There's nothing worse for a mentor than being asked generic questions that anyone could answer. They want to ensure that their time is having an impact on you.
— Caroline Ghosn
As an entrepreneur, the latitude of failure and of success is directly correlated to people. I am growing more and more attentive to my first instincts, even if I can't justify them, as they apply to people.
An interview is about mutual selection.
We are very committed to highlighting women succeeding in entrepreneurship or technology.
I live my life as an entrepreneur in every possible way I can by applying the question 'What can be done better and how?' at every juncture.
We cannot solve the STEM gender gap without solving it for millennials. They're our first digital natives, and they're willing to learn quickly.
By saying that leaders - male or female - have to look or act a certain way to be respected as role models, we are not only hurting those individuals but also reinforcing rigid benchmarks for the next generation of passionate, aspiring leaders, who are watching.
Look at an interview as an organic part of building a relationship.
After graduation, I discovered that I'd hit the limit of what I could learn from the women in my family. On top of that, in the workforce, all of the things that mattered in college suddenly weren't enough.
Levo is Latin for 'to polish' and 'elevate,' and the name is essentially connoting the fact that we are coming together as a community to mutually enhance each other's lives.
Ultimately, nobody can decide for you that it's the right moment to quit your job, just like nobody can decide for you that it's the right moment to fall in or out of love.
You can't value others until you value yourself.
I used to be an awful asker. I was the 14-year-old who didn't correct the family I would babysit for when they gave me less money than we had agreed to, because it felt rude and scary.
Collaboration is like carbonation for fresh ideas. Working together bubbles up ideas you would not have come up with solo, which gets you further faster.
I would encourage women to think about leaders in different fields or companies who they can draw parallels with. For example, I am constantly studying the lives and lessons of leaders in fields outside of technology, from the arts to politics. There is always something to learn.
You thrive in your career when you thrive with yourself.
You're actually making the rest of your day productive by spending 30 minutes reviewing your to-do's, prioritizing them, and ruthlessly removing things that shouldn't be there.
A lot of the magic that is behind success can be unlocked through mentorships. Mentorships are a fundamental part of the success equation.
The failures that you beat yourself up over are the ones where you experienced warning signs and can connect the dots backwards after the fact.
I want every single millennial woman to feel like Levo has improved their lives.
Having women who are already successful take the leap of faith to help younger women is critical.
Power is the agency to effect change, pure and simple. The more power you have, the clearer and less frictional the trajectory from an idea in your mind to its birth in real life.
What matters about people is their magnetic leadership, their aptitude for helping those following in their footsteps, and their passion - how they choose to package that is their prerogative.
The interview is not over when the meeting is over. Never forget that.
Our members are constantly telling us that the guidance they received from Levo's mentors has helped them negotiate a raise, ask for more responsibility, build their resume, and more.
The issue of women in the workplace is not a women's issue: it's an economic problem.
I really believe that cultivating creativity, as a general principle, is about managing your energy.
I first began to realize that it was time to leave my job when the sight of my manager's telephone number on my screen made my heart contract and burn.
Learning to ask is like flexing a muscle. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. I started by learning how to ask for the small things in my life, and eventually I could make the Big Daunting Asks.
It's a must to continually stay alert and aware because ideas come from everywhere. And beyond relying on your fine-tuned radar to pick up on the next inspiration, consider seeking mentors.
As CEO of Levo, a millennial-focused career platform, I'm fascinated by how others turn their passion into success.
Speaking personally, as a first-time female founder, I would not be where I am today without an incredible network of fellow founders who have shared their challenges, advice, and hacks with me.
When you experience difficulty at work or in your life, instead of looking back on it as something that was really challenging, look at it and ask yourself, 'What wisdom did I learn from that?'
When you dive into being an entrepreneur, you are making a commitment to yourself and to others who come to work with you and become interdependent with you that you will move mountains with every ounce of energy you have in your body.
Taking care of myself used to be at the bottom of my list, but I'm all about wellness.
Trust your instinct. And if you can't tell what your instinct is telling you, learn how to peel back the noise in your life that is keeping you from hearing it.
The fact that millennials are fast at communication and expect transparency and don't feel comfortable with hierarchy gets interpreted as us being impatient or entitled. These traits are perfectly normal given that we're the first digital natives.
From a professional standpoint, our transformation of the labor landscape at scale through technology with Levo is the highest and best direction of my energy.
It can be very challenging to be what you can't see. Think about it in the physical world. You walk into a room, and no one looks like you. Can you relate to them? Do you feel welcome? Let's stop talking about how men dominate the technology industry and instead focus on the women who are killing it.
I was told by people who wanted to 'help' me that, although I had checked the box on the skills they wanted to see in the quarterly evaluation, they thought that I might want to cut my long hair so that I looked less young.
Create a list of your intentions for your work. Then research available internships and/or companies that you are attracted to based on that personal North Star. Once that is clear, you begin outreach to people connected to industries you're passionate and/or curious about.
Men are much more likely to make sure the boss knows they were in the office until midnight. But women tend to avoid seeking that kind of acknowledgement for their work. They just assume that the boss knows - but the boss usually doesn't. I experienced that firsthand.
There's this huge taboo around talking about money that we have as a society.
The busier you get, and the more forward-looking you become, the more difficult it is to actually acknowledge and gain strength and inspiration from the things you've already accomplished, which can become problematic when you're in a startup.
The way in which you accomplish your goals and help your customers needs to be very flexible depending upon how those customers are reacting in real time.
I assumed that, if I put my head down and did great work, what I deserved would come to me. What you deserve will not come to you. It is only in advocating for yourself that you will receive what you deserve.
Trust me: Every entrepreneur has felt like an utter loser at some point.
You kind of get the same adjectives coming back over again and over again describing millennials. I think the national rhetoric around this generation is unfairly negative.
The power of storytelling - of elevating the voices and examples of incredible leaders who have overcome odd after odd - remains absolute.
I used to think I was a night owl. I realized I'm not, because I have energy at night, but I'm not as focused and productive when I try to get things done.
