Candid Career Conversations with the Women of BCGDV

By: Jordan DeTar / December 20, 2019

On Thursday, December 5th Aspire to Her partnered with BCG Digital Ventures (BCGDV) to bring our audience a night of candid career conversations centered around our early career. BCGDV helps organizations think and act like venture capitalists through a portfolio of investable business ideas and a relentless dedication to consumers. During the event, we heard from five incredible BCGDV women on topics including landing your first job, networking, confidence in the workplace, getting more done by doing less, and personal branding. Everyone - mentors and attendees alike - left the event feeling inspired, energized, and excited about pursuing our career goals.

After mingling and enjoying some snacks, we kicked off the Candid Career Conversations panel with five BCGDV women - Rona Li, Kat Garcia (Kathleen Garcia-Manjarres), Alicia Siman, Naomi Goldin, and Iryna Papalamava. These women's backgrounds proved to be as diverse as our audience itself, as they bring with them experiences in investment banking, management consulting, graphic design, marketing, startup operations etc. Seeing the breadth of their experiences - and how they all ended up in the same company - gave us comfort that there truly isn't a linear path to any career. Our panelists represented different BCGDV groups - Growth, Venture, Product Management, and Strategic Design - providing us with a wide variety of perspectives around what it's like to work at BCGDV.

While the entire event was absolutely spectacular, I can pinpoint five major takeaways our panelists left us with after the event.

1) Good mentors care

Iryna kicked off the panel by asking the audience - rather than the mentors - a few questions: "Raise your hand to indicate which industry you're in"; "Raise your hand if you know where you want your career to go"; "Raise your hand if you have no idea what you want to do with your career". As a young woman who has attended many career-focused panels, this was the first time a panelist showed an interest in me and my career before telling his/her own story. The women at BCGDV continued with this approach throughout the event, authentically tailoring their responses to the people in the room - showing they both heard us and cared to help us. Good mentors are out there, and trust me, they care.

2) Your first career won’t be your last

As a young woman early in my career, I know as well as anyone how easily we can stress ourselves out thinking about our careers long-term. I think that's why I was drawn to management consulting - I didn't have to make any decisions about which industry, function, or type of business I wanted to pursue a career in. As a business analyst at a management consulting firm, I'm a generalist, a jane-of-all-trades, solving problems, learning what I like and don't like, and soaking in knowledge day-by-day and project-by-project. But when I think about my career in 5 or 10 years, I start to become concerned. What if I never decide what I want to do? What if I find myself 10 years out, good at many things but great at nothing? Well, as Naomi pointed out, not a single person on the panel is still in the career they began in. So to all of you 20-somethings stressing about whether you made the right decision with your first job and whether you'll ever discover your life's passion, the resounding advice was to relax. Sure, you should continue to explore your interests, but it's OK to not know what's next. After all, hindsight is 20/20. When you look back in a decade or two, the story you didn't even know existed will be written more clearly than you could've ever predicted.

3) Mentorship is mutually beneficial

During the panel, one of our audience members asked how to best reach out and ask for a networking call or coffee chat without feeling guilty for taking away a busy professional's sacred time. Naomi's initial advice stuck with me - ask to take them out for a coffee. This minor nuance immediately makes the meeting an exchange - you're asking for something and giving something. Alicia added that she's found networking with women more junior in their careers to be incredibly beneficial as it challenges her to be introspective about her own career. In fact, she was thinking about a particular conversation she had recently with a younger woman interested in her role at BCGDV. As she was telling me this after the panel, she caught eyes with someone in the room - the young woman who had inspired her to tell that story in the first place. Some call it a coincidence, others call it the magic of the Aspire to Her community. I'll leave up to you for interpretation ;)

4) Just go for it

A common theme that came from many of the panelists is to not underestimate yourself and your own determination. Success isn't gifted - it's earned. Rona landed her first job in investment banking by emailing 200 people she found on the Bloomberg database. Kat got her job at BCGDV by reaching out to the director of the Growth Architect cohort on LinkedIn. Iryna realized banking wasn’t the right industry for her and decided to make a career switch to marketing just one year into her career, which turned out to be the right move as she’s continued in that space for over 10 years. Alicia applied for a job as a graphic designer at a gallery in London while being quarantined in her dorm room with swine flu - then bravely took the position and hauled herself to another country to kick off her career. Naomi pursued a degree in an emerging field, strategic design, then landed her dream job as a design strategist at one of the only places with a Strategic Design department - BCGDV. Each of these women decided what they wanted, and then pursued it wholeheartedly. They didn't let anyone or anything stop them. As I heard their stories, I made a mental note to never accept the status quo. I'm a dreamer at heart, and sometimes I can reel it in or convince myself that my ambitions are too big to ever come true. While there's always got to be a balance between dreams and reality, these women gave me the reminder I needed that no one's stopping me. Just go for it.

5) Be your own advocate

Along the same line as just go for it, the panelists drove the night home with the message to be your own advocate. As women, we sometimes have a hard time negotiating and advocating for ourselves, but to compete with our male counterparts, we have no choice but to do so. Rona's advice when giving your elevator pitch is to tailor it to your audience. If you're interviewing at a company, ask your first interviewer what top three things they are looking for in a candidate. In your next round of interviews, incorporate those things into your elevator pitch. On a related note, Kat encouraged our audience to put themselves out there. Years ago, she contacted the director of the BCGDV Growth Architect cohort - Rob Derow - saying she was interested in chatting about his career path because he had done many things that she dreamed of accomplishing in her own career. After their 15 minute call, she sent him her portfolio and he suggested she reach back out when the time was right. Several years later, she did. Before she knew it, she was six months in at a job that she describes as a "dream every day." Had she not reached out, who knows where she'd be today. Be your own advocate - after all, you're pretty great, aren't you?

We couldn’t be more thrilled to have concluded our 2019 events calendar with this event. The women at BCGDV were incredibly engaging, encouraging, inspiring, and represented the epitome of the women we aspire to. As we look to next year, we are so excited for what’s to come. We can’t wait to continue growing alongside all of you!

xoxo,

Jordan

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