Category: job

business, career, corporation, job, youth

Is this the end of hierarchy?

Christa Avampato

With the current economy, the only case for hierarchy might be in the military. Have you ever wondered what a Senior Vice President General Manager Grand Pooba Chief of Everyone does? Me too. Who is making up titles this long and complicated? Companies too large to get out of their own way. 


The more I talk to my friends about their jobs, the more I hear the exact same frustrations continuously. “Not able to get anyone “of power” to listen to my ideas.” “Tired of feeling like I don’t count because I’m not a high enough rank.” “Why do 18 people need to approve every small decision we make?” “Why is everything SO SLOW here?”


There are many reasons for this commonality in their frustrations. It could be because many of my friends are on that cusp of being young though with enough years of experience under their belt to make bigger decisions than their titles “allow”. It could be that my friends are much smarter and more worldly than their bosses. It could that they’re all having a bad day – at the same time. 

The real reason I think they’re getting irritated is because the rules of the corporate game have changed and no one told their bosses, or their company CEOs for that matter. Seth Godin talks about industries as ecosystems, meaning they are dynamic. The rules change all the time, meaning corporate cultures need to change all the time. Adjustment, constant adjustment, is the name of the game. What worked for companies 10, 15, 20 years ago won’t work today. This is a brand new world. And it requires an intense curiosity and desire for growth that will keep today’s established companies relevant; without curiosity and growth they will be obsolete in the blink of an eye.

So what can big corporations do? Are they doomed? No – they just need to flatten out, especially at the top. A friend of mine recently attended a corporate training session and the trainer said that whenever they encounter a senior leader they need to look at their feet and let that leader run the whole conversation. I almost got sick. Who wants to work for an organization that not only doesn’t value youth, but does its best to make its young people feel insignificant? If corporations want to hang on to young people, they better learn to how to utilize their energy and ideas, quickly. Flatten out and give everyone at every level a chance to participate!

And for my friends who are frustrated with corporate rigidity? A few suggestions: think about branching out to try a new venture, maybe not for pay, but for peace of mind – for hope of what may pan out down the line. Offer your services to a start-up, or try something new like a language class that could have professional value in the future. It’s also powerful to gather the experience you can from where you are for however long you’re there. We all always have something to learn from whatever situation we’re in. Make sure to capture those learnings and take them with you when it’s time to give yourself a fresh start.      
career, corporation, economy, job

We’re going the wrong way! Who’s driving?

Christa Avampato

My friend, Jamie, was was telling me about a his sister’s job in retail. It’s an industry I’m passionate about and may return to someday. It’s the heart and soul of the 70% of our GDP created by consumer spending. They’re hurting, like so many industries, and in times of trouble companies need the most able navigator at the helm. The trouble, at least with Jamie’s sister’s company, is that everyone is playing a game of Pass-the-buck instead of Survivor. The answers to questions like “Who is our core customer?”, “How are they hurting right now?”, and “With our competencies how can we ease that hurt for them?” are critically important for companies that wish to come out the other side of this latest economic slide, or any economic slide for that matter. 


Jamie drew a metaphor that is so clear in my mind and it perfectly captured the situation with his sister. It’s as if everyone is in the back of the bus, facing the wrong way, and asking where we’re going. No one, no one is actually willing to grab the steering wheel and drive. That driver’s seat is a very dangerous place to be for sure, though sitting in the back, eyes covered, knowing no driver is up there steering is far worse. It’s a choice of the lesser of two evils, with advantages and disadvantages for each action. 

Let’s look at hat’s actually happening for Jamie’s sister – no one’s driving. A crash is practically unavoidable. A runaway car with no driver can only stay on the road for so long. The people in the back may feel that they have a better chance of survival if they hang out and wait for someone else to step up. That’s possible. Though the greater likelihood is that the whole operation goes down while everyone is wringing their hands. And the lead up to the crash is painful and anxiety-inducing. 

