Get Your 'Tina Fey' Glasses

by Working Girl One

Most of my commute last week was spend reading Tina Fey's Bossypants. If you happened to be on Metro North (oh yeah, I moved...more on that later) last week and noticed a girl in stitches reading an iPad and nearly spitting her coffee on it, you probably saw me.

Rather than providing a full review of her memoir, I thought I'd just share just a few of my favorite quotes. Because, really, if you like Tina Fey (and who doesn't?), you'll love, love, love Bossypants...even if the cover grosses you out a bit.

There were so many gems of advice sprinkled throughout the hilarious stories of Tina Fey's life that I nearly highlighted the entire book. These are a few of many career-related nuggets that I just had to share.

"Some people say 'Never let them see you cry.' I say, if you're so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone."

"Contrary to what I believed as a little girl, being the boss almost never involves marching around, waving your arms, and chanting, "I am the boss! I am the boss!'"

"This is what I tell young women who ask me for career advice. People are going to try to trick you. To make you feel like you are in competition with one another...Don't be fooled. You're not in competition with other women. You're in competition with everyone."

"So my unsolicited advice to women in the workplace is this. When faced with sexism or ageism or lookism or even really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question: 'Is this person in between me and what I want to do?' If the answer is no, ignore it and move on. Your energy is better used doing your work and outpacing people that way."

And finally, this might be my favorite because we all know someone like this at work:

"There was the Program Director, who talked exclusively in nonsense business language 'We are attempting to pro-activate the community by utilizing a series of directives intended to maximate communicative agreeance.'"

What Are Your Strengths?

I was helping my best friend earlier this week as she prepared for her bi-yearly review. One of the questions on her questionnaire was, what are your strengths? She was struggling with what to write. I don’t blame her…that is such a tough question to answer without sounding like you are gloating so I shared with her this amazing little book called StrengthsFinder 2.0. Have any of you read this book?

I was lucky enough to stumble across this book about 4 years ago when I was interviewing for a position where it was required of all candidates. Initially I thought it was just another test, but as I read through the first few chapters, I realized how much validity it really had. The book talks about strengthening your strengths rather then trying to strengthen your weaknesses. It makes so much sense. There are 34 unique strengths, all of which are great!

It’s a short read. You take the test (code in the book), it gives you your top five strengths and then you get to read in detail about them. It was scary how spot on the test was for me! So now when I get asked this question, I am able to talk with confidence.

If you have time, I really recommend it!

Here are my top five strengths in no particular order:

Responsibility-People who are especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

Discipline-People who are especially talented in the Discipline theme enjoy routine and structure. Their world is best described by the order they create.

Arranger-People who are especially talented in the Arranger theme can organize, but they also have a flexibility that complements this ability. They like to figure out how all of the pieces and resources can be arranged for maximum productivity.

Achiever-People who are especially talented in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.

Futuristic-People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

Working Girl Reads "The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl"

Once upon a time, a blog named Working Girl met an author/blogger/artist named Working Girl. They quickly realized that they were very similar in that they both liked to talk about their real experiences in the Working Girl trenches.

Unlike WG1 and WG2, Karen Burns (aka Working Girl), has a teensy bit more experience than we do and she wrote a book about all 59 (yes! 59!) of the jobs that she has had in her lifetime. For the past few weeks, WG1 and WG2 have been reading Karen Burns' new book "The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use". And we love it! Not only does she dispense her great words of wisdom, but she uses her real-life stories to do it. By separating her book into sections entitled "Clueless", "Confident" and "Carefree", Burns is able to relate to all Working Girls in any stage of their career (cause we've all been one of those 3 things at one point!).

Below is an interview we conducted with Karen Burns - and we hope you check out her blog and buy her book! Trust us - it's worth every penny!

WG: How did you decide to write this book? And how is it different from other career advice books?

