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Recent editions 👇
🌴 *cough* Taking Sick Days Makes You a Better Employee *cough*
There seems to be two types of women in the workplace: ones who feel bad about taking time off and ones who don’t. Guess which one is the more efficient employee and has a gorgeous new hair cut? It’s the one who took time off to treat herself.
There seems to be two types of women in the workplace: ones who feel bad about taking time off and ones who don’t. Guess which one is the more efficient employee and has a gorgeous new hair cut? It’s the one who took time off to treat herself.
Ask Your Work Wife is here to get you guilt-free in that salon seat or DMV line or beach chair or wherever you want to be that’s not your desk. New episodes drop Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
In today's email:
Read: Why your manager wants you to take a day off
Listen: Your sick days are *yours*. Take them.
Join the convo: Some video doesn't require an entire hair and makeup team.... until it does 😍
Get what you want: Ask Your Work Wife has entered the video chat 😎
READ
Why Your Manager Wants You to Take a Day Off
✅ FACT: sick days are given to employees as a benefit and are not earned.
✅ FACT: they’re called "sick days", but you can do whatever the hell you want.
❌ FALSE: The best workers never take sick days. This can actually lead to presenteeism, which is when you're technically at your job, but you’re incapable of doing your job well because of burnout or distraction. This costs the US economy a cool $180 billion annually in lost productivity.
❌ FALSE: Sick days can only be used if you’re being rushed to the emergency room.
🎧 Out sick today? Or just playing hooky? Either way, we don’t care. We have everything you missed in Episode 62 | Sick Days, Sad Days, Salon Days, Oh My! right here for you to catch up while lying in bed or on the waxing table. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
“I’ll Just Save Them Up!”
Well… your company might expire accrued sick days at the end of the year to force you to use them. They want you to take a break! Even the usually-harsh free market understands everyone NEEDS time for themselves.
And they can’t fire you for taking time off even if it might feel like you’re “slacking.” Who could focus on their job when they have to look for an apartment? Or shop for a bridesmaid dress? Or get a wax before the weekend beach trip?
Get your house in order and come back when you’re whole.
—Vanessa
How to Tactfully Take a Day
Don’t worry about justifying or defending your day off. It’s yours and you can do whatever your hardworking heart desires.
If you’re close to the team, make it water cooler talk (or more likely the casual video call), but only if you want to tell them.
In the unfortunate case you’re actually too sick to work, a last-minute notice is understandable and falls within your benefit of sick days.
It’s hard to give notice, but saying something as simple as “I’m taking the day” will do the trick. Remember, it’s YOUR day.
One Major Exception...
Bereavement leave is a unique form of time off because they're unplanned and usually much longer than normal leaves of absence. Some employees take more than a month to log back on, and that’s totally understandable.
There are different laws about bereavement leave depending on the state you’re employed in, so double check with HR to know how much bereavement leave you’re allotted.
Still Don't Believe Us?
If all these amazing points didn’t grab you, then think of sick days as free money. For example, if you have 100 hours saved up, and you get paid $20/hour, that’s $2,000 you’re leaving on the table. That makes us so mad we want to flip the table.
Grab that cash, close your laptop and go have a great day off!
LISTEN
Your sick days are *yours*. Take them.
JOIN THE CONVO
GET MORE OUT OF CORPORATE AMERICA
Ask Your Work Wife Has Entered the Video Chat
In the Work Wives' first-ever course, Vanessa & Holland introduce an entirely new way to think about Corporate America and give you step-by-step instructions on how to focus your energy to get what you actually want.
YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
Got a question for Ask Your Work Wife?
Record your question and email us the recording. Include your name, your city if you want, and whatever context might be helpful for us to know. And don’t forget to start with “Hey, Work Wives!”
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🗓️ Months are Out, Quarters are In: Hack Your Goals with Fiscal Quarters
What quarter does your star sign fall into? Leo? You’re a classic Q3 and you need to be buttoning up those proposals. Pisces? You’re sitting pretty in Q1 ready to take on new projects! Find out how there is seasonality to business practices that affect your job prospects, spending and vacation time more than your Zodiac.
