In my new role as a Quantitative Risk Technology executive, I continue to operate in a professional field with few women in leadership roles.
Quantitative Finance is a multidisciplinary field where math, science, technology and finance come together. It is the sweet spot of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
Quantitative Finance is one of the most exciting and fast growing areas of Risk Management and Capital Markets however there is a lack of women role models in leadership positions.
For those who either have followed my blogs before or have met me at women forums you know that we see a serious lack of women and more so women in leadership positions in STEM careers. I have been a champion of attracting young women into STEM careers for quite some time and have taken this problem to the Capitol Hill.
More recently I had the opportunity to address this problem during an interview with the Hispanic Executive magazine.
When I first decided to switch from the emerging technologies field to Quantitative Finance and Analytics, I was looking for a complex leadership role in the interception of quant, technology and business. Then right after I walked into this role I spotted and already familiar trend – there is lack of quant women in leadership positions. Still today, after numerous efforts to hire a quant woman, all my direct reports are men. This is why one of my main goals as a Quant Risk Executive is to provide a role model to other women who want to follow this career path.
Last year, I visited the Carnegie Mellon Computational Finance program to talk to the students about quantitative technology positions in financial services.
I like their program because in addition to the rigorous quantitative curriculum students get exposure to business classes and I was also very pleased to see a good number of young females pursuing degrees in Mathematical Finance and Computational Finance. Unfortunately, several female students were looking for quant research positions and very few applied to our roles.
The first step is to create a pipeline of young women. The second step is to help them to develop the soft skills that are needed to advance to a leadership role
Helping young quant females to help them develop soft business skills it is very important. First because these skills will help not only to advance in their careers in Corporate America but also because a deeper understanding of the business will help them to develop models that take into account common sense or using a more quantitative jargon models that will take into account the volatility of the human decision making process.
Finally, for those women in quantitative fields that are looking to develop softer skills that will complement their quantitative skills, here are some tips that require additional attention and perhaps training and development:
- A good business decision make on time is better than a perfect decision make later.
- Perfection is a relative term. Look for an efficient solution (efficient in this context could be a result of cost, time and resources).
- What you do is as important as How you do it.
- Don’t be afraid to say that you are not 100% sure on your answer. But always ask for an opportunity to follow up with the right answer.
- Learn to explain problems in business terms and to deal with uncertainty.
Showing posts with label women mentoring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women mentoring. Show all posts
Friday, July 6, 2012
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Five Leadership Lessons
We use leadership skills every day at work. Why not apply these same skills to our personal lives?”
How can we draw the correlation between leadership skills and personal effectiveness in balancing career, family and relationships?
In the book “Connecting My Dots”, I am sharing lessons that will empower you to apply your leadership skills that make you successful at work to your personal live. I will also tell you that there is not a formula you can flawlessly replicate to achieve success, because life is complex, relationships are unique, and each situation is different. Sometimes we need to make mistakes in order to learn how to assess a situation the next time it comes around.
I once thought that career success would be the main challenge I would have to face in my life. With that said, I was ready to focus my energy and strengths into achieving professional excellence. However, life showed me that raising two kids and preserving a cross-cultural marriage for twenty-five years, which entailed two immigrations and the numerous hardships caused by distinct personalities and backgrounds, could be at least as challenging as achieving career success.
Here are two of the Five Leadership Lessons for Multidimensional Success:
Lesson 1- Define Success on Your Own Terms: Achieving your dreams begins with a definition of what success and happiness mean for you.
Lesson 2- Don't Wait Too Long for What You Want
Lesson 3- Find the Right Partner
Lesson 4- Play Multiple Roles
Lesson 5- Don’t Give Up during Bad Times: How you handle difficult situations is what defines who you are. During bad times, couples have the opportunity to really show commitment to each other, to their relationship and their children. While marriage life is not a “perfect picture”, marriage is full of memorable and unforgettable moments. However, those priceless moments will come with a daily price tag.
Read this book at learn how to increase your personal effectiveness and use simple tools to balance career, family and relationships.
