MBA candidates at the Foster School of Business. I solicited advice from recent alumni, a few students, and even went into my archives for a clip from my conversation with Ruchi Singh about the Foster Consulting Society.   In the coming weeks, I'll be releasing episodes that feature longer conversations with Rachel Hester, Melissa Young and Evan Gray, who all offered advice for this episode.  Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don't miss those episodes.   I want to thank all of the people I featured on this episode of Conversations On Careers and Professional Life for taking the time to offer advice to Foster's incoming class of MBAs, in the order of their first appearance in the episode: Evan Gray, MBA 2022 Rachel Hester, MBA 2018 Melissa Young, MBA 2018 Ruchi Singh, MBA 2020 Rekha Mathew, MBA 2020 Devin Doyle, MBA 2021 Abhro Pal, MBA 2020 Jessica Hatz, MBA 2021 Mallory Monsma, MBA 2020 

Advice For Incoming MBAs From Foster Students and Alumni

 The upcoming season of Conversations on Careers and Professional life is right around the corner.   Episodes will start to drop late August and continue through the fall quarter. I've got some great conversations to share, starting with advice from students and alumni to incoming students at the foster school.   I'll share a conversation with two 2021 MBAs, Evan Gray and Andrew Wen, and the Founding Partner of Fuse VC about the Foster Venture Fellows program, and another conversation with the founders of the Swing Shift and authors of Back To Business, Sarah Dunewald and Nancy Jensen along with my colleague Elaine Newtson about returning to the workforce after a career pause.   This season, also features some conversations with alumni including Rachel Hester, a sustainability finance manager at Nike and Melissa Young a Client Partner working in digital advertising at Facebook.   I also have a great conversation with Kira Schabram, an assistant professor of management in the Foster School, about meaningful work and burnout.   Audrey Beaulac will be back to talk about how the pandemic has changed professional attire and style as many of us will be planning our returns to the office or thinking about our wardrobes for a hybrid workplace.   I also have a short survey on the website, http://conversationsoncareers.com/survey. Your feedback will help me plan season 7 which will come out at the beginning of the new year.  

