by Solange Lopes | Mar 11, 2014 | Career
Pose App
So you have a lunch meeting with the boss and some outside consultants and have no idea what to wear? Or the weather is going to be despicable in Seattle and you’re flying out tomorrow for the week? What to wear, what to wear?
Busy corporate sisters like to look good and professional, yet do not have much time to shop or contemplate more than one styling option at a time, if that…
Well, as for pretty much anything these days, there’s a pretty cool app for it! It’s called Pose, and basically offers you personalized styling options based on your location or weather.
And that’s not just it, you also have access to a whole community of style professionals and fashion bloggers, who can not only give you real-time advice, but whose outfits are also displayed for everyone’s inspiration.
And to top it all off, every single item on the site is shoppable, so if you like it, you can grab it!
Check it out and let us know how it works for you…
The Corporate Sister
by Solange Lopes | Mar 11, 2014 | Career
ibtimes.com
Happy Tuesday!
I was listening to NPR earlier about the #banbossy initiative by Sheryl Sandberg and the Lean In movement. Basically, the #banbossy is a continuation of Sandberg’s Lean In movement for women and girls to create for themselves more opportunities for career success, and for the world at large to stop viewing women leaders as bossy, but rather as deserving, fully competent…women leaders!
This year, God willing, our family will be welcoming a new baby girl, and I will be an auntie again. A couple of my dear friends are also preparing to welcome little baby girls of their own. These little girls already are the women leaders of tomorrow.
Yet still in many parts of the world, from Africa to India and the Americas, the birth of a baby boy is heralded with more hope than that of a little girl. Still in today’s modern America, little boys’ participation in class is more welcome (and expected) than that of little girls’.
As we look at women’s place in contemporary society, as we keep pushing through an elusive glass ceiling that keeps receding from view, are we failing to start at the beginning? Are we missing the start line in this race against ourselves by focusing on where we wish women would be by now, rather than uncovering the many false starts in women’s and girls’ education?
As a corporate sister, a double-minority in a less-than-favorable environment, I strive so that my own first-born daughter will have a better start than I did. So I push towards an elusive goal of career success, without at times realizing that the most significant part of the work is not achieved as young girls reach leadership levels, but before they actually even know what leadership is.
Tackling the problem in schools and other institutions of learning, as well as in the professional sphere, by banning certain words may not be as effective as actually raising young girls to face the certainty of the world’s pre-conceptions and stereotypes. Not as effective as teaching ourselves as parents to rid our subconscious of our own pre-conceived notions about the place of boys and girls in society. To understand why it is that, after all and after centuries of gender equality, we still believe a man stands a better chance in the world than a woman.
So yes, do not call young girls bossy, encourage them to raise their hands in class and lead in life, but most importantly, teach them to expect the world to call them bossy and still be the BOSS!
by Solange Lopes | Mar 10, 2014 | Career |
Colorblocked tote – $44 – dorothyperkins.com
For our lunch break today, we are calling Spring with all the might of our fashion spirit with this color block tote from Dorothy Perkins. Instead of your usual black go-to tote, change it up a bit and switch to this nude and red alternative that works for work just as well as it does for play. Plus it’s roomy enough to fit in half your house (ok, maybe a quarter…)
It’s $44 at dorothyperkins.com, and it will give your tired, everyday tote a nice colorful competition this Spring!
Pssst! You can get 25% off if you sign up for email alerts between today and March 16th…
Seen a great, work-appropriate fashion piece you’d like to share? Please email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Mar 10, 2014 | Career
Career and continuing education – madamenoire.com
For the ambitious and busy corporate sister on her way up the corporate ladder, continuing education is a MUST. After all, as they say, if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards. No such thing as a standing still in one’s career…
Yet as busy as we may be managing our lives and careers, how could we possibly fit in any continuing education of any kind? It’s hard enough staying focused on our current career paths, never mind adding to it, right? Wrong…
As I and many corporate sisters have come to learn, in a professional world riddled with competition, gender and racial discrimination, it is crucial to position oneself as best as possible. And that is without mentioning the constantly changing legal, financial and social landscape of the business world, requiring us as competent professionals to constantly be appraised of any change affecting our career, whether directly or indirectly.