What quarter does your star sign fall into? Leo? You’re a classic Q3 and you need to be buttoning up those proposals. Pisces? You’re sitting pretty in Q1 ready to take on new projects!
With Ask Your Work Wife, find out how there is seasonality to business practices that affect your job prospects, spending and vacation time more than your Zodiac. 💫 New episodes drop Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
In today's email:
Read: there’s a method to the corporate madness and it’s called quarters
Listen: Seasonality in Corporate America
Join the convo: what's the one thing you wish you'd known about Corporate America?
Get what you want: Ask Your Work Wife has entered the video chat 😎
READ
Hack Your Goals with Fiscal Quarters
Caught in a hiring freeze? Can’t seem to get time off at the end of the year? It might all seem super random, but there’s a method to the corporate madness and it’s called quarters.
We’re here to teach you how to understand fiscal calendars and how each quarter will directly affect your job, spending, and even your well-deserved time off. Let’s get you lounging by a pool in Q3!
🎧 On the go? Listen to Episode 69 | Turn! Turn! Turn! To Every Quarter There Is a Season on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
First, let’s consult the Work Wives' encyclopedia of business jargon:
YEAR: Duh, a year is 12 months mapped to the Gregorian calendar named after some strange gods and Roman numbers, packed with some extra holidays and misc. bullshit too.
CORPORATE AMERICA YEAR: The fiscal year which indicates when your accounting starts and ends for a 12 month period. Can vary between industries and even companies.
QUARTERS: Three-month periods within that fiscal year usually referred to as Q1, Q2, Q3, and you guessed it, Q4.
This is all just a way to measure a company’s progress. Even your manager’s manager has a higher-up they report to like shareholders and the market at large who all have big expectations. Quarters are the quirky way we’ve settled on to track those promises and goals.
Okay, that’s enough encyclopedia for now. So how does this affect YOU?! (It majorly does.)
For this exercise, let’s assume Q1 starts in January.
💡 Note: If your industry’s fiscal year is a mystery, go sleuthing, Sherlock, and ask your mentor! Or go poking around for the shareholder’s press releases. Or go make friends with your finance department if your company isn’t public. Fiscal years are sometimes the worst best kept secret.
Q1 (Vanessa's Favorite Quarter)
The forecast is all sunshine in Q1 — aside from it usually falling in January. The fresh budget is begging to be spent on company retreats, new hires and fun projects. People are DOING things with all their extra gusto; executing, driving, getting shit done! Ramp up those resume gold stars with stretch projects. LFG.
Q2
Welcome to the exploratory period. We’re taking RFPs, schmoozing with vendors, indulging demos, and getting samples. So… It’s mostly just a sappy romcom montage. There’s iceskating, dessert sharing, falling asleep on their shoulder. It’s all cute as hell. No drama. No major plot points.
(Psst! This is the quarter to start a new batch of resumes!)
Q3
Summer is in full swing from mid Q2 to mid Q3. It’s just fine to join the montage of sun-kissed cheeks and beachy waves, but if you’re new here, you know we’ve got a better way. School is back, vacations are constant, and you (yes, you at the mid-to-bottom of the pecking order) are sending your research up the chain of command. C-suite knows how the budget will shake out for the rest of the year, which is why layoffs tend to happen around this time. Brace for pivots from the top.
✨ NOW… hear us out. ✨ Something special happens in this quarter. It’s called September. It’s our fav because it’s right after the post-summer slump, but before the holiday chaos. The major Q4 planning really depends on what decisions are made in September. You’re running two timelines: executing this year’s goals and preparing for next year. Godspeed 🫡
Everything that comes out of your C-suite and your executive management is a result of all those meetings and all those budget approvals. And it's not just them! It’s their board, it’s their investors, anyone above them.
—Holland
Q4
C-suite and VP’s are on “do not disturb” hashing things out in board meetings. Be mindful that the collective bandwidth is stretched thin and the fate of the next fiscal year is the #1 priority.