Season 6 Preview

I’m a Gallup-Certified CliftonStrengths Coach, and work with MBA students at the Foster School of Business to understand their talents, invest in developing them into strengths, and then using those strengths to achieve goals and overcome challenges. Whenever you are starting something new, as our class of 2021 grads are now, and our class of 22 students who are beginning their internships, it can be a good idea to revisit your strengths and make a plan to achieve your goals.  With that in mind, let me start out by explaining that there are three components to CliftonStrengths Coaching. We call these Name It, Claim It and Aim It. When we say Name It, we are talking about helping you identify the talents from your CliftonStrengths report that most resonate with you. Remember, the 34 talent themes are just that, THEMES. I like to think of them as buckets of related talents. Your activator will be different than my activator. When you read your talent report – whether you have just your top 5 or the full 34 – you want to read the talent descriptions and highlight the words and phrases that you connect with most. In Claim It, you are developing an appreciation for your dominant talents. Sometimes these talents are so natural to us that we don’t even realize the role they have played in our lives – we take them for granted. Claiming them means to develop the self-awareness about power and opportunity these talents afford you. It is also about taking responsibility for investing in them and developing the talent into a strength.  Remember, Talent + Investment = Strength Aim It is all about intentionally developing your talents and understanding how to specifically use your talents to accomplish goals, overcome challenges, respond to things that happen every day. Remember, talents have both an outward presentation, how you use them, and can also act as a filter for the way you experience the world. There are four domains of talent: Executing themes that help you make things happen. Influencing themes that help you take charge, speak up and make sure others are heard. Relationship building themes that help you build strong relationships that hold a team together. Strategic Thinking themes that help you absorb and analyze information that informs better decisions. When you are starting something new, you can think about these four domains, and develop some goals within each and then think about how you can use your dominant talents – not limited to the talent themes within this domain – to achieve those goals. If you need to do some naming and claiming, you can think about these 4 talent domains, and ask yourself how each of your dominant talents have helped you make things happen, take charge, speak up and make sure others are heard, build strong relationships that hold a team together, absorb and analyze information to inform better decisions. Think of specific examples from your life and work, and then think about how your themes contributed to that example. I often suggest this as a journaling exercise adapted from the CliftonStrengths Talent Map Exercise.  Each day for a week, you could start by reading the description of one of your talents in your CliftonStrengths report, maybe even listen to an episode of Gallup’s Theme Thursday Podcast to gain deeper understanding of that talent theme, and then journal answering the following questions and identifying a specific example: How has this theme helped you make things happen? How has this theme helped you take charge, speak up and make sure others are heard? How has this theme helped you build strong relationships that hold a team together? How has this theme helped absorb and analyze information that informs better decisions? You may not have dominant talents in each domain of talent. That’s okay. I am particularly light on Executing themes.  I use Influencing and Relationship building themes to make things happen.  This is why the journaling exercise can be so powerful. It can help you realize that a lack of themes in a domain, doesn’t mean you lack completely lack talent in that domain.  When we know how we have been successful in the past, and we understand how to use our talents across domains, we can invest in them, and we can aim them with intention. Another activity that can help you prepare for success at the start of something new is to review the blind spots section for your top 5 (or 10 if you have your full report) talent themes.  These blind spots that are common to each talent theme are ways the theme can hold you back.  In essence, these are the ways your talents can show up more like a weakness.  Any talent misapplied can be a weakness.   Understanding how you might misapply a talent can help you avoid getting off on the wrong foot when starting something new.  I can recognize how many of the times I have failed or come up short are attributable to a misapplication of a talent, more than the absence of one. Your talents can also be a filter for the way you experience situations.  At the start of something new, be mindful of your feelings and emotions. If you are feeling negative emotions like frustration, disappointment, or even anger, check your themes. Are you experiencing something that could “offend” one of your themes? Let me give you an example: Activator is my number one theme. If I am in a meeting, and a decision to do something gets put off, I cringe a little bit, I role my eyes, I might even start to tune out.  My activator wants to get things started! Delaying a decision to start something, or try something “offends” my activator. Here’s another example, one of my dominant themes is relator. I like to work with a small team of people I am friends with and trust. My relator wants to build trust over time. Joining a new team, with people I do not know well can be challenging, especially if others on the team already know and trust each other. I need to fight two competing tendencies based on my themes, hang back until I have developed relationships and trust, or use my influencing themes to take charge (which can be a misapplication of talent). If instead I recognize what is going on, I can lean into my relator talents and my individualization talents to get to know the people on the team and build that trust more quickly. And this is a perfect example of how you can bring what you know about yourself and your talent themes together to aim them for success. To learn more about CliftonStrengths, visit http://gallup.com/cliftonstrengths or check out the link in the show notes. 

Aiming Your CliftonStrengths at the Start of Something New

This is an episode of Foster Career Chats from the career services team of the Foster School of Business Undergraduate and Specialty Masters Program.  On this Episode career coach Lindsey Friessnig talks about The Art of Small Talk with Andy Rabitoy, Director of Foster Career Services for undergraduate and special masters.  If you enjoy this episode, you can find Foster Career Chats on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

Guest Episode: Foster Career Chats - The Art of Small Talk

Austin Morton, Foster MBA 2019, is currently EV (Electric Vehicle) and Sustainability Program Manager at Element Fleet. It was great to speak with him about his career path and how he succeeded in achieving his goal of a post MBA career in the sustainability field which started at CLEAResult just after graduation. Before attending Foster, Austin worked for in communication roles in environment and sustainability including with the World Resources Institute. He knew that he wanted to continue working in sustainability after graduation.  While in the program, Austin participated in a variety of activities that allowed him to use his MBA skills on sustainability related projects including the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge, and NetImpact. Austin is one of my first return guests having been on to talk about his experiencing attending MBArk2Boulder, you can listen to that episode where we are joined by Alli Green who also attended MBArk at Expo West. Visit MBArk for more information about MBArk2Boulder, Expo West which we mention during our conversation Some of the other resources we discussed: Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge Dempsey Startup Competition Buerk Center For Entrepreneurship The Energy Gang Podcast ACT: Advanced Clean Transportation Expo Wood MacKenzie which now owns Green Tech Media Sustainabile Career Pathways Bloomberg Green and Bloomberg Hyperdrive Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF)   Foster Faculty and Classes: Elizabeth Sterns's class, Cases in Sustainability Jeff Shulman's classes in product management and pricing Charlie Donovan, Visiting Professor, focusing on sustainability Spreadsheet Modeling 2 Investments If you enjoyed this podcast and are interested in an impact career, you might also enjoy my conversation with Peter Boyd from the Yale School of the Environment and Yale School of Management, and Resident Fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment.  My conversation with 2-Hour Job Search author Steve Dalton is also relevant to anyone engaging in a custom career search at business school.   