The book was a friend’s idea, when she found out how many jobs I’d had. She was in publishing so I took her seriously. What’s different about The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl is that the advice is based on stuff that happened to me in my 59 jobs (yes, really 59). Each chapter—there are 59 and they are short—relates a story from one of my jobs and then gives career/life advice based on what happened in the story. It’s fast and easy. You can pick it up, open it anywhere, and start reading. Oh, and it’s illustrated with cartoons of “Working Girl” (that’s me).

WG: Out of the 59 jobs you've had, which was your all-time favorite and which was your most hated?

I really hated my “envelope sorting” job. It was so-o-o boring and the conditions were awful, super noisy and absolutely soul-deadening. My favorite job was in Paris (I lived & worked in Paris for 3 years—it’s in the book!). I worked freelance, mostly writing marketing materials in English for French companies. One of my regular clients, a design firm, would occasionally ask me to come along when they pitched business to potential clients. They wanted to look like an international firm so I was there to be introduced as “the American.” I got paid just for being American. It was kind of cool.

WG: What is the one thing you want people to take away from your reading your book?

That you will probably have to search for fulfilling work, for a great job—it won’t just fall in your lap. Maybe it will, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t. And that making a mistake—in your career or in life—is not the end of the world. We are allowed to make mistakes. We need to make them! (I guess that’s two things.)

WG: We love the mission statement idea! Do you find that your mission statement stays or the same or changes often?

Your basic mission statement, in that it reflects your heart’s desire, will stay the same. However, the ways you devise to accomplish that heart’s desire may change.

WG: Of all your eternal truths, which is your favorite or the most important?

“It’s never too late to be the person you were meant to be.” It’s not original; I believe I read something like it in “Middlemarch.” But I think it’s very true.

WG: What advice would you give Working Girls during the current recession who are having a hard time finding a job?

Cast a wide net. Network like mad. Get creative. Stay positive. Don’t give up. Be a bright shining light. And remember that people have always survived hard times and you will, too.

WG: What advice can you give all the new (fresh out of college or HS) Working Girls out there?

Enjoy your life and your work. Especially, do a good job in whatever position you find yourself in, because all jobs are worth doing well and because doing a good job makes you a good person. And thus a happier person.

WG: How did you decide to jump ship and move abroad? What advice would you give WG's who want to take the same plunge?

It’s always good to line up a job before you go. If you can’t do this, and in any case, save up a lot of money first. Work at getting some contacts in your target country. Find out what the laws are for foreign workers in your target country. Think the whole project through; try to anticipate the “worst that could happen” and come up with a plan for what you would do if it did. Be prepared for things to not go exactly as planned, and brace yourself for some loneliness at first. It’s not easy to live in a foreign country, to be “a foreigner”—try not to be discouraged by this. Persist! Living abroad is tremendously fun and tremendously challenging. You grow. You get smarter. You become more…..sophisticated. I highly recommend it.

WG: Do you believed you have discovered your true path?

I always thought it was my “true path” to earn my living by writing and reading so, yes, I think so.

WG: We're stealing this one from our interview with Karen Burns on her blog! If you could not work a day more in your life, would you take the opportunity to do so?

No. I need something to do. I need a challenge, some project that absorbs me and feels worthwhile. Isn’t that why we’re alive?

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

If there is one thing all Working Girls have in common it's that at one point in our careers we become frustrated and we start to outgrow our current jobs/companies.

In this current economic state, a lot of women (myself included) begin to feel guilty that we even feel this way. We should appreciate what we have! Not hope for what we don't! Right? Yea, I know. Saying it is one thing, but believing is another.

Then I came across this article about a new book that came out in May called, "Make Every Day a Friday! The Joy of Connecting Who You Are With What You Do" by Marina Spence, CEO of The Pink Edge.

In the book, Spence confronts the problem of women wanting to make career changes during these turblent times, and how to make the recession a career opportunity for you. It's for women who feel stuck - and they want to make a change (big or small).

The book also focuses on Spences's steps to make every day a Friday (like the title - duh!). And I mean, who doesn't want everyday to be a Friday? Because I sure do.