Patience gets shorter, tempers get hotter and voices get louder, simply because it’s crunch time.
—Vanessa
Corporate Events
Pack your bags, it’s time to see your coworkers drunk! A.k.a., things like shareholder events, public announcements, launches, conventions, or summits. They’re not industry standard and they’re usually a little weird, but are often mandatory! Avoid taking vacation leading up to these because they demand lots of planning and preparation.
Year in Review
What’s super important is that each quarter signifies different energies, activities, intentions and goals no matter where they map to the normal calendar. Use seasonality in Corporate America to hack your goals and get what you want.
LISTEN
Seasonality in Corporate America
JOIN THE CONVO
GET MORE OUT OF CORPORATE AMERICA
Ask Your Work Wife Has Entered the Video Chat
In the Work Wives' first-ever course, Vanessa & Holland introduce an entirely new way to think about Corporate America and give you step-by-step instructions on how to focus your energy to get what you actually want.
YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
Got a question for Ask Your Work Wife?
Record your question and email us the recording. Include your name, your city if you want, and whatever context might be helpful for us to know. And don’t forget to start with “Hey, Work Wives!”
AMBITIOUS, CAREER-ORIENTED, AND TOTALLY ON INSTAGRAM
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👩🚒 Why “Putting Out Fires” Is Unsustainable
Unless your building has the word “emergency” plastered to the side of it, you look like the Little Rascals and their bucket brigade when you’re “putting out fires.” Harboring a crisis mentality every time a last-minute task pops up isn’t an efficient way to work — yet it’s how most organizations operate. Ask Your Work Wife is here to help break this cycle of panic because firefighting wasn’t in your job description.
Unless your building has the word “emergency” plastered to the side of it, you look like the Little Rascals and their bucket brigade when you’re “putting out fires.” Harboring a crisis mentality every time a last-minute task pops up isn’t an efficient way to work — yet it’s how most organizations operate.
Ask Your Work Wife is here to help break this cycle of panic because firefighting wasn’t in your job description. New episodes drop Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
In today's email:
Read: Stop, Drop, and Roll Away from Putting Out Fires 🧯
Listen: Work Is Not An Emergency 🚨
Join the convo: hiring managers are not looking for remote workers
Get what you want: the Work Wives' first-ever course
READ
Stop, Drop, and Roll Away from Putting Out Fires
When the boy who cried wolf is crying fire in a cubicle, be the cool-headed realist who downgrades the catastrophe to just a hiccup. That person has extra zeros on their paychecks.
🎧 On the go? Listen to Episode 70 | Work Didn’t Start the Fire on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
My favorite out of office email I ever wrote looked like a bullet list of contact info. At the very bottom it said, “If it’s an emergency, contact my manager. If you don’t know what constitutes an emergency, don’t bother my manager. Love, Vanessa.”
—Vanessa
Corporate America is not saving lives. If your office says “Emergency” on the side of it, that’s because you work in an emergency room and your job is actually life or death. Huge Work Wife thank you for the work you do! Everyone else, stay in your lane. Your job is important, yes, but it’s not an emergency.
Here’s the problem: even if your job isn’t of the emergency variety, it can totally feel like one when everyone around you is in fight or flight. Despite their reaction, you have the ability to take deep breaths and blow out the fires like the birthday candles they actually are.
How to Extinguish a Corporate Fire
Breathe in, and out.
Did you smell any smoke? If no, proceed to step three. If yes, call 9-1-1.
Remind yourself it’s not a real emergency and doesn’t deserve your full panic.
Ask questions. What are we actually doing? What is the deliverable? How do you imagine this deliverable looking?
Complete the task.
Go home and enjoy your day.
The reason why pumping the breaks is so important is because no one works well under unnecessary duress.
Processes get skipped, people get skipped, checks and balances are neither checked nor balanced.
—Holland
And then 5 o’clock rolls around and everyone has to redo work because nothing was done correctly. Who can blame them? Who can crunch numbers when they think they’re on fire?!
The best step forward is to establish a tactile solution using the checklist above.