An alternative is that someone does take the helm, and the crash happens anyway. It would be a near certainty that the blame and guilt will fall to the driver, and that driver couldn’t hope to survive. But what if that driver can pull it off? At this point, it’s hard to imagine any industry coming out of this recession unscathed. With the right leadership, the wounds could be bumps and bruises instead of lost limbs and massive internal bleeding.

It’s a gamble – there are clear choices that need to be made now by every company. What’s not clear is the best way forward that causes the least number of casualties. Strong leadership that focuses on stakeholder needs now is best able to find a way up, over, or through. At this point, we have to ask ourselves a key question about that bus situation: If we had no intention or desire to drive, or at least take a shift at the wheel, then why did we get on the bus in the first place? It’s foolish and downright dangerous to leave an entire journey up to everyone else. 
books, career, entrepreneurship, job

Ladies Who Launch

Christa Avampato

I am in the midst of reading the book Ladies Who Launch. It’s part guide book, part inspirational story collection for women interested in entrepreneurship. In the uncertain times we’re now in, I’m thinking a lot about diversification. Traditionally, we get a job, we work hard, and pay for life from the salary of that job. In times of recession, which just today economists officially figured out we’re in, there’s a lot of talk about the importance of diversity in our investment portfolios. But what about in the ways we take in money. Isn’t it safer, and perhaps even advantageous, to have multiple sources of income? Companies diversify their products and services. Shouldn’t we, as average earners and consumers, do the same?


This book is about helping women to think about launching as a continuous pursuit. And that launch can revolve around a business idea, a project (personal or professional), a relationship. It draws its strength from encouraging women to get out in the world and stay active. I was a little skeptical at first, though I put my best foot forward and dove into the book after reading so many good reviews. 

After making notes throughout the afternoon on Sunday and considering questions like “What do I want my typical day to look like?” and “What would I do if I had no limitations and boundaries of any kind?”, I noticed that my step was a little lighter today. The things that may have upset me on other days didn’t phase me at all. And I noticed that I was bolder than normal, speaking my mind and sharing my views of even the most staid and traditional ways of doing things. 

There really is magic in thinking about ourselves as the CEO of Me, Inc. To think of our lives in a constant state of launching. Oscar Wilde said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” While I don’t think of my life as “in the gutter”, I understand his point. We might feel down-trodden by the news of recession, by the political situation around the world, by the violence and sadness that stretches across the news waves these days. This idea of launching, of taking flight, has the ability to lift us up. It empowers us and allows us to retake control of our lives. The very thought of launching allows us to let what ails and pains us to fall away. We begin to look at the opportunities before us rather than the challenges. Or better yet, we suddenly become able to look at the challenges and launch opportunity from them.          
career, corporation, education, job, magazine, Obama, Penn, work

A victory for generalists

Christa Avampato

Change at a fast pace can be disconcerting. 2 years ago, I was in the middle of my second (and last) year of graduate school. I knew I’d be doing an off-grounds job search, and my only criteria for my next employer was that I be treated with respect and be in New York City. Beyond that, the options were endless. I was grateful for a (seemingly) strong economy that allowed me to take my time to find the right match.


I was exploring a myriad of options, networking with alum in all stages of their careers and in different industries. I was explaining to one of my career counselors that I really enjoyed having a job where I wore a number of different hats. He looked at me quizzically. He is one of those people who really prefers to file people into neat little boxes. Needless-to-say, I cannot be confined to a neat little box of any kind when it comes to my career. (Mind you, this career counselor convinced the majority of my classmates to become investment bankers and management consultants and we see how that story’s gone in the last few months…) After I explained my varied work experience to him and employment possibilities I was considering he said to me, “Well, Christa, eventually we all have to decide what we want to be when we grow up. We can’t stay generalists forever.” Little did he, or I, know that being a generalist is just about the best thing I could be in the job market that would exist 2 years later. 

I walked away feeling a little badly about myself and my life. Maybe I was aimless; maybe I was like one of those little kids raiding her mother’s closet and wearing grown-up clothes that are 5 sizes too big. I was masquerading as a grown-up, with no intention of actually ever growing up. I am happy with my own special brand of optimistic realism. Fittingly, I went to work for a toy company right after graduation whose motto is, “I don’t want a grow up. I’m a ….” You get the idea. I found my place in the world being exactly who I am.