How can we draw the correlation between leadership skills and personal effectiveness in balancing career, family and relationships?
In the book “Connecting My Dots”, I am sharing lessons that will empower you to apply your leadership skills that make you successful at work to your personal live. I will also tell you that there is not a formula you can flawlessly replicate to achieve success, because life is complex, relationships are unique, and each situation is different. Sometimes we need to make mistakes in order to learn how to assess a situation the next time it comes around.
I once thought that career success would be the main challenge I would have to face in my life. With that said, I was ready to focus my energy and strengths into achieving professional excellence. However, life showed me that raising two kids and preserving a cross-cultural marriage for twenty-five years, which entailed two immigrations and the numerous hardships caused by distinct personalities and backgrounds, could be at least as challenging as achieving career success.
Here are two of the Five Leadership Lessons for Multidimensional Success:
Lesson 1- Define Success on Your Own Terms: Achieving your dreams begins with a definition of what success and happiness mean for you.
Lesson 2- Don't Wait Too Long for What You Want
Lesson 3- Find the Right Partner
Lesson 4- Play Multiple Roles
Lesson 5- Don’t Give Up during Bad Times: How you handle difficult situations is what defines who you are. During bad times, couples have the opportunity to really show commitment to each other, to their relationship and their children. While marriage life is not a “perfect picture”, marriage is full of memorable and unforgettable moments. However, those priceless moments will come with a daily price tag.
Read this book at learn how to increase your personal effectiveness and use simple tools to balance career, family and relationships.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Mentoring 2.0
Mentoring is a 2 way street.
In today’s world of constant change and evolving opportunities, women need role models and real personal stories of women from diverse groups who have achieved their goals and overcome barriers along the journey, providing with their actions, tangible examples to women looking for the path to success.
Leadership training is one area of opportunity to address the needs of emerging women leaders. For the most part, corporate leadership training provides women with career development guidance, but the majority of training curricula continue to emphasize the male model of leadership and are not designed to meet women’s needs. Current leadership training is unilateral and does not teach women how to become contextual leaders and to switch between work and personal life.
Like many of you, I have also attended numerous leadership training programs through my career. And recognize that, while some gender issues women face in corporate America are the same across cultural groups, other issues have their roots in cultural traditions.
As women are trying to develop their success plans or revise the ones they have, I encourage them to seek the advice from several mentors. Sometimes you need to connect with a mentor for career development that is different from the mentor for personal and family success.
Mentors can act as a sounding board and role models. They can also point out opportunities and inspire you with their examples. Establish Mentoring relationships that last are based on common understanding and personal connection.
“Connecting My Dots” provides mentoring by telling personal stories of success and failures.
Do you want to share a story that will provide guidance to young high achieving women trying to connect their dots and achieve career, family and personal goals success?
In today’s world of constant change and evolving opportunities, women need role models and real personal stories of women from diverse groups who have achieved their goals and overcome barriers along the journey, providing with their actions, tangible examples to women looking for the path to success.
Leadership training is one area of opportunity to address the needs of emerging women leaders. For the most part, corporate leadership training provides women with career development guidance, but the majority of training curricula continue to emphasize the male model of leadership and are not designed to meet women’s needs. Current leadership training is unilateral and does not teach women how to become contextual leaders and to switch between work and personal life.
Like many of you, I have also attended numerous leadership training programs through my career. And recognize that, while some gender issues women face in corporate America are the same across cultural groups, other issues have their roots in cultural traditions.
As women are trying to develop their success plans or revise the ones they have, I encourage them to seek the advice from several mentors. Sometimes you need to connect with a mentor for career development that is different from the mentor for personal and family success.
Mentors can act as a sounding board and role models. They can also point out opportunities and inspire you with their examples. Establish Mentoring relationships that last are based on common understanding and personal connection.
“Connecting My Dots” provides mentoring by telling personal stories of success and failures.
Do you want to share a story that will provide guidance to young high achieving women trying to connect their dots and achieve career, family and personal goals success?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Do You Have a Role Model?