If you are the voice of reason in these moments of panic, you’re going to be incredible at your job, become the de facto leader, exemplify clear communication, and basically be Neo in the Matrix as he realizes he’s the ONE and the bullets can be stopped.
The emergency ends when you realize it’s not an emergency.
—Vanessa
LISTEN
Work Is Not An Emergency
JOIN THE CONVO
GET MORE OUT OF CORPORATE AMERICA
Get what you want
In the Work Wives' first-ever course, Vanessa & Holland introduce an entirely new way to think about Corporate America and give you step-by-step instructions on how to focus your energy to get what you actually want.
YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
Got a question for Ask Your Work Wife?
Record your question and email us the recording. Include your name, your city if you want, and whatever context might be helpful for us to know. And don’t forget to start with “Hey, Work Wives!”
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😰 Mentor or Bust: How to Survive Corporate America
Would you paddle into rapids without a river guide? Or go on a first date without outfit approval from 1-10 friends? So why would you try to navigate Corporate America without a mentor?
Would you paddle into rapids without a river guide? Or go on a first date without outfit approval from 1-10 friends? So why would you try to navigate Corporate America without a mentor?
Land the perfect mentor with Ask Your Work Wife, a podcast for ambitious women who want more out of Corporate America. New episodes drop Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
In today's email:
Read: mentor is the move 😎
Listen: the do's and don'ts of mentorship
Join the convo: new job red flags 🚩
Get more out of Corporate America: a course for ambitious professionals
READ
Mentor Is the Move
You can't do this life alone, and you sure as shit can't do Corporate America alone. Learn how to spot a good mentor and why choosing the right one is the ultimate form of self-care.
🎧 On the go? Listen to Episode 12 | A Word on Mentors on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
HOLLAND: "Would you be where you are without mentors?"
VANESSA: *almost speechless* "Absolutely not."
HOLLAND: *speechless because Vanessa is never speechless*
What maketh a good mentor?
As Vanessa likes to say, a good mentor is someone you trust to help you navigate your career.
They should be...
Above you in the hierarchy.
Outside your chain of command.
Not someone you have to impress.
Not someone who can hire or fire you.
A third-party player. Someone with distance from your role while still knowing what the hell is going on.
A great sounding board who you can dish to without sending ripples through your 9 to 5.
It’s also helpful to have a mentor outside your organization, but not necessary. (Note: external mentors are more of a big-picture coach.)
Am I only allowed one?
Nope! It's not an ole' work wife's tale; you can definitely have more than one mentor. So if you're in a male-dominated field, maybe you have a male mentor in your organization, and then perhaps you have a woman outside your team who mentors you on a macro level.
How to Get a Mentor
Organize informational interviews with everybody, learn how their job functions in relation to yours, and how you can best help them.
Through those meetings, you'll dial in on their personalities and find ones that match yours (it’s a bit like dating, tbh).
Put these matches on the fast track to becoming a mentor by finding excuses to meet with them more regularly.
Make the ask!
Asking them can be vulnerable! But remember, you're telling them you admire them, and people love compliments. You know what you want and what a good relationship feels like. When you find that good in someone, go for it. They're going to feel the chills when it comes from an authentic, empowered place, and they're going to be motivated to accept.
LISTEN
The Do’s & Don'ts of Mentorship
JOIN THE CONVO
GET WHAT YOU WANT
Get more out of Corporate America
In the Work Wives' first-ever course, Vanessa & Holland introduce an entirely new way to think about Corporate America and give you step-by-step instructions on how to focus your energy to get what you actually want.
YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
Got a question for Ask Your Work Wife?
Record your question and email us the recording. Include your name, your city if you want, and whatever context might be helpful for us to know. And don’t forget to start with “Hey, Work Wives!”
AMBITIOUS, CAREER-ORIENTED, AND TOTALLY ON INSTAGRAM
GET ON THE LIST
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Because sliding into your DMs is not the vibe.
💅 Glow Up Your LinkedIn
Your Work Wives are here to help that nerdy LinkedIn profile take off its glasses and suddenly become hot and irresistible to hiring managers. Here are the do's and don'ts when building your profile.