Surprisingly to that career counselor of mine, though no to me, being a generalist is what is savings me (furiously knocking on wood) right now in this economy. My broad-based experience is allowing me to play many different roles on one stage – I can do whatever task needs to be done at the time it needs to be done. And that’s true of many people I work with. It also happens to be true of President-elect Obama – his broad-based experience allowed him to speak genuinely to people from many different walks of life. His honesty, humility, and ability to emotionally connect with so many people and bring them together played a large part in his victory. It also helps that he’s brilliant, confident, and capable. He is a generalist at heart. 

This week, my Penn alumni magazine ran an article by President Amy Guttman entitled “A Pitch for the Uncharted Path” that described her speech at this year’s convocation. Like me, she meandered across a whole host of disciplines as an undergraduate, stopping to inspect anything and everything that interested her. And now she is Penn’s President, a job that could only be filled by a infinitely-curious generalist. She encouraged the newly matriculated class to be open to the possibilities that will be set before them in the coming four years. Being a person who has wanted to be everything from a champion dog breeder to an astronaut, I whole-heartedly agree. 

Our world is complex, and to get into the thick of it and make a positive impact, we have to appreciate every shred of that complexity. The best way to gain that appreciation is to live our lives in many different directions, on many different planes. Yes, this is a time that “a genius wants to live.” And it wouldn’t hurt if that genius also moonlighted as a generalist. 
career, economy, job

Quelling financial anxiety

Christa Avampato

This morning the New York Times ran a great article on quelling the financial anxiety that is running rampant in this country. They interviewed Margaret Wehrenberg, a clinical psychologist in Naperville, Ill., and co-author of “The Anxious Brain.” That’s the permanent state of my brain: anxious. What a perfect article for me to read. According to Dr. Wehrenberg, I’m using my anxiety wisely: to prepare for anything. There is power and empowerment in action. Use the anxiety as fuel to get going.  


When I graduated from business school, I didn’t have a signed job offer in-hand. I had turned down several because they weren’t the right fit, and in the Spring of 2007, it was okay to do that because to economy was cranking along at a good clip. You could even negotiate a job offer. How quickly times have changed! I have friends who would take anything reasonable at this point, including a significant cut in pay and title, just to be working in their chosen field.  

I got a great job offer in June of 2007 but not before I had completely run out of money. I had to take a cash advance on my American Express Card and incur a finance charge – the only time I have ever had that happen in my 12 years as a card member. I read two books by Suze Oreman and have followed her advice to the letter. Since then, I have been on a diligent savings plan. Tax refund? Banked. Sale of car? Banked. One day of wages per pay period? Banked. I have set up automated funding into into my savings account every month and have been working to save 8 months of very modest living expenses. I started these habits when times were good, and now that times are not-so-good, these habits are easing my anxiety-prone mind.

So I’m in my apartment this morning, waiting for CBS Sunday Morning to start, drinking tea, eating granola, and battening down the hatches, or at least planning to. I love my job and am very happy to have it. The job losses of so many of my friends is weighing on my mind, and to remedy that, I feel like I need to consider what life would be or could be like if I were in their shoes. We all need to do that in this economy. So here’s the plan:

Update the resume: keeping it fresh is something we should be doing all the time, regardless of the job market. It needs to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. Update it on Linked-In, and any other on-line source you feel is appropriate.

Get out there: networking is a continuous activity. It’s much easier to establish and refresh a network when you aren’t looking for something, and then the network is there to tap when you’re in need. Keep your name out there, and let your contacts know what you’re up to.

Get your would-be action items in order: I am a list maker. I love lists of any variety. I’m working on several this morning – key contacts, brands I am passionate about (more to come on that in a later post), and job sources.   

