On the way to
In some cases, those obstacles are other people who are on the same career path, but are a rung or two higher on the same ladder and unable or unwilling to move.
When there's no immediate rung to climb, when work feels monotonous or colleagues are uncooperative, there are various strategies women can deploy to get unstuck in their careers, these executives said during a panel discussion during Payments Forum in Hollywood, Florida, last week.
After many years at Discover, Judith McGuire, who is now senior vice president of global products at the Riverwoods, Illinois-based card network, felt crunched by the demands of home and work and decided to cut her schedule to 30 hours a week so she could pick her children up from school every day. But when McGuire returned to full-time work, she suddenly felt stuck.
"I was in a role where I was a successor, and the person [in that job] wasn't going to retire or move on," she said. Over her 17 years at Discover, McGuire has always been willing to take on challenging jobs, which helped her advance to bigger jobs with more responsibility. But in this case, she opted to move sideways to a harder job at the same company, which eventually put her in a position to advance a few years later.
Don't wait for someone to tap you for promising roles, McGuire advised.
"Be aggressive about navigating your career and pursuing things that interest you, because when you're happy in your role, you'll thrive," she said.
It was always clear to Yaminah Sattarian, a senior vice president at Cleveland-based KeyBank, that she would need to be the architect of her own career.
As the daughter of immigrants, Sattarian put herself through school and developed a strong work ethic. Over several years, she volunteered to take on challenging tasks and developed a strong foundation of knowledge and connections in global treasury management, first at PNC Financial Services, then Royal Bank of Scotland. She arrived at KeyBank a dozen years ago, where she is group lead for corporate and consumer vertical enterprise payments.
Doors didn't automatically open for Sattarian. A defining moment in her career came years ago when she was at an off-site meeting in Chicago and unexpectedly received word of an important meeting taking place at 8:30 a.m. the next morning in Cleveland. Sattarian learned she was expected to present information at the meeting and for unknown reasons, her boss had failed to inform her of the event.
"I only had the evening to prepare, but I got on a 5:45 a.m. flight the next day, and I was ready. I did extremely well at that meeting," she recalled, noting that her quick action and ability to exceed expectations in adverse circumstances helped to propel her career.
Chelsea Puckett, senior vice president and strategic payments leader at Enid, Oklahoma-based Stride Bank, who was recently honored as part of last year's
"Don't try to always be the smartest person in the room — hire people who can help your team grow so that you can move up," Puckett said, noting that leadership opportunities are expanding faster for women in payments than in some other industries. "There are more women working in technology now and at senior levels too," she noted.
Moving up in an organization usually calls for shouldering more responsibility, but knowing how to say "no" at times is critical to balancing personal and work life, Puckett said. "Set expectations up front," she said.
Elena Whisler, who was appointed chief client officer at The Clearing House last year, said one of the most important ways to avoid getting stuck on a career ladder is to be honest with yourself.
"There are times when you don't feel motivated, and there's a reason for that," Whisler said. "Take a moment and figure out why. Are you not learning? Are you not around people who push you [to do more]? Are you not in an environment that aligns with your north star?"
Acknowledging career frustrations can help people prepare for new opportunities the next time there is an organizational or industry shift, said Whisler, who has played a key role in helping financial institutions adopt faster payments via the New York-based organization over the last four years. She previously worked at FIS, Fiserv and the Federal Reserve.
"You don't always need to make an immediate change, but realize that you're in control. You can plan [to take action] when a good opportunity arises. Be patient, champion yourself to people above you [in the organization] about what you're doing and what you want to do. Your allies are your village," she said.