Your Work Wives are here to help that nerdy LinkedIn profile take off its glasses and suddenly become hot and irresistible to hiring managers. Here are the do's and don'ts when building your profile.
Get more at Ask Your Work Wife, a podcast for ambitious women who want more out of corporate America. New episodes drop Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
In today's email:
Read: give your LinkedIn a makeover 💄
Listen: stalk your coworkers on LinkedIn 🔍
Join the convo: are you remote? Hybrid? Fully WFH? Let us know...
Make a move: a course for ambitious professionals who want more out of Corporate America
READ
A LinkedIn Makeover
Welcome to LinkedIn! The never ending scroll of job announcements and CEO think pieces written by an intern.
It might be just as annoying as other social media, but when done right, it could get you that dream job instead of just e-validation. Let's get you paid.
Profile Pic & Background Photo
It's your first impression; fill it with personality! But keep it professional with your shoulders up and your entire face visible. Check out Episode 15 | Not Your Mother’s Resume for a deep dive into the perfect headshot.
Whatever you do, DON'T show the #OpenToWork photo frame. It reads a little desperate. Instead, opt for the notify employers and recruiters feature that doesn't publicize that information.
The background photo is an extension of that stellar personality from your profile pic. Opt for something neutral like a cityscape, nature, or work content.
Headline
The headline is important because it's the first and only thing people can see before clicking on your profile.
Write your current title and company, or just the title. That's it.
Zhuzh it up with "I help x do y," but remove the stick up your butt before writing something too pretentious.
You can’t go wrong with an HR job title. Nobody can refute it!
Pronouns. Put it there if it's important to you. Sadly, it's a bit political, so be aware of that.
Number of Connections
Doesn't matter.
BUT the strength of your connections is really important. If you wouldn’t call them and ask for a job, don’t add them.
Once you meet someone, you can add them whenever.
The strength of your network is real people.
—Holland
About Section
It's not a summary of your resume, it's not your dissertation, and it's not a cover letter. Show your personality!
Also, keep your resume private. Don't give that away for free.
Experience
Only show the last ten years. Anything before that is old news.
Value props only! What did you bring to the table? Hit em' with quantifiable points like percentages, excluding NDA-covered numbers.
Nest different roles at one company to show growth.
Education
Leave the GPA at the frat house and throw away the key.
Where you went to school only matters if you’re networking with fellow alumni.
The Other Stuff
Languages, licenses, skills, interests, and recommendations — don't matter unless it's pertinent to your industry. Convince me that it's useful. Hiring managers have 99 problems, but a skill badge ain't one.
BUT make the URL your name instead of something cute. Save cute for Instagram.
LinkedIn DM's
Keep it during business hours. I'm looking at you, east coast early birds, California night owls, and divorced dads.
Keep it professional and tactful. And remember, if a stranger approached you on the street for a job, you'd probably blow them off, and if you message strangers on LinkedIn for favors, you might not get a reply.
I needed to do something to bring attention to my resume. I went on LinkedIn, found the hiring manager, saw that he was active, and messaged him: "Hey, I just sent you two resumes. I know they're not exactly what you're looking for, but I really want to work for your team. Let me know if you got them." And it WORKED.
—Vanessa
Likes & Comments
This is where most people fuck up. Everything you ever engage with will pop on your feed for all to see. LinkedIn has less user-generated content (UGC) than other socials, so they amplify the existing posts through likes and comments. Wipe the brown off your nose by not engaging with everything your CEO posts. She (more likely he, ugh) doesn't care.
And listen up, people who love their job! You don't have to post regularly or at all. Enjoy the unplugged time.
LISTEN
Make LinkedIn Work for You
JOIN THE CONVO
GET WHAT YOU WANT
It’s time to make your move.
In the Work Wives' first-ever course, Vanessa & Holland introduce an entirely new way to think about Corporate America and give you step-by-step instructions on how to focus your energy to get what you actually want.
YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
Got a question for Ask Your Work Wife?