Pursuing an MBA Career in Sustainability with Austin Morton

Austin Guyette, Foster MBA 2019, and investor with Voyager Capital talks about his career journey and how he successfully landed his dream job in venture capital. We also discuss the seattle startup and venture ecosystem, and even one of Austin's biggest regrets from his time at Foster.

Austin Guyette on Pursuing a Career in Venture Capital

On this episode, I speak with Professor Warren Boeker, the Douglas Olesen/Battelle Chaired Professor of Management  at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.  I invited Professor Boeker on the show to talk about innovation and design thinking, and how MBA candidates can prepare for roles that involve innovation. Professor Boeker's recent research has examined the dynamics of strategy formulation and execution in organizations at a corporate and business level. His other work focuses on the innovation process and organizational creativity, including idea generation, developing products into profitable businesses, and diffusing ideas throughout the organization. We covered alot of ground in our conversation, from corporate venture capital, to the impact of the Covid Pandemic induced WFH trend on innovation and design thinking, to some of the key skills that can contribute to success in an innovation career. We mentioned the following resources during our conversation: MIT Technology Review MIT Sloan Management Review Harvard Business Review The After Hours Podcast Stanford Social Innovation Review The d.School at Stanford's Resources  Designing Your Life  IDEOU  Wired Magazine Originals by Adam Grant  

Prof. Warren Boeker on Innovation and Design Thinking

On this episode, I speak with Rebecca Lovell. Rebecca holds an MBA from Foster, since she graduated her career has included roles with the City of Seattle office of economic development, Geekwire, the Northwest Entrepreneur's network, and Alliance of Angels. She teaches in the Technology Management MBA program at Foster, is a mentor for Techstars and the Female Founders Alliance and is a board director for the Washington Technology Industry Association.  She also currently serves as the Chair of the national Center for American Entrepreneurship.  When Rebecca and I sat down for this conversation in late February of 2020 -- as the threat of Coronavirus was beginning to become apparent but before the pandemic was declared and so much in-person work went remote -- she was the Executive Director of Create33, a membership organization and "founder-center" for high-growth technology entrepreneurs backed by Madrona Venture Group.  She has since been named the CEO of Denali Financial Consulting which  provides experienced, strategic, financial and operating leadership for growing companies.  Because of the rapid shift to everything-from home, this was a conversation that got stuck in my edit queue. Rebecca and I discussed her work at Create33 along with other in-person activities and I wasn't quite sure how much would be relevant amidst the pandemic shutdowns.  As I worked on editing it, I realized that so much of Rebecca's insights and advice are valuable to anyone interested in the venture and startup ecosystem here in Seattle. I did edit out some parts of the conversation that were no longer relevant. Rebecca and I talked about her experience in the MBA program, with the venture and startup community, and advice for students interested in pursuing a career that may involve working with startups. I hope you'll enjoy my conversation on careers and professional life with Rebecca Lovell. Rebecca shared the following events: Founders Live F-Bomb Breakfast Club WTIA Collaboration Institute - Ion And we both talked about the tremendous resource that is Geekwire, especially the Geekwire 200, a list of Pacific Northwest startups that are popular and trending among key online communities, and their Recent Fundings list. Rebecca shared so much great advice for students looking to engage with start-ups in Seattle. As we've heard so many of my guests say, "coffee meetings" are critical to building your network, and while we may still be a few months away from resuming in-person meetings, our students are having plenty of luck connecting with people over video conference for these informational interviews. Volunteering and getting involved in events that cater to the startup community, from conferences to meetups, again, many being held virtually because of the pandemic is a great way to meet and connect with people in the startup community. Thinking about the right time in a startup's life to engage with the company, for many tech startups, most of their hires are going to be on the engineering team until they get some seed or series a funding and have a headcount that has crossed into the double digits. And that hiring is likely going to be just-in-time. We also talked about how to assess startups as a prospective intern or employee, the importance of considering the type and quality of experience you will get, along with the executive mentorship opportunities, so you want to interview the company as much as they are interviewing you. 