On Dec 31st, I sat down with a cup of strong Cuban coffee and began to reflect on my defining moments this past year. I wanted to connect my dots from 2008 and look forward to 2009.
Mentoring has been a major focus for me and an important aspect of my life that provides inspiration and sense of purpose. It is also a way to follow the legacy of my mother Dr. Noemi Perez who passed away last February (her wiki is available in spanish). At the time, we were working together on the book “Connecting My Dots”. She was a great supporter of this work because the book is about mentoring and the challenges of having a successful career while balancing family and marriage. She was a role model not just to me, but also a role model and mentor to many young women and men.
The year 2008 was a year of personal loss, but also a time of personal growth. First, I had the unique opportunity to sponsor the 2008 Mentoring program for the eCommerce organization and to collaborate with two fantastic women – Lori and Siobhan – who were the driving force behind the success of this program. I met Miriam, a young dynamic woman, who is developing a framework for a Mentoring program targeted to Latino employees. And I began working with a group of women from NCTA WISE organization, developing a Mentoring program for STEM professionals that we plan to launch as a pilot this year for the Charlotte region under the theme: “Geek is Chic”.
Passion and motivation lead to success. People, particularly young people, need to have role models that inspire them. The need for successful role models is even more important among young high achieving women.
Even more, the feedback of many participants in our mentoring program told us that women like to learn from real personal stories of other women that have achieved their goals and overcome barriers along the journey. That’s why I decided to talk about mentoring through personal stories of success and failures. And by the way, men also like to make connections to personal stories.
Mentoring young women, particularly in the IT profession helped me recognize even more, the relevance of the dilemma I had personally faced many times during my career, including the pressure and sacrifices imposed on women in balancing a career and family.
To achieve career success many women make substantial trade-offs: staying single, getting a divorce, or not having kids. Young high achieving women are put onto a successful, yet demanding career development path with very little guidance or leadership training on how to apply these success principles to their personal lives. When they see that a large percentage of high-achieving women do not have children or long-lasting relationships, these young women fear that they will not be able to have a family if they choose a leadership career.
As a mentor and a mother, I always ask myself a question: what are we doing to provide guidance to young women in their path to achieve multidimensional success on their own terms?
More women are choosing an executive and leadership career path, but at the same time career success requires that we make trade-offs and learn how to prioritize across career, family and personal demands. Recently through the Anita Borg group on LinkedIn, I became aware of Mentoring-in-a-Box toolkit available at NCWIT. This toolkit provides an excellent mentoring curriculum and tools for women in IT that are trying to balance the demands of a success career and family needs. I suggest you check out this toolkit. You can also join Women 2.0 LinkedIn group for professional networking.
When I think about Mentoring, I think about the importance of role models in the professional and personal development of young women.
When I think about Success, I always remember a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “You must do the things you think you cannot do”
Take Away: To achieve success you need to enlist your family and spouse to support your goals. You also need to have the courage to make trade-offs and the determination to make sacrifices.
Mentoring has been a major focus for me and an important aspect of my life that provides inspiration and sense of purpose. It is also a way to follow the legacy of my mother Dr. Noemi Perez who passed away last February (her wiki is available in spanish). At the time, we were working together on the book “Connecting My Dots”. She was a great supporter of this work because the book is about mentoring and the challenges of having a successful career while balancing family and marriage. She was a role model not just to me, but also a role model and mentor to many young women and men.
The year 2008 was a year of personal loss, but also a time of personal growth. First, I had the unique opportunity to sponsor the 2008 Mentoring program for the eCommerce organization and to collaborate with two fantastic women – Lori and Siobhan – who were the driving force behind the success of this program. I met Miriam, a young dynamic woman, who is developing a framework for a Mentoring program targeted to Latino employees. And I began working with a group of women from NCTA WISE organization, developing a Mentoring program for STEM professionals that we plan to launch as a pilot this year for the Charlotte region under the theme: “Geek is Chic”.