Record your question and email us the recording. Include your name, your city if you want, and whatever context might be helpful for us to know. And don’t forget to start with “Hey, Work Wives!”
AMBITIOUS, CAREER-ORIENTED, AND TOTALLY ON INSTAGRAM
GET ON THE LIST
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Because sliding into your DMs is not the vibe.
🧐 Making Sense of Your Update Meetings
Out of all the meetings that should be emails, these are definitely not some of them. If done right, it might almost seem like your manager works for you, and make you a shoe-in for sparkly things like promotions and raises.
Out of all the meetings that should be emails, these are definitely not some of them. If done right, it might almost seem like your manager works for you, and make you a shoe-in for sparkly things like promotions and raises.
That’s what we want for you here at Ask Your Work Wife, a podcast for ambitious women who want more out of corporate America. New episodes drop Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
In today's email:
Read: up your 1:1 game
Listen: optimize your update meetings
Join the convo: work doesn't count unless your manager knows about it
Dive deeper: a course for ambitious professionals who want more out of Corporate America
MAKING SENSE OF YOUR UPDATE MEETINGS
Statuses vs. 1:1s
I have the same meeting with my manager every week. Wtf?
Welcome to corporate America. That lil’ meeting is the second most powerful meeting on your calendar. It's called a Status.
The Work Wife dictionary defines Status meetings as a project update. It's a top-down list of what's going on in your life, what you need to get done, and what you need to get approved. Show and tell how your efforts are impacting the business.
If your manager doesn't know what you're doing, you may as well not be doing it at all.
—Holland
You can have team Status check-ins about what everyone is doing or individual Status reports; both are great and should have established agendas.
Individual Status agenda:
Hot items and core projects
Side projects
Interoffice relationships
What's on the horizon
Address the fires your manager needs to put out first. Under each project, shine an unflattering light on obstacles and in-danger deadlines to reprioritize. Next, discuss any other side projects on your plate. This could be directives from the C-suite or stretch projects. Last, resurface big-picture goals on the horizon, showing your manager you're on top of what's coming down the pipeline. No surprises or wayward ambitions.
Don't BS your agenda. Reference last week's notes when prepping, and make it visible to your manager a day before the scheduled time. Keep the subject line the same, so it's easy to search the whole kit and kaboodle of statuses.
Statuses are how you and your manager align your actions with the goals you've talked about in your 1:1s.
—Holland
Okay, cool, but isn't that a 1:1?
Nope! The Work Wife dictionary defines a 1:1 as a scheduled time for your manager to help you plan what's next, even if that means taking their job.
Your manager is the one who jumps in the ring for you to fight for raises and promotions, usually in meetings you can't be in to advocate for yourself. They can't vouch for your goals if you don't tell them.
Once a month is good, twice a month is better, and once a week is best. If they have to reschedule— which they inevitably will— it's your responsibility to reschedule promptly.
Your manager is the only person at your company who has the insight into you, your work, and your potential that qualifies you for that next step. Prove to them you deserve that.
—Holland
10 Topics for 1:1s
Seek critical feedback
Compensation trajectory
Stretch projects
State of the company
Title trajectory
Team contribution
Management advice
Books recommendations
Proposals to attend conferences and trainings
Mental and emotional health
Let's elaborate on the first four; they're our favs:
Seek critical feedback on your work performance. Make sure your deliverables are top-notch and hitting the mark. Hell, why not even go above & beyond? They can only fight for a raise if you're producing.
Compensation trajectory. Get that bag! Your compensation should reflect those glowing critical feedback reviews from step one. Ask for honesty as to why the raise is slow going and what precisely your manager is doing to negotiate.
Stretch projects. Reach up and stretch for projects. Fight to have something slightly outside your scope that is moving you toward that next career move.
State of the company. The company—Is it profitable? Is it adjusting to market trends? Should you bundle up for a hiring freeze? Are there extra pressures trickling down from the C-suite affecting your manager? Always better to be in the know.
Set the agenda! Standard etiquette is to send a high-level schedule a day before the meeting. It helps your manager prepare their answers, demonstrates proactivity, and leaves a paper trail they can reference when fighting for your raise.