It’s rough out there and these are uncertain times. The best defense is one that is all-encompassing. We all want to feel safe and secure, and if this economy has taught us anything it’s that security is self-made. As Ani DiFranco sang, “Self preservation is a full-time occupation.”
Business Week, economy, job, multi-tasking, New York Times, simplicity

Growing by Shrinking

Christa Avampato

We’re in the midst of watching our economy contract. These are frightening times, uncertain times for many people. I was inspired by Nicholas Kristof’s column this week as he attempted to find a bright spot in all the gloom that is filling our news channels and our own minds. I was flipping through Business Week and saw an ad for IBM with the following headline in bold type: “Sometimes Growing Starts With Shrinking”. How can we connect Kristof’s ideas and the IBM ad? 

Aside from our economy, I have been thinking about examples of shrink leading to growth. The ipod – making our music libraries physically shrinking from 100’s or 1000’s of albums, tapes, and CDs into one powerful device helped Apple find new life. The same can be said of many electronics such as cell phones and computers. 
 
Let’s consider travel. There have been a myriad of articles that encourage travelers to select a few key cities for a vacation and take in all they have to offer rather than doing a whirlwind trip and only skimming the surface of many cities. It creates more powerful and lasting memories, not to mention providing for some relaxation – the whole purpose of many vacations. 
Another example that struck me was all of the research being done now on multi-tasking. By attempting to do many things at once, it turns out that we do all of them more poorly than we could if we focused on one at a time. I notice this all of the time at work as I’m trying to balance a whole host of projects and objectives. Some studies even show that a lack of focus caused by multi-tasking increases stress levels, worsening general health levels, and lowering IQs.    
Now consider our economy: Think about the benefit of shrinking our spending to increase our savings. Barry Schwartz talks about shrinking the number of options we consider as a means of being happier with the choices we make. And then one of my favorite mantras can bring an immeasurable amount of peace to your life: simplify, simplify, simplify.
All of this is meant to show that shrinking isn’t always bad and can even be good for us if we’re willing to put aside our belief that bigger and more always equals better. Sometimes doing and having less provides abundance in ways we never expected.   
career, creative process, creativity, GEL conference, innovation, job, travel, work

Arizona

Christa Avampato

I’m in Arizona for the ATM, Debit, and Prepaid Conference. Please contain your excitement. There is actually some good information on offer. It’s just packaged up by boring people in boring conference rooms. I’ve been a bit spoiled by innovation conferences like GEL where there are rooms full of fascinating characters. Weird, but fascinating, which is exactly just the right kind of fascinating for me. 


But enough about the conference. I’m really struck by Arizona. And not because it’s “maverick-y” as Tina Fey (or is it Sarah Palin?) would say. As I was driving from the airport, I was reminded of the book Women Who Run with the Wolves. In the introduction, Clarissa Pinkola-Estes talks about how the life in the dessert seems small on the surface and yet is huge underneath. There are intricate root systems and creatures of dazzling diversity that live below ground. There is a whole ecosystem that survives and thrives away from the watch of the human eye. Pinkola-Estes talks about how many people, women in particular, have these huge wells of emotion and thought and concern that exist beyond any other person’s grasp or understanding. 

The beauty of Arizona is stark. It’s another world here, like nothing I have seen or experienced anywhere else. Here, everything feels and looks foreign. My boss was commenting today how the food, the art, the culture, the history, and the landscape are unlike those in any other state. And you might think that sounds a bit odd to be some place so foreign in our own country. Somehow though, in it’s foreign-ness, it’s opened me up to new possibilities, to new ways of seeing everything in a different light than I saw it just yesterday. My stress from the last few days is gone. Anxiety vanished. How did that happen?

I believe in that saying, “So often what’s needed is a change of self and not a change of scene.” But for me, a change of scene provokes a change in me that I desperately need and can’t always ignite in my everyday living patterns. On occasion, our systems need a little shock and travel can do that for us, particularly to a place wholly unfamiliar. I needed to expand my mind to take in the new possibilities that my current tasks are providing. And I needed to get away from my computer screen, even for a little while, and not troll though my usual set of tasks. I guess the universe gave me exactly what I needed exactly at the time I needed it – Arizona.  

career, creativity, job, product, productivity, work

Moving forward from where you are

Christa Avampato

I’ve been really frustrated as of late by a project I just took over from a colleague. I have been dwelling on the phrase “At the beginning, we should have…” And you know what? It’s not productive. It’s actually counter-productive and it’s wearing me down. I’m sick of hearing myself talk about how frustrated I am. Imagine how my friends and family feel?


