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Alpha female: How to make it off the bottom rung

29 November 2007

Anneke deBoer

Congratulations. You’ve been in your job a few months, found your feet, and may even get a bonus. First you’ll need to be a success.

If you are junior, to my mind the most important thing is your attitude. You are only junior once. Your bosses will accept mistakes (for now) but they will not be tolerant of insolence or arrogance. I’m sure you want to climb the corporate ladder quickly, but be realistic. You are not a Master of the Universe yet.

Accept that you are at the bottom and that those senior to you – and even many of those junior to you – know more than you do. Be willing to do anything and everything. Yes, no matter how odious the task might be. Try your best at everything. Ask questions when you don’t understand. Be respectful. Slightly under-promise and then over-deliver rather than over-promising and under-delivering.

Be realistic about your constraints, but don’t bother your boss with all the details. Manage expectations. Make yourself indispensable. Help out your fellow analysts or associates. You are all in it together. You never know when you might need someone else’s help. Make friends with the support staff.

If you have a can-do attitude, the willingness to learn and the willingness to accept constructive criticism gracefully, in time your superiors will like and trust you.

You might even be surprised at how quickly this will happen. They will give you more interesting projects to work on. They will draw you into their circle and give you the benefit of their wisdom and expertise. You will learn from them. A year from now you will realise how much you have learned, and be able to pass your wisdom on. And you will be higher on that corporate ladder.

Anneke de Boer is a former managing director of Morgan Stanley’s fixed income and debt capital markets business in London. She retired in 2006.

Comments (6)

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• I learnt alot from this article, Thanks.

  Ida 03 Dec 2007

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• Anneke..This is an inspiring article. however, I have consistently followed all of the above, not to climb the ladder but simply to get along with others and get things done ina mature amneer. Your article, meant to be entertaining of course, is very simplistic. You have not taken into account aggressive, competitive colleagues who will tear you down, no matter what. Even if you support them all the way. Then you have team leaders playing their own ploitics with the boss and other teams...If you get along with someone, you will be the whipping boy. You need to advise women more on their legal rights at work, because some people will bow to nothing but brute force.I am very depressed because inspite of doing an exceptional job and trying my bestest best, my probation was cut short whereas that of my fellow recruits who are no more capable, some even unprofessional, have been kept on. There is a lot of discrimination and bias at work. I think you should also say play dumb - and swallow everything. Dye your hair blonde while you are it! ;)

  Yas 03 Dec 2007

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• I wish you were my boss. The "alpha females" in our team would probably be less arrogant, more team players, more respectful, more female and less alpha... but you are not my boss

  Alpha male 04 Dec 2007

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• If only it was this simple. The IB world is much tougher than this especially for the female.  Theres more to just being what is recommended in this article infact this goes without saying...how about some advice on how to tackle the machiavellian egotistic behaviour of fellow bankers....

  Vicky 05 Dec 2007

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• Useful advice. Wished I saw your article earlier. Will definitely watch my attitude from now on.

  Jarvinia 16 Feb 2008

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• There's so much ego and taboo in the field, so much attitude everywhere you look. People who feels insecure needs more respect - and everyone in investment banking sector needs a lot of respect to feed their ego.

  0 14 Jun 2008

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