As a professional currently sitting for a professional certification while raising two young kids and striving at work, I have come to realize that rather than avoiding having to enlist into the continuous education ranks, our best bet is to actually embrace the challenge:
1. Discuss continuous education opportunities with your manager right off the bat: One of the questions many recruiters advise candidates to ask during interviews is around the requirements for and availability of continuing education. Whether before the start of your career or as you’re pushing through to the next level, continuing education should always be part of your discussion with managers, mentors and peers. For even better results, include it in your performance reviews as one of your evaluation parameters.
2. Seek opportunities right where you are: Ask around for continuing education opportunities offered by your company. You may be bypassing great, and free, opportunities to get additional career credentials and get noticed for them. Many companies offer learning services available right through your computer, and/or offer reimbursement for college courses in line with your position. Take advantage of these!
3. Have a Plan: A woman with a plan is a woman going somewhere! With that in mind, as you embark onto a continuing education path, make sure you’ve devised a plan to get there successfully, and sanely! My current strategy is borrowed from Jeff Elliott, founder of the Another71 CPA review community. It’s basic, but effective. Its acronym ELL stands for Early, Lunchtime and Late: in other words, I wake up an hour earlier to put in 1 hour of study time before work, study for 1 hour at lunch, and 1 hour late at night after the kids are tucked in. 3 hours in a day, that’s 15 hours from Monday through Friday, and about 5 hours on week-ends for a total of 20 hours a week. It’s my system, find yours, have your plan and set yourself up for success!
How do you handle continuing education?
The Corporate Sister
by Solange Lopes | Mar 9, 2014 | Career |
Reading the news
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Hope everyone is having a great week-end, we’re having a heat wave on this side of the Northeastern blogosphere, what with temperatures rising to the 60’s yesterday…Oh my! Almost enough to make us forget about the disheartening snow showers of the past few weeks…almost! But today, on this International Women’s Day, we’re wishing all of you out there a Happy Woman’s Day, and sharing with you some of the best media headlines of this week:
- As part of its Women of Power series, Black Enterprise‘s panel of executives is discussing how to to push past our fears to make our next career move;
- The Daily Muse is teaching to stop trying to be good and start getting better;
- Career questions? Essence answers them all with the Black Woman’s Career Playbook;
- I loved this Washington Post article about how the most powerful people to help women at work are…women themselves! The more women at the top, the more women will have a chance to get to the top…
- Forbes Woman asks if women can succeed without a mentor;
- Doing both creative and regular work? Lifehacker advises us to keep separate work desks;
- Want your work clothes to make a statement? Refinery 29 gives us 10 top style tips to get noticed at work;
- Our own The Corporate Sister wrote about what Lupita Nyong’O’s Oscar win teaches us about corporate success.
Happy Sunday (or whatever’s left of it…)
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Mar 6, 2014 | Career
Suit – Thelimited.com
For our lunch break pick today, we are stepping on neutral grounds with this light brown suit from The Limited. This amy not be your formal interview suit, but is casual enough to wear to the office without looking overly stuffy. I love the topstitched 2-button jacket in clean sateen. The jacket is $118. while the coordinating pants are $59.95.
These can be very well worn separately or together for a complete suit look. Dress it up with a formal button-down, or down with a simple yet elegant tee. Can you say versatile?
Seen a great, work-appropriate fashion piece you’d like to recommend? Please email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
by Solange Lopes | Mar 6, 2014 | Career
OKMYOUTFIT.COM
Happy Thursday!
Today, I would like to share with you an amazing website, along with its co-founders, that will revolutionize the way we think about fashion, as busy yet nonetheless stylish corporate sisters. While we do understand that appearance is certainly an important denominator in the professional, and specifically the corporate game, we often have a hard time combining our search for the right, work-appropriate yet stylish wardrobe, with our otherwise crammed schedules. So we pick up items on the fly, hoping that they will fit us, or make time for that one shopping spree a year, during which we absolutely go broke in the hopes of gathering THE perfect wardrobe. What is there actually were a cost-effective, time-saving alternative to the business of dressing, and dressing well, for work?
