The Virtual WaterCooler is back! addressing your career and networking questions, such as:
- How do you let your network know you are considering a big career change without it becoming public knowledge?
- Mentoring, advising and connecting is easy (and fun for me), but asking for help for myself still makes me very uncomfortable. How do I get past that?
- I’m moving from FT employment to being an entrepreneur, and seeking help on this identity shift and learning to network successfully in the right communities?
To answer these questions, I’ve tapped into my network for thoughts, reflections and answers.
As to how to tap your network when you’re wanting to make a hush-hush career change, I chatted with Sarah Feingold, an experienced startup general counsel who ditched the florescent lights of an office for the writers room, play room, and art studio, and Joyce M. Sullivan, a talent development and career reinventionist who creates environments for talented people to thrive.
Joining me at the watercooler to unpack the dynamics of asking for help were :
- Christina Blacken, founder of The New Quo, a leadership development and equity consultancy, helping leaders create equitable habits and goals through their narrative intelligence.
- Jennifer Iannolo, founder of IMPERIA™, a Global Innovation Incubator bringing together women creating social impact projects from 195 countries around the world.
- Manisha Thakor, (MBA, CFA, CFP) founder of the financial wellbeing consultancy, MoneyZen.
And I tackled the question of transitioning from FT to entrepreneurship with insights from:
- Joyce Shulman, co-founder and CEO: 99 Walks, lawyer turned serial entrepreneur who is committed to building authentic communities.
- Mary McKenna, technology entrepreneur & serial angel investor, Expert Advisor to the European Commission, dealmaker to Department for International Trade (DIT), co-founder of AwakenHub (a fast growing community for female founders on the island of Ireland) and recipient of a MBE by HM the Queen for services to digital technology, innovation and learning.
- Jennifer Iannolo, founder of IMPERIA™, a Global Innovation Incubator bringing together women creating social impact projects from 195 countries around the world.
- Tracey Welson-Rossman – founding member and Chief Marketing Officer at Chariot Solutions, founder of TechGirlz, a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring teenage girls to consider careers in technology, and founder of Journal My Health, a health tech company helping patients with chronic conditions tell their health stories with data.
Got a career question that needs an answer? Email me at kelly@buildyourdreamnetwork.com.
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Check out additional career and networking resources I’ve created for you, here.