Her top 3 tips include:

1. Pinpoint exactly what you don't like about your current job. Sometimes we say we hate everything about it, when there might just be two or three things. Knowing exactly what you don't like can lead to informed change.

2. Start small. Congratualte yourself for your baby steps, if that's how you begin. Always, move at your own pace.

3. Find your "guiding star". Locate the woman who's leading the life you'd like to live, and who inspires you to say, "if she can do it, I can do it."

While I probably won't purchase the book (I'm poor!), doing a little revamp of my attitude and how I view work might be just what the doc ordered.

It's Time to Grow Up

The new me starts on Monday. I could not be more excited. Finally, I will only have to do one job. But I could also not be more annoyed. The new me will be the Marketing Assistant. She will work on projects for Mom Boss, Dad Boss, Promo Girl, me and the rest of our department. We will manage the new me on her projects. So, she should probably take us seriously.

Normally, it's easy to take Promo Girl, myself and other cubicle pod-mate seriously. Sure, we may chat a little bit, make fun of one another and maybe get a little inappropriate. Just a little. But we're hard workers.

That was until the two of them discovered Twilight. Promo girl rented the movie over the weekend (before reading the book, which, for the record, I did not condone) and she is now in love with Edward Cullen. Our other co-worker is half way through the series, has seen the movie and is equally obsessed.

Back in November, when I finished the series, I begged them both to read it. I told them they'd love it. They thought I was a crazy, vampire obsessed teeny-bopper. Now, the two of them are printing out photos of Robert Pattinson, decorating their cubes and saying "oh hello Edward," every time they sit at their desks.

I've been partaking in the Edward love fest and I even have one picture in my cube. I spend a little time censoring NewMoonMovie.org for Promo Girl so that she's doesn't find anything out before she reads the book. I've explained the obsession to Working Girl Two and she put it best. She said that they were in the pre-teen obsessed phase and that we, having finished the series and passed that phase, are in the cool teenager phase.

The three us decided yesterday that when the new me starts, the Twilight talk must stop. I'm not knocking any Twilight fans. I'll be the first to admit I love Edward Cullen but how is a new girl supposed to take us seriously when we're saying things like "I wish I were a vampire with sparkling skin."

Working Girl Reads Supergirls Speak Out

This past week Working Girl had the privilege of sitting down with Liz Funk, author of Supergirls Speak Out: Inside the Secret Crisis of Overachieving Girls. Liz's book centers around the idea of a "Supergirl" - someone who she describes as being under the impression that to be happy you have to be a size two, excel at your job, wear the coolest clothes, have the perfect boyfriend, and have gotten straight A's (in high school and college). The book delves into the world of the Supergirl and how the most dangerous effect of being a Supergirl is not only competing against other Supergirls, but competing against themselves which is a destructive habit that Liz found can often lead to depression and other emotional disorders.

Before I get to our Q&A portion, I just have to give you a breakdown of how amazing Liz is. If we're talking Supergirl, she is the definition. Liz Funk was born in 1988 (yes, that makes her 20 years old), and she is not only the author of Supergirls Speak Out, but has also has written articles for USA Today, Newsday, CosmoGIRL!, and recently appeared on the Today Show. She serves on numerous advisory boards, has great fashion sense, and loves Arrested Development. And she hasn't even graduated from college yet! Safe to say, she is a Supergirl.


WG: First off, for those of our readers who haven't read your book, how would you describe a SuperGirl?

A Supergirl is a young woman who wants to be a perfect 10 at everything she attempts. She wants to have a degree from a great college, to have a great job, to do great work and quickly ascend the corporate ladder, to be pretty, to have great friends, to have a boyfriend or a steady stream of hook-ups, and more broadly, to be charming. And on top of it all, the Supergirls want to make doing everything appear as though it comes naturally to them. And that’s where things get tricky. Often, Supergirls seek to achieve for the wrong reasons—they’re trying to find their value in being perfect, when they intellectually know that they’re demanding way too much from themselves and it’s impossible to be on top of things all the time.