Rebecca Lovell on Startups and Venture Capital in Seattle

Sam Ushio, founder of Ikigai Lab, host of the Ikigai Stories podcast and fellow Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach joins me for a conversation that will appear on both podcasts. We talk about how we both got to where we are today, the Japanese concept of Ikigai -- or your reason for being -- and moai -- a group of life long friends that support each other -- wellbeing, purpose and meaning and how it all relates to our work. Sam asks me about How students use CliftonStrenghts, and whether more students are seeking out purpose driven companies or impact careers. Visit ConversationsOnCareers.com for full show notes.

Sam Ushio on Ikigai, CliftonStrenghts, and Purpose

Back in 2019, I had the opportunity to attend a two-day Search Inside Yourself training lead by Tony Back and Larissa Benson sponsored by the UW Resilience Lab. It was an amazing opportunity to learn about, and have the lived experience of brining mindfulness practices into my daily life and work. I wanted to have them on the podcast to talk about Search Inside Yourself and some of the mindfulness practices that listeners can try. I interviewed the pair remotely in March of 2020, just a few days before the Covid-19 Pandemic forced the shutdown of in-person instruction and closed the UW Campus.  Due to some technical issues with the remote interview service I was using for the first time, the sound quality of the recording was less than ideal. Upon re-listening to the conversation, I decided that the content was still relevant today and did my best to clean up the audio, edit the conversation and release it here. Tony Back is a medical doctor, the co-director of the UW Center for Excellence in Palliative Care at the UW and a UW professor of Oncology and Medicine and an adjunct professor of Bioethics and Humanities. He is also the founder of Vital Talk a training organization for clinicians seeking to advance their communication skills with seriously ill patients. Larissa Benson is a leadership embodiment coach, the host of the Government Joy Network, Is the president of the board of the Whidbey Institute and use to lecture at the Evans School of Public Policy here at the University of Washington. We discuss how they both came to Search Inside Yourself -- the mindfulness training program developed at Google -- how they bring mindfulness practice into their work and life, and some practices you can try in your life to be more mindful and communicate more effectively. Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute www.siyli.org Search Inside Yourself (the book) Joy On Demand (the book) The Inner Work of Racial Justice by Rhonda Magee (chair of SIYLI and law professor at U San Fran) Leadership Embodiment by Wendy Palmer My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem - for trauma informed healing and embodiment practices Rick Hanson’s online course the Foundations of Well-Being and he has tons of free resources https://www.rickhanson.net/ `If you’d like to try mindfulness on your own, you can check out apps like Calm, Headspace, Ten Percent Happier, and Waking Up all end up requiring a subscription fee after a few free sessions. Insight Timer has thousands of free meditations, Oak and Healthy Minds are also free(mium). You can also find guided meditations from the Whole U and FreeMindfulness.org. Other resources at the university include the Whole U Meditation Series a video series that helps to reduce stress, increase calmness, and promote happiness. All of them are great, but there are two short, guided meditations on gratitude that by UW Mindfulness Manager Danny Arguetty and  UW Tacoma associate professor Jane Compson. You can listen to my conversation with Jane Compson from Season 1. 

Tony Back and Larissa Benson on Mindfulness and Search Inside Yourself

On this episode I share some tips for improving your behavioral interviewing. Find out more at http://conversationsoncareers.com

Tips Improving Your Behavioral Interviewing

I speak with former journalist and current technology leader Kristin Graham about business communication advice for normal times and this moment in 2020/2021 when we are working and learning remotely during the Covid-19 Pandemic.  Check http://conversationsoncareers.com for the full show notes.

Kristin Graham on Business Communication During a Pandemic

Conversations on Careers and Professional Life, from the Foster School of Business office of MBA Career Management Conversations with University of Washington and Foster School faculty, staff, alumni, executives, current MBA candidates and other experts relating to career development, planning, and resilience. If you're navigating a career change, pursuing your MBA, or looking to develop a resilient mindset to help you with your job search, this podcast may be for you!

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Conversations on Careers and Professional Life

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