I woke up a little yesterday after an email from my mom. My best friend from childhood just lost her 27 year old cousin to cancer. My very dear friend, Ken, just had to put his mom into hospice. I have friends that are losing their jobs thanks to this financial crisis we’re now in, and they don’t know when they’ll be seeing a paycheck again. And I’m whining, literally whining, from my comfy couch in my comfy apartment after a day of work at a great company with a great brand. At the moment, I can’t stand myself. As my friend Kelly says, “I need to give myself a “cut it out.” “

By being so stuck on what other people should have done or should have considered,etc., I’m not moving forward. I’m treading water and quite frankly doing a lousy job of it. Now ,to be fair to myself, as my mother would ask me to be, I want to make sure these learnings are captured and put to good use in the very-near future. Yep, there were definitely mistakes that were made at the start of this project 6 months ago. And we’re paying a big price tag, literally and figuratively. No doubt about it. But I can’t change those mistakes. They’ve been made and we have to go from where we are. I’ve got the project now and no matter what the earlier decisions, I need to keep driving forward, eyes on the prize – which is straight ahead, not in the rearview mirror. 

I find an area that needs improvement, I jot it down, and I keep moving. I have to keep moving. My whining and internal negativity is weighing me down, in a time when I cannot afford the extra mental pounds. I need to get this project out the door so I can move on to other projects where I will be able to start from the beginning and draw on the learnings from this current project. 

We all learn by doing, and in the doing, we screw up now and then. It happens to all of us, regardless of intelligence or experience or motivation. It’s all part of the process, and if you don’t let the process play out, you are doomed to remain in it like a hamster in a wheel. And who wants to keep treading the same ground again and again when there are so many places to see?! 

art, calm, career, encouragement, job, meditation, peace, work

Keep Calm and Carry On

Christa Avampato

My friend, Monika, graciously hosts group dinners at her home; a small group of us are hoping to make this a regular event with each of us taking turns with the hosting duties. Yesterday, I went over to Monika’s and we were taking turns trading stories about work when I noticed a poster she just had framed. It’s reprint of a WWII British propaganda poster that reads “Keep Calm and Carry On”. I figured if the British could keep their cool during such tumultuous times, I could certainly do the same. 


At the moment I am feel a fair amount of anxiety, more than I have felt in a long time. A lot to do and not enough time to do it. All day today I’ve been working, getting things in order, and I have been concentrating on my anxiety trying to figure out how to get it to dissipate. It really is like this knot in the very pit of my stomach, and it’s casing my muscles to ache, especially in my shoulders and neck. So I sat for a few minutes on my couch, and concentrated on just breathing, just being. And remarkably I felt better despite that I hadn’t gotten any further along than I was 5 minutes before.      

I realized how much time and energy I was spending being frustrated and irritated. How much effort I was putting into my disappointment. And it was clouding my ability to see this tremendous opportunity for growth and change that was being laid at my feet. Challenging situation, yes. Impossible to get through, of course not. It’s a moment when I am rising to my potential and then some. And that is something to be grateful for, if only I can remember to “Keep Calm and Carry On”. I just ordered my poster. Get yours at:  http://www.barterbooks.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=32036    
business, career, economy, finance, financing, investing, job, loans, personal finance, politics

Worried about the economy? Here are some quick answers to common questions

Christa Avampato

I was going to post about myself, my life, and my observations about the world around me today. However, I’m hearing so many people say that they don’t understand how this current economic crisis is going to hit them personally, that I wanted to do my part to try to get the word out about 4 common questions that many people have asked me over the past few weeks:


1.) “Do I need to pull my money out of my savings and checking accounts and put it in my mattress?”