WG: In your book, you call yourself a Supergirl - how do you think you became one personally? Do you think you had any particular influences on your Supergirlness? And do you ever wish you weren't a Supergirl?

When I started high school—I went to a 7^th-12^th grade high school, so 7^th grade—I noticed that there were a lot of structures to reward high-achieving kids, like honor roll, student of the month, and annual award ceremonies, and even more implicit structures within the community where kids, particularly girls, who were high-achieving and beautiful and charming got the most attention. This really spurred my desire to want to do well in school, get my career started, and win others over. Also, to be perfectly honest, I have hair that is naturally dishwater-brown, but when I started having my hair bleached blonde when I was 17, I got so much more attention, and it made me work a lot more on my appearance and see my appearance as a really integral part of my identity as a Supergirl. I was also briefly anorexic in high school, and that totally sucked and was really intertwined with my achievement issues.

I often wish I wasn’t a Supergirl! I often have a hard time relaxing, I let work stress pollute my relaxation time, and I very rarely get drunk because I don’t want to devote the day after a fun night out to vegging on the couch with a hangover. I’m a work-in-progress, though: I’m really actively working to remedy my Supergirl drive and find a healthy balance between motivation and work, and relaxation and play.

WG: One person you interviewed in your chapter on working, Yolanda, talked about the concept of not apologizing at work because it makes you appear weak. Can you elaborate on this point and do you agree with her?

I do agree with Yolanda, to an extent. While I think that if you did in fact screw up and something bad happened because of your mistake, you probably should apologize, especially if you’re not the only one affected by the problem. However, young women are frequently the lowest on the totem pole in the office, and frequently they can be scapegoated by their superiors and expected to take the blame for things they played no role in. That’s a point where young women need to assert themselves, stand behind their work, and not apologize. I once had a boss make me apologize to her for a problem we were dealing with, and by apologizing, the problem became my fault, even though it really wasn’t in the first place! It’s situations like those where girls need to overcome their need to please others and charm authority figures, and put their reputations first. Personally, I’m a big apologizer and it’s one thing that I really don’t like about myself and that I’m working on.

WG: You discuss feminity in the workplace a lot in your book, in your research did you find that there is room for feminity or do you think women need to appear more masculine to succeed?

Femininity is an extremely powerful tool; sex is not. I think that young women can absolutely be feminine in the office and can use their femininity to help them: I think women are natural negotiators, they work well with others in intimate settings and often easily meet people where they’re at, and I think that they are very perceptive and intuitive… all because of femininity! I invite women to embrace their gender as they approach work! When it comes to clothes, things can get tricky. You don’t need to dress like Miranda Hobbes for work, but you shouldn’t dress like Carrie Bradshaw, either. Yolanda, the banker who I followed for my book, had great work clothes; she would wear nice black pants that looked sleek and fit her well, nice heels, designer glasses, a snug blazer, and a shirt that maybe had a bit more pizzazz than the rest of her outfit. Also, she usually had one—just one—designer piece on her person, like a nice bag or a simple piece of jewelry. But Yolanda was also in a majorly male-dominated corporation. I think girls who work at non-profits and in the media have a lot more flexibility, simply because the throngs of women who proceeded them have already done that negotiating for them.

WG: Do you believe women have to adapt more to leaving college and entering the working world than men do?

That’s a great question. I hesitate to say yes, because there’s all these silly movies like Knocked Up and You, Me, and Dupree (not that I don’t love these silly movies!) that posit that when women overachieve, guys in turn become lazy bums who play video games and smoke weed all day. But I do think that girls make the transition a little better, simply because I think that girls are itching to enter the grown-up world and prove themselves to the industries they want to work in when they graduate, whereas guys seem to get jobs because it’s time.

WG: How important would you say fashion/looking good is to a career?

