Whether you’re supremely happy in your current job, beginning to consider what comes next, or actively on the hunt, an intentional approach to career planning can help set you up for success and make the process easier. We reached out to career advisor and Co-Owner of CFW Careers, Cynnie King, for some tips and tools that she and the individuals she’s coached have found most effective through the years. Check out her five tips for successful career planning below!

Melissa Hatter has been building and leading Customer Success and Account Management Teams for the past 20+ years. Based in NYC, she currently leads the Enterprise Customer Success Team at Stripe. Before Stripe, she held leadership roles in account management, customer success, and operations at large companies such as NBC and small and medium-tech start-ups. Prior role include Head of Customer Success at Leaf, VP of Customer Success at Emissary, and Head of Customer Success and COO at Frankly Media (now Engine Media).

In June 2020 we connected with Equity consultants and experts, Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully, of Tidal Equality following the launch of their Equity Sequence™️. An action-driven alternative to anti-bias training, the Equity Sequence™️ is a series of 5 simple questions designed to drive equality in everyday workplace decisions and actions. Cultivating Equitable and Inclusive Workplaces: A Conversation with Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully of Tidal Equity — You can read that conversation here.

After an interview, it’s easy to walk out of the room (or hang up the phone), take a deep breath and say “phew, glad that’s over.” The last thing you feel like doing is crafting a thoughtful, insightful note to send to the interviewer(s). Most professionals already know that it’s best to send a thank you note after an interview (within 24hrs!). Surprisingly, most professionals also tend to miss this golden opportunity to solidify the positive impression they just left on the hiring manager because they feel rushed, they don’t know what to say, or they consider it a trivial part of the vetting process.

Our conversation with Rebecca touches on: data that bring together the different departments and the ‘why’ behind the numbers, the challenge of story-telling in the feature-led world of SaaS, and how to assess marketing leadership talent in the interview process. Read on for our conversation!

As a recruiter at CFW Careers, this Women’s History Month, I find myself reflecting on today’s challenges around building and sustaining diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces, and how different the considerations are from those of decades past. Regarding gender equality, today a major challenge remains setting the conditions for women’s career progression and growing the representation of women in leadership and on boards.

Almost three years ago, I was introduced to Chantel George by Myrna Datilus. As Myrna said to me, “She’s someone you should know…” That was an understatement. Following Chantel’s launch of Sistas in Sales, attending her first big event, and then witnessing how she grew the organization, was awe-inspiring. We’re fans and eager to promote and contribute to her cause, a cause aligned with our mission of building diverse and inclusive workplaces and helping individual careers flourish. We spoke with Chantel via Zoom, to learn more about the upcoming Sistas in Sales Virtual Summit 2020, September 18th-19th, and to learn how managers can best support their employees through this difficult time and beyond.

Our team at CFW has spent 47- years working with sales leaders across industries. In a world where everything is uncertain, one thing has remained constant: sales organizations change rapidly, and that change is accelerated by sales technology. In our most recent conversation with Jonathan Hume, a Business Development Advisor who has spent the last 15+ years in sales leadership, we discuss what it takes to set up the structure, launch, grow, and support a successful sales organization.

When we consider how satisfied we are with our jobs, there are often various dimensions we take into account: Am I good at this? Is there a career growth path for me here? Do I get along with my co-workers? Does my manager motivate me to perform at my best? Do I earn what I feel like I should be earning? Is this aligned with my purpose? or Is this work fulfilling?

We spoke to DE&I mavens, Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully, of Tidal Equality following the launch of their Equity Sequence™️. An action-driven alternative to anti-bias training, the Equity Sequence™️ is a series of 5 simple questions designed to drive equality in everyday workplace decisions and actions. We were curious to hear more about the Equity Sequence and get their take on additional ways to ensure corporate DE&I efforts are effective and impactful. They had a wealth of tips and information to share

In the midst of the current state of global and national affairs, it’s incredibly easy and understandable to feel burnt out, overwhelmed, and unsure. The ability to separate your professional world and its responsibilities from your personal life has become increasingly difficult, as lines drawn between work and life have been blurred (or worse, erased) and work-life balance seems like a thing of the past. Because of that, we’re seeing – and many of us are feeling – an increase in mental health concerns.

Impostor Syndrome is an experience most of us have grappled with at one time or another, one that both distracts us and stifles our ability to put our best foot forward at work. Could there be a way to reframe this experience in a manner that allows us to take back control? To help us address this question, we called in a good friend of the firm, Stephanie Blair, an executive coach and consultant focused on grooming and growing innovative talent within sales-centric teams through her strategic advisory firm, Know & Flourish. Read on for her take on how we can identify and harness our awareness of our own Impostor Syndrome to take actionable steps through and forward

We caught up with a former Changing the Conversation panelist, Carolina Velasco, to discuss her career moves since then. Follow along as Carolina, now the Business Unit Manager of Open Entrepreneurship at IT University of Copenhagen, shares the unexpected ways her sales skills helped her carve out a place for herself in a completely new, well, everything: industry, function, AND country!

We’re excited for our next spotlight blog to feature panelist Christiana Cacciapuoti, VP of Partnerships and Platform Ops at MAD Network, with our upcoming Changing the Conversation event this Thursday. Here, Christiana talks about the constant changes in tech, taking initiative and what allyship means to her.

The Razzle Dazzle room at AppNexus was abuzz with energy last week for the most recent event in our Changing the Conversation series: “What does it really mean to hire the best candidate for the job?” Over a hundred attendees listened on intently as our panel of trailblazing women, each bringing a unique perspective to the stage, discussed the business case for diversity, introduced the idea of “culture add” vs “culture fit,” and presented actionable recruiting strategies for attendees to employ in informing the Diversity & Inclusion initiatives at their own organizations.

We're thrilled to feature panelist Stephanie Sandberg, Director of Out Leadership and President of Sandberg Consulting, in a spotlight for our upcoming Changing the Conversation event on April 26th! Below, you can read about her experience with a challenging boss, trusting your gut, and the correlation between corporate diversity and greater equality.