No. Please don’t do that. If it gets stolen or you have some disaster like a house fire, you’ll lose it all. Also, as long as your money is in a bank that is FDIC-insured, your money is safe up to $100,000. If you have more than $100,000 with the same bank, then take out the balance above $100,000 and move it to an entirely different bank, not just into another account at the same bank. The $100,000 insurance is per depositor, not per account! Don’t know if your bank is FDIC-insured? Call them, stop into a branch, or visit their website.

2.) “I think I am going to stop investing in my retirement fund because the market is so bad. Is that a good idea.”

No. No, no, no, no! Please don’t do this. Please. Economies go in cycles. You need the compounding on your retirement savings to make retirement plans work. If you pull out your money or stop investing, you will lose the compounding factor you need. And you’ll pay hefty penalties on the withdrawal plus lock in the loss. What you can and absolutely need to do is make sure that your portfolio is balanced. Many retirement plans have a “set it and forget” plan. That’s what I have. You plug in the number of years you have until retirement, and the plan automatically calibrates different investments to get you to your retirement goals. Still unsure? Make an appointment with an advisor at the institution that manages your retirement accounts – it’s free and it’s their job to explain your options to you. And if you don’t know how to make an appointment with them, contact your HR department. 

3.) “This job market is so crazy that I’ve decided to get out of the job market. Is that a good idea?” 

AH!!!!!!!!!! No – no no no. Don’t do that. If you retire now, you essentially lock in all the loses your retirement fund has just been hit with because you begin to draw on those funds yo worked so hard to save. This is bad – really, really bad. You worked hard all these years, and you’re not getting the full benefit of that hard work. If you’re quitting your job with nothing else to go to, you need to reconsider immediately. And change your mind – do no leave your job without another place to go. There will likely be nothing for you to go to. Now, I do think you should be networking and watching out for new employment opportunities that sound interesting. Actually, I think you should ALWAYS do this, even if you are 100% in love with your job. You need to cover your bases and in this day and age, getting a job interview (and probably getting your dream job or even just your next job) has much more to do with who you know rather than what you know.   

4.) “I don’t think Wall Street zillionaires should get a bailout so I’m against the Government’s $700 billion plan.”

I don’t blame you for being confused on the bailout – I blame politicians who don’t understand economics (inexcusable) and make this a partisan issue (also inexcusable). This is not about bailing out Wall Street. I’m really upset with the person who coined this plan as a “bailout” – it’s not. This money will make the Federal Government a bank that will loan money to banks like Citi or Bank of America to make it easier for those banks to responsibly loan money to average consumers (you and me). There will be plenty of Government oversight to make sure that money is loaned responsibly. And when the market recovers, those banks will pay back the Government, who will pay back the tax payers.   

If we don’t have this plan, here’s what will happen:
Access to credit will plummet, making it hard for all Americans and all American businesses to have any access to credit. All free markets need access to credit to function properly. This los of access to credit is not good – you won’t be able to get car loans, schools loans, mortgages, or any other kind of consumer loan. Credit card companies will cut your limit. All businesses, whether it’s your local pizzeria or GE, will not be able to get the loans, short-term and long-term, big and small, that they have to have to do business and to get us the goods and services we need to survive. Bankruptcies and home foreclosures will skyrocket, and as a result, unemployment will also skyrocket. We’ll be in a downward spiral.

So here’s the choice: a) pay some more taxes now and get that money back in the fairly near-future so our economy can get going again. b) pay a whole lot more now with people losing their homes and companies going out of business, causing unemployment to rise rapidly, and pay even more later as we struggle to deal with the fall out. And we will ALL deal with the fall-out, especially those in lower and middle income brackets. The recovery from option b) will be slow and painful. a) will be less painful and shorter. I’m going with a). I don’t like that we’re in this situation, but here we are.

This might be the only idea that George Bush and I will agree on, and I took some convincing. I read A LOT about this, talked and listened to a lot of people very knowledgeable in finance. At this late date, the horse is out of the economic barn and the only way to corral him back inside and under control is through a rescue plan. There simply is no other better option.