I wish it mattered less, but I think it does. I’m a big fan of the web-site Ed2010.com, a community for aspiring magazine and newspaper editors, and I remember a few years ago, we had a big discussion on the message boards about how being pretty and well-groomed plays a big role in landing an internship, and ultimately, most agreed that being pretty and fun to chat with over the cubicle dividers is a big part of getting hired. I think that there is much more to being charming and personable than being good looking, however, and I challenge Working Girls everywhere to put down the mascara wand and instead be as authentic and energetic as possible on the job.

WG: What is your advice to Supergirls out there who after reading your book still want to do it all but without the side effects - how can we still achieve this status without having a mental breakdown?

Supergirls need to admit that there is a problem before they can remedy the problem! Girls need to admit to themselves that they’re living inauthetnically and that they’re achieving for the wrong reasons. They need to admit to themselves that they’re trying to be perfect and that it’s not working. Girls need to let themselves be imperfect, and they need to figure out why they matter outside of what they accomplish, what they look like, and how others perceive them. Girls neeed to spend more time alone with their thoughts and they need to develop a relationship with themselves! Here’s a baby step: I encourage working girls everywhere, for one week, to not listen to music, read, or play with their phones during their commute to work. I predict that they’ll find that they think about a ton of interesting things, and perhaps stumble upon some thoughts that really make them think about how they’re living their lives and what they could do differently to be happier and healthier. Seriously, I hate to say it, but ditch the iPod, and you’ll find that you’re such a pensive person!

WG: You expressed a sense of disappointment in yourself - or really a feeling of 'this still isn't good enough' even though you are very successful. Do you still feel this way even after writing this book and doing the research?

Yes. Wah. This has really been the ride of my life and I’m so grateful to have achieved the goal of writing a book (and finally meeting Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera on the TODAY Show!), but I’m always going to expect more from myself. I’m a Supergirl, after all!

WG: Why do you think it is so hard for Supergirls to adapt to corporate world?

Great question! Part of the problem is that the corporate world doesn’t exactly reward high-achievers the way college does. There is less return on the time and energy investment than there is in college. It’s like, in school, if you study and you do extra credit, you’re very likely to get an A. But there’s no guarantee for success in the corporate world, and success comes about much more slowly! Also, on some level, the corporate world is at odds with our humanity: sometimes, you have to hide your emotions, pretend to like people you don’t, and put in 100% on days when you’re just not feeling it. When you’re younger, you can be more in tune with your needs and desires, but when you’re a grown-up, you have to go to work!

It’s not all gloom-and-doom, though, and I think that the twenties are a great time for young women to figure out who they are and why they matter and why they’re special, and once that happens, they’ll experience 300% more happiness in almost every area of their lives. As a recovering Supergirl, I’m inclined to guarantee it.

The Other Working Girl

Sex and blogging. What do you get when you put those two things together? You get Belle du Jour, a different kind of working girl. 

Belle du Jour is a nom de plume for a London call girl who began blogging daily about her work. Much like we do here on Working Girl, only we work in cubicles and she often works in hotels. And there's that whole getting paid to sleep with strangers thing, we don't do that.  

Her posts were made a book of the same name, although when a UK television show based on the book chose the title "Secret Diary of a London Call Girl" the book was re-released with the same name. 

Belle, like us Working Girls, deals with a boss (her agents), coworkers (other call girls that she runs in

to) and clients (the men paying for sex). Her boss is a former call girl who doesn't listen when she says that she just woke up and cannot meet a client in 15 minutes. The lucky girl that she is, she doesn't have to deal with coworkers all that often. And her clients, much like the ones we deal with, some of them know what they want and some don't. Some are submissive and some are aggressive. Some like to play games and some are to the point. Her experiences are everything from embarrassing to hysterical. 

"The Secret Diary of a London Call Girl" is a fun and candid view into a life most of us would never think to experience. Not all Working Girls are sitting at desks from 9 to 5 and Belle sure makes us aware of that.