You cannot make any progress in your career without a 1:1. If your manager is unwilling or capable of meeting regularly, that's a huge red flag, and you gotta GTFO out of that company or division.
—Vanessa
Companies need proof to dole out raises and promotions, and the notes from these meetings can be your damning receipts to secure those extra zeros on your paycheck. We promise that if you do this (not always glamorous) weekly work preparing agendas and following up to reschedule, you'll be happier at your current job and make finding another a breeze. It's worth it, and you're worth it!
LISTEN
Optimize your update meetings
JOIN THE CONVO
GET WHAT YOU WANT
Throw out everything you think you know about succeeding at your job.
In the Work Wives' first-ever course, Vanessa & Holland introduce an entirely new way to think about Corporate America and give you step-by-step instructions on how to focus your energy to get what you actually want.
YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
Got a question for Ask Your Work Wife?
Record your question and email us the recording. Include your name, your city if you want, and whatever context might be helpful for us to know. And don’t forget to start with “Hey, Work Wives!”
AMBITIOUS, CAREER-ORIENTED, AND TOTALLY ON INSTAGRAM
GET ON THE LIST
Get the newsletter
Because sliding into your DMs is not the vibe.
🚪 Strategizing Your Exit (Even if You Just Entered)
We love helping you land jobs, but we also want you to stick the landing when it's time to leave. Strategize your exit plan with Ask Your Work Wife, a podcast for ambitious women who want more out of corporate America. New episodes drop Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
We love helping you land jobs, but we also want you to stick the landing when it's time to leave. Strategize your exit plan with Ask Your Work Wife, a podcast for ambitious women who want more out of corporate America. New episodes drop Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
In today's email:
Read: don't jump ship without a life jacket
Listen: episodes you'll love
Join the convo: our faves from Instagram and LinkedIn
Big news: scroll to the bottom 👇
ALWAYS HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY
Strategizing Your Exit (Even if You Just Entered)
Exit strategies are a MUST, no matter how much you love your current gig. There are a million scenarios in which you'd want an exit strategy, like finding out your boss is recruiting externally for your promotion, hitting your promotional ceiling internally, or you want to shift industries.
Here are three steps to masterfully craft an exit strategy:
1️⃣ Always Be Interviewing (ABI)
Internally, externally, any other -ternally. Always have a feel for what your industry is recruiting and how the salaries fluctuate. Sign up for pesky (but helpful) job alerts on LinkedIn, apply frequently, sincerely interview, and always ask why you got rejected. You'll gain invaluable insight into how your resume compares to the winning candidates.
I followed the fuck up with that rejection email and said, "Can I get some real feedback on what you're missing? Why did you pick someone else over me?" I had to send it a few times, but I got the most critical, valuable feedback. My dream job was telling me exactly what I needed to work on.
—Vanessa
2️⃣ Go Post-Mortem Yourself
We know all you want to do after a big project is close your laptop and chuck it into the sea, but keep it open for just 20 more minutes to record key learnings. Jot down and save the budget, timelines, problem-solving, cross-functional work, leadership, and other talking points that'll dazzle recruiters when applying.
3️⃣ Build Bridges
Networking is over-satirized as a selfish ritual frat bros monopolize. PLEASE don't let that gimmick sour networking for you because it's really just about fostering relationships. If you have a community or a group of friends, you've already mastered the skills required to network.
Public relations practitioners keep bridges (solutions) in one pocket and chasms (problems) in the other pocket.
—Vanessa
It can be as simple as celebrating their promotion on LinkedIn or reaching out when you need niche advice. Sooner or later, someone in your network will wake up and have a chasm for your bridge.
tl;dr
Having an exit strategy on hand decreases your chances of desperately accepting any ole' job. There comes the point when everyone's priorities shift to finding "food on the table," meaning they're more likely to take an ill-fitted position. We're guilty of this too!
I left a toxic environment and got myself into another one because I was in a scarce mindset. I just needed to pay the bills, and I [ignored] all the red flags.