Passion and motivation lead to success. People, particularly young people, need to have role models that inspire them. The need for successful role models is even more important among young high achieving women.
Even more, the feedback of many participants in our mentoring program told us that women like to learn from real personal stories of other women that have achieved their goals and overcome barriers along the journey. That’s why I decided to talk about mentoring through personal stories of success and failures. And by the way, men also like to make connections to personal stories.
Mentoring young women, particularly in the IT profession helped me recognize even more, the relevance of the dilemma I had personally faced many times during my career, including the pressure and sacrifices imposed on women in balancing a career and family.
To achieve career success many women make substantial trade-offs: staying single, getting a divorce, or not having kids. Young high achieving women are put onto a successful, yet demanding career development path with very little guidance or leadership training on how to apply these success principles to their personal lives. When they see that a large percentage of high-achieving women do not have children or long-lasting relationships, these young women fear that they will not be able to have a family if they choose a leadership career.
As a mentor and a mother, I always ask myself a question: what are we doing to provide guidance to young women in their path to achieve multidimensional success on their own terms?
More women are choosing an executive and leadership career path, but at the same time career success requires that we make trade-offs and learn how to prioritize across career, family and personal demands. Recently through the Anita Borg group on LinkedIn, I became aware of Mentoring-in-a-Box toolkit available at NCWIT. This toolkit provides an excellent mentoring curriculum and tools for women in IT that are trying to balance the demands of a success career and family needs. I suggest you check out this toolkit. You can also join Women 2.0 LinkedIn group for professional networking.
When I think about Mentoring, I think about the importance of role models in the professional and personal development of young women.
When I think about Success, I always remember a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “You must do the things you think you cannot do”
Take Away: To achieve success you need to enlist your family and spouse to support your goals. You also need to have the courage to make trade-offs and the determination to make sacrifices.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Connecting with a Mentor
I said that I will update the blog once a week. However, I just posted my first entry yesterday and I am back again.
Today first thing in the morning, I met with a young associate to talk about mentoring. He is in a mentoring relationship with a senior manager and both of them are learning and getting value from the interaction. They are crossing the lines and connecting instead of watching from their side of the road.
Mentoring is a two way street.
Later, I attended a Women Executive lunch where I met several women who shared with me the importance of developing role models for young women. Young women and men can benefit from a mentoring relationship because mentors can serve as a sounding board or even become role models.
In particular, today young women are faced with an overwhelming number of options and they could benefit from strong role models that can inspire them. The lack of role models for women in the IT profession is one of the areas of focus of mine.
Together with many other women in NCTA WISE , we organize networking events and programs for women in the Charlotte NC and provide the opportunity to meet and talk with role models who have achieved career success while balancing their career and personal goals.
Just read about a study conducted with more than 25,000 students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). More than 70 percent of women responding said they did not have a consistent source for advice and support.
My last though for today is that Mentoring and Networking can be very valuable only when first you have an objective or a goal in mind. In other words, do not come to a Networking event or ask for a Mentor waiting for a miracle to happen.
COME with a purpose in mind!
Today first thing in the morning, I met with a young associate to talk about mentoring. He is in a mentoring relationship with a senior manager and both of them are learning and getting value from the interaction. They are crossing the lines and connecting instead of watching from their side of the road.
Mentoring is a two way street.
Later, I attended a Women Executive lunch where I met several women who shared with me the importance of developing role models for young women. Young women and men can benefit from a mentoring relationship because mentors can serve as a sounding board or even become role models.
In particular, today young women are faced with an overwhelming number of options and they could benefit from strong role models that can inspire them. The lack of role models for women in the IT profession is one of the areas of focus of mine.
Together with many other women in NCTA WISE , we organize networking events and programs for women in the Charlotte NC and provide the opportunity to meet and talk with role models who have achieved career success while balancing their career and personal goals.
Just read about a study conducted with more than 25,000 students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). More than 70 percent of women responding said they did not have a consistent source for advice and support.
