Our Young Professionals team held another digital Lunch Talk on December 15, 2021. This time, the focus was on how young women can make their voices heard and how they can best communicate their ideas, wishes and achievements. Over 40 participants signed up, including many young women.

Fondsfrau Anke Dembowski , began by introducing Fondsfrauen´s new women's buddy program: It has been set up this year, in addition to the mentoring program for experienced forces that has already existed for 6 years, as a further mentoring program for women starting their careers who have less than 5 years of professional experience. The application window is still open, until January 31. If you would like to read more or apply, you can do that here .

From left to right: V.l.n.r.:Anke Dembowski, Julia Pomer, Judith Galter, Simin Heuser, Teresa Schulden.
Foto: Julia Trejo

 

 

Afterwards, the panel discussed which topics are of particular concern to the group of women starting their careers, and which could therefore also be a topic in the Buddy Program.

Anke Dembowski moderated the discussion with the following panelsists:

  • Judith Galter - She works at Bitpanda, a trading platform for digital assets (Vienna)
  • Simin Heuser. She is a financial journalist, and many know her from her social media activities at Fondsfrauen (Cologne)
  • Julia Pomer. She is Director Wholesale Clients Germany & Austria at ThomasLloyd Global Asset Management (Zurich).
  • Teresa Schulden. She is Business Manager for Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe at BlackRock (Frankfurt)

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In the conversation, it was always about one thing: The thing with Cinderella does not work in real life! We don't get ahead quite as modestly as in the fairy tale and don't realize what is important! We have to make ourselves visible and be heard! The take-aways from the discussion round were as follows:

  • It is important that we do not hide our abilities. Rather, we should appear confident and make our points calmly and clearly.
  • We may and should draw attention to our special knowledge, successes and skills. Even if this seems like self-praise to us, it is not usually perceived negatively by third parties.
  • Women often apologize for things they did not cause. They also like to weaken their statements with a "maybe" or "I don't know, but...". We don't need that!
  • Women career changers in particular bring something with them that is desirable: expertise from other disciplines that is brought into the world of finance. Career changers should be aware of this advantage instead of seeing it as a shortcoming.
  • Sometimes we take things that bother us personally, even if they arise from the situation and are not meant personally at all. Don't get angry for long, just get on with it! is the motto.
  • Everyone is grateful when we contribute good ideas - even if they don't come from us. Getting good ideas across is definitely better than keeping your mouth shut!
  • If we have something that motivates us to perform at our best, we should articulate it clearly! Otherwise, our boss cannot know whether we are more eager for a promotion, a company car, a bonus, or more work flexibility. Therefore, we must clearly state what we are striving for. And by the way: don't think that our expectations contain unfair demands... most of the time they don't!

And what the panel gave the bosses to take away with them: Give quieter employees time to speak, too! Encourage them to share their views! Or talk to them individually. Even quiet characters have interesting things to say that can help the company move forward!

Profilbild von Anke Dembowski

Anke Dembowski

Anke Dembowski is a financial journalist and author of various investment fund-related and other financial books. She is also a co-founder of the "Fondsfrauen" network.

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