Diana Melencio and John Orekunrin are the co-founders of OKMYOUTFIT (OMO), a web service dedicated to helping busy professionals build their wardrobe by collaborating with expert stylists, thus having access to the professional fashion advice most people dream of. I’ve had the privilege of speaking to both Diana and John, and was sold on their ideas. I hope you will too, and will check out OKMYOUTFIT for yourself…
1. Diana/John, can you please tell us more about yourselves and how you came up with the idea for OKMYOUTFIT?
JO: Diana and I started OMO because we value the importance of looking good but lacked the fashion expertise and time to find clothes that suit our style. We saw that a lot of our friends share the same problem. So we created OMO as a solution.
Our original idea was to let anyone in the community provide their opinion on other members’ outfits, but we quickly realized that our users wanted expert style advice and not another rate-my-outfit site. So we brought on talented stylists and combined their expert style advice along with top brands to provide our users a truly bespoke personal styling and shopping experience.
2. In the busy world of professionals, how important do you think appearance is, and how do you see OKMYOUTFIT fitting into it?
DM: What you wear and how you present yourself is the first statement you make when you enter a room, so appearance is very important. An outfit that give you confidence and helps sets the tone can mean the difference in an interview or an important meeting.
JO: Busy professionals have the means but, as the term implies, often lack the time and fashion knowledge to put together their best look. OKMYOUTFIT partners busy professionals with stylists so they can get the best looks without the work.
3. Can you describe to us what the services you are offering consist in, and what some of your most competitive rates are?
We provide three different options for our users.
- Professional feedback: This option allows users to get professional feedback on an outfit or item they already own. This feature is great if you are looking for ideas on how to pair items you have in your closet. You can also use it while shopping for items on your own. The response time is fast (within 30 mins) and at a very friendly price of $5.
- Search for an item: The second option allows you to hire a stylist to help you find a specific item (i.e bag, jacket, shoes) to complete your look. Our talented stylists will go to work and find 5 different options of the item you are looking for. Our stylists also provide style tips to go along with your request so you’ll know the best way to style your new find! The price for this service is just $10.
- Head-to-toe look: This option is great for users looking for a complete outfit. The stylist will go to work and help you find 5 items to complete a look for you based on your request. Our stylist pulls from top brands to create a truly bespoke shopping experience for you. They do the hard work of finding amazing pieces to help you look your best. This service is available for just $40.
4. From your experience in the corporate world, what are three most important lessons/principles would you have for corporate sisters?
If we had 3 important lessons for corporate sister, they would be:
- The old adage, dress for the job you want to have not the job you already have. When I was a junior analyst, I still wore suits because that’s what all the portfolio managers and senior executives wore at the firm. I found that I was given far more respect and allowed to sit in on meetings than my fellow analysts that wore less formal attire.
- Don’t underestimate the power of how what you wear affects how you are perceived. For example, if you wear a suit – it will speak to the formality of the setting or authority you have. Whereas wearing a pair of jeans tells the room that it is a casual and collegial setting.
- As a corporate sister rises in ranks, don’t be intimidated when you are surrounded by your male counterparts. Negotiate and discuss with them head-on, without succumbing to emotions. Your words are heard more clearly.
5. What lessons from the corporate world did you apply as you transitioned to entrepreneurship?
DM: Set goals and priorities each week, each day. Something I learned from the “morning call”, which sets the goals and messaging for sales and trading group in an investment firm everyday.
6. What is your vision for OKMYOUTFIT, and how do you plan to achieve it?
JO: Our vision is to help busy professionals everywhere discover their best look. We believe looking your best helps you achieve everyday confidence. We want to provide a seamless styling and personal shopping experience that helps you look your best without the work.
Please check out OKMYOUTFIT, register on the site, get your invitation and embark on a great, cost-effective and efficient fashion experience that will make you reconsider your entire work wardrobe and beyond. For those of you in the New York area, please stop by the
OKMYOUTFIT event with Elie Tahari on March 12!
OKMYOUTFIT.COM