My last though for today is that Mentoring and Networking can be very valuable only when first you have an objective or a goal in mind. In other words, do not come to a Networking event or ask for a Mentor waiting for a miracle to happen.
COME with a purpose in mind!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Dots2Connect
Welcome to my Blog: “Dots2Connect”
I am calling my Blog “Dots2Connect” because this conversation is about You and Me and We all have many dots to connect in order to plan and achieve our goals and dreams.
First let me tell you few things about me that my professional and leadership profile will not tell you. I like to travel and discover new things. I have traveled extensively and lived in three countries. I also enjoyed writing including writing poetry. In my 25 years of a professional career I have worked across many different sectors and enjoy roles where I need to overcome obstacles and can create new things.
I am passionate about many topics and I will write about them in my blog. Sometimes I will talk about emerging trends, social media, mobile, and emerging technologies but most of the time, I will share my thoughts about Mentoring.
The last two weeks, I have been very busy reviewing, editing and formatting my book: "Connecting My Dots" - A woman's leadership guide to multidimensional success. This is because I decided to do “self-publishing” instead of waiting for an agent to knock on my door.
Women and Multidimensional Success - I think it is important to talk about multidimensional success because many young women want to achieve career, family and personal success but are afraid that they will not be able to have a family if they choose an executive career when they see that a large percentage of high achieving women do not have children or a long lasting relationship. For many women success means achieving not just professional recognition but also a fulfilling family life and personal happiness.
But the question is at what cost? Success does not come without making trade-offs or personal sacrifices. However, with every obstacle you find in your road it comes an opportunity to define your plan and determine what achieving multidimensional success means for you.
From my involvement in mentoring I have learned that people like to connect lessons and advice with real life stories. My inspiration for the book came from mentoring young women who want to plan for career success, but to my surprised I found out that many men also expressed interest in reading the book.
The way I plan to host this blog is to do small posts on different topics. I will probably update the blog once a week. And for a quick update you can always find me on Twitter under: twitter.com/curiosidad
I hope that you will find my Thoughts = helpful and my Perspectives = refreshing.
I would also like to hear your personal stories on how you are “Connecting Your Dots.”
I am calling my Blog “Dots2Connect” because this conversation is about You and Me and We all have many dots to connect in order to plan and achieve our goals and dreams.
First let me tell you few things about me that my professional and leadership profile will not tell you. I like to travel and discover new things. I have traveled extensively and lived in three countries. I also enjoyed writing including writing poetry. In my 25 years of a professional career I have worked across many different sectors and enjoy roles where I need to overcome obstacles and can create new things.
I am passionate about many topics and I will write about them in my blog. Sometimes I will talk about emerging trends, social media, mobile, and emerging technologies but most of the time, I will share my thoughts about Mentoring.
The last two weeks, I have been very busy reviewing, editing and formatting my book: "Connecting My Dots" - A woman's leadership guide to multidimensional success. This is because I decided to do “self-publishing” instead of waiting for an agent to knock on my door.
Women and Multidimensional Success - I think it is important to talk about multidimensional success because many young women want to achieve career, family and personal success but are afraid that they will not be able to have a family if they choose an executive career when they see that a large percentage of high achieving women do not have children or a long lasting relationship. For many women success means achieving not just professional recognition but also a fulfilling family life and personal happiness.
But the question is at what cost? Success does not come without making trade-offs or personal sacrifices. However, with every obstacle you find in your road it comes an opportunity to define your plan and determine what achieving multidimensional success means for you.
From my involvement in mentoring I have learned that people like to connect lessons and advice with real life stories. My inspiration for the book came from mentoring young women who want to plan for career success, but to my surprised I found out that many men also expressed interest in reading the book.
The way I plan to host this blog is to do small posts on different topics. I will probably update the blog once a week. And for a quick update you can always find me on Twitter under: twitter.com/curiosidad
I hope that you will find my Thoughts = helpful and my Perspectives = refreshing.
I would also like to hear your personal stories on how you are “Connecting Your Dots.”
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