—Vanessa
It's a tough spot to be in, and we don't wish it upon even our most annoying coworkers. Follow these steps on the good days, so the bad days aren't so tough.
Thanks for reading! We'll show you out. The exit (strategy) is this way...
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🌟 Y Tú Mama’s Résumé También
Listen. No one is getting hired in Q4 unless they started interviewing in Q2, especially not this year. But that doesn’t mean you can trash the resume templates just yet. It’s time for a run down on what is hip and happening for resumes in 2023.
Resume advice courtesy of Ask Your Work Wife, a podcast for ambitious women who want more out of corporate America. New episodes drop Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
⬆️ It’s resume UPDATING season
Listen. No one is getting hired in Q4 unless they started interviewing in Q2, especially not this year. But that doesn’t mean you can trash the resume templates just yet. It’s time for a run down on what is hip and happening for resumes in 2023.
🛑 STOP the Scroll
With so many ways to find information about you these days, you’d think we’d just get rid of the traditional one-page resume. Alas, poor Yorick! The resume lives on, in a literal stack in some dark hole of the HR office.
But! The resume has a completely different function than it did even 3 years ago. Its only job is to get you in the door. It no longer needs to chronicle your entire professional life (yes, Chad, it’s finally time to let that summer internship at Bain drop off). It no longer needs your entire academic journey (and, to be clear, your resume never needed your GPA).
Your resume does need to stop the scroll — to stand out from the rest. It’s a simple pass-fail test and if you’re not even getting recruiter screening calls… we’re calling it: your resume is boring and irrelevant 🤷♀️
👯♀️ That’s why we’re here: Your Work Wives. Listen to the full episode on resume-writing on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
But because we know you’re at work…. Here are the highlights:
📸 To photo or not to PHOTO?
It's like OG Facebook — it can be cringe if you don’t do it right. But, hear us out. A photo makes a big difference! It must be professional and it’s gotta feel like you.
And guess what? It’s the #1 way to make that disheartened person in the HR back office stop and think, “Wow! I would love to work with this person!”
💡 Only include RELEVANT experience
No. One. Cares. What you did 10 years ago. Where you went to school. What your GPA was. That weird volunteer thing you did that one time in high school. That you were president of the Key Club.
They want to know you can do the job. Truth is: by the time that hiring manager gets to looking at your resume, she has needed someone in your position for at least a month… and that’s the best case scenario. So capitalize on that stress and use your headlines to your advantage.
When we see in big, BOLD, LETTERS the words “Professional Experience” it’s an immediate NO. Unless this headline has a matching pair called “Unprofessional Experience,” swap it out for the actual category of experience you’re talking about: financial analysis, social media marketing, growth strategy, allocation and planning, electrical engineering. And then pull every job title you’ve had (in the last year) into that category, and include only the most impressive bullet points under that.
🎲 Quantify every qualification
That’s right. Size matters. Especially if it’s a number that stands taller than a bunch of text.
So instead of this: Led a team of engineers to complete a project on time and under budget.
Try this: Led a team of 52 engineers to complete a $1.2MM project in 30% less time than average.
Which one stands out more to you? Thought so 😉
⭐️ A word to the wise: remember you’ve likely signed an NDA regarding the specifics of your work. On your resume — which should never be publicly available — you can include more accurate numbers. On a platform like LinkedIn, you’ll need to use relative numbers.
👩💻 What about LinkedIn?
LinkedIn =/= Your Resume. (Louder for those in the back.) The information on LinkedIn may look and feel similar to your resume, but it is not. LinkedIn is more like your CV… your entire career in chronological order. It should support any resume you deliver but the two are not the same. Once you’ve caught the eye of a manager, they are 100% going to your LinkedIn to check you out further. That's what winning looks like.
Phew! We made it! When you’ve updated your resume, let us know. We just might have a connection with the perfect job for you.
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YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
Got a question for Ask Your Work Wife?
Record your question and email us the recording. Include your name, your city if you want, and whatever context might be helpful for us to know. And don’t forget to start with “Hey, Work Wives!”
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Because sliding into your DMs is not the vibe.