So go indulge and lose yourself in a completely differently lifestyle by reading about Belle's unique lifestyle. But keep in mind this book is NSFC: Not Safe For Commuting. Fellow commuters may look over your shoulder and see the words "cock," "nipple," and "orgasm." That's just awkward. 

Working Girl Reads Tabloid Love

Summer has begun and I couldn't be more excited to be lazy on the beach and read chick lit while tanning (or in my case, adding more freckles to my already freckle-infested skin). My recommendation for a must-have, perfect-for-the-beach summer read is Tabloid Love by Bridget Harrison. This memoir combines all my favorite Working Girl things: office romance, gossip, and journalists. Have I mentioned I want to be a journalist? Well, surprise, I do!

Harrison writes about being a thirty-something woman in London who is fervently chasing her dream to be a great journalist. As all her friends are starting to settle down and get married, Harrison and her boyfriend slight and she decides to apply for a four-month exchange program, which allows her to leave her job at the London Times and work for the New York Post. Harrison ends up loving her job (and her cute boss) so much that she stayed at the job for five years and even landed her own column on dating in the city.

The rest of the story is about her trials and tribulations of dating in New York (and the Hamptons). Harrison's true tales of trying to find "The One" in the jungle of the dating world are zippy and funny - she races for murder scenese to interviews with matchmakers in a typical day - making the read not only entertaining, but funny. I found myself chuckling out loud at points (which is embarassing when you are laying on a sandy dune next to a incredibly hot lifeguard dubbed Mr. "Save Me, Save Me" by your friends). Overall, you find yourself rooting for Bridget the entire way through - especially when she falls hard for her editor and she has to write about their relationship in her dating column.

Bridget is a real-life Carrie Bradshaw without all the over-the-top glam outfits (she gets hand-me-downs from her best friend who works for Page Six) and backdrops that cost a pretty penny (Harrison loves dive bars).

Bridget Harrison is a real Working Girl with all the bumps in the road that come along with that title. I not only love her cheeky writing, but also admire her for putting it all on the table - speed dating and all.

Working Girl Reads

Let me start this post by first stating that I am the unfortunate lover of horrific chick lit - really anything that has a pink cover and a title that gives an air that the main character might be a single Working Girl in a big city and I'm sold. Every once in a while, however, I settle into a memoir about a real, live Working Girl - someone who has been there there, done that, walked a mile in the real deal four-inch heels and lived to tell the tale. 

My recent foray into a memoir was "But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous" by Jancee Dunn. Dunn writes an engaging account of her trials and tribulations as an reporter for Rolling Stone, as well as her foray working as a VJ at MTV2 and Good Morning America. What really draws me to her as a writer is how she writes of how she unexpectedly fell in the lap of Rolling Stone. While writing was not her passion from the day she was born, her love of music and a chance meeting at a party with a girl who worked at for a leading music magazine, Dunn blazed her own path and became a successful Working Girl interiewing Dolly Parton about her love of Velveeta cheese one day and the next hiking in the Rockies with Brad Pitt. 

The book itself is a short, quick read that alternates between interesting interviews that Dunn has conducted (such as Madonna and Ben Affleck) to her personal memoirs about growing up a Jersey girl in the 1980's. The memoir even takes a dark turn as Dunn becomes pulled further and further into the glamorous and drunken lifestyle and begins to pull away from her good girl beginnings and finds herself losing herself and what she had wanted to become. Overall, the read is funny, and a great read for anyone who enjoys celebrity gossip. 

And with chapter titles that come equipped with pearls of wisdom promised such as 'How to Jolly Up a Surly, Hungover Band During an Interview' and 'How to Approach an R&B Artist When You're the Whitest Person in the Western World', who can resist picking up this gem of a book and learn how to ask a celebrity about their recent bout in rehab or their ongoing divorce settlements? 

And in case you find yourself in the sticky situation of being offered illegal drugs by a rock star (which regularly happens to me, of course), take advice from Dunn and hide out in the bathroom so you stop sweating bullets and then quickly sway the conversation to his new album slated to come out that fall. Works like a charm every time.