Career & Finance

Our career and our finances: for professional working women these surely rate as our most precious assets - perhaps along with our reputation and our personal brand.

Annie Lennox sang years ago that "sisters are doing it for themselves" and it's a wise (and happy) woman who keeps a measure of financial independence while doing work she finds engaging and meaningful.

In all the years Professionelle has been running, it's probably no accident that most of the requests for advice we've received have been from women wanting to identify and capitalise on their career opportunities. These questions reflect all career stages, from Day One, Job One through to boomers pondering what a satisfying retirement would look like. The recent global financial turmoil has added redundancy advice to what you'll find in this theme.

Lastly, we share interviews with successful women, asking their advice on careers and how they "make it all work".

Latest articles

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  • 04 August 2008 By Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes Comments: 0
    Governance and the Girls

    Our Professionelle community is often a marvellous clippings service! In early 2008, we received a number of articles, chiefly around women's under-representation on Boards and the reasons for it. They draw on developments and research from NZ to the UK.

  • 15 May 2008 By Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes Comments: 0
    Lynette Stewart: a Distinguished Career

    Sarah met Lynette Stewart shortly after Lynette had been honoured by Auckland University as a Distinguished Alumna. Chair of the Northland District Health Board since 2001, CEO of Te Tai Tokerau MAPO Trust and with a wealth of other governance roles, Lynette was made a Companion of New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006. She shared insights from her long career in health management on women's roles, challenges and the value of flexibility in the workplace.

  • 11 May 2008 By Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes Comments: 1
    Career Break = Broken Career?

    If you're facing a return to work after a career break of several years you may worry that employers won't look at you twice. What you need are practical ways to reconnect with the working world and to present your career break in the best possible light.

  • 30 April 2008 By Galia BarHava-Monteith Comments: 1
    Justice Lowell Goddard: a Woman of Passion, Integrity, Humility and Great Intellect

    Justice Lowell Goddard is a highly respected member of the New Zealand judiciary. Not only has she has been at the forefront of criminal law and procedure in this country for a number of years, she is also the first woman of Maori descent to have been appointed to the New Zealand High Court bench. Galia interviewed her the day after she was honoured by The University of Auckland as a Distinguished Alumna award winners for 2008.

  • 20 March 2008 By Justine Munro Comments: 0
    Girls Can Do Anything!

    "Girls can do anything" was the career advice mantra many young women grew up with in the 80s. But did it actually mean "girls can do everything"? Or that "girls should do everything"? Didn't we owe it to ourselves, our mothers, our daughters, and everyone who'd ever believed and invested in us to do it all? Justine shares a thought-provoking speech she gave for the 125th Jubilee of Wellington Girl's College.

  • 15 February 2008 By Paula Kearns of Paula Kearns CA Ltd. Comments: 0
    Buy a Business Without Getting Burnt!

    There is always going to be a level of risk when purchasing a business. Due diligence can provide comfort to the potential purchaser or expose problem areas in the business. Paula, a CA, explains more

  • 28 January 2008 By Galia BarHava-Monteith & Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes Comments: 0
    Feeling Like an Impostor?

    This article appeared in the NZ Herald's Career '08 Portfolio. Based on Galia's original piece on the Impostor Syndrome, it incorporates interviews Sarah conducted with senior professionals in NZ's executive recruitment firms.

  • 07 January 2008 By Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes Comments: 1
    How She Does It by Margaret Heffernan

    Although entitled "How She Does It", this is no step-by-step guide to entrepreneurial launch-and-build techniques. What Heffernan has done instead is to distill her many interviews into a series of themes that seemed to distinguish the female entrepreneurs' approach and to have contributed to their success. It's a thought provoking read that I would highly recommend, whether you have entrepreneurial tendencies or not.

  • 04 January 2008 By Lady Einstein Comments: 0
    A New Chapter - A Lady Einstein Blog

    A few months on finds Lady Einstein in a new city and a new job after a positive and affirming set of interviews. She reflects on the goodbye process from her previious position, and the challenge it presented. This is the fourth in five blog reports from her as she moves through a major change.

  • 01 January 2008 By Galia BarHava-Monteith & Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes Comments: 0
    Personal Brands: Key for Careers

    The idea of marketing yourself much as a product may seem strange, but there are many benefits to thinking strategically about the profile you're creating inside and outside your company. By being deliberate and consistent about the messages you send out, you can leverage your existing reputation into a clear and coherent personal brand. This has become one of our most widely disseminated articles on the internet!