Changing Faces: Regulations and Stakeholder Management Lawyer

You were obviously born in the late 80’s (80’s kids are the coolest) meaning you experienced your childhood years in the 90’s, how was growing up like for you?

I grew up with 2 loving parents and 4 siblings in a little town in Northern KZN called Empangeni. Apparently we didn’t have much, I was unaware of this for most of my life. My parents did well to ensure that I always had what I needed when I needed it. I was an active young girl, and in hindsight, quite the little achiever!   

Sounds like you were quite the busy body, where have all your achievements brought you to now?

Right now I work in the Regulatory and stakeholder management department of a multinational.

What did you study and are you using it at all in your current role?

 In my undergrad, I read Law and graduated with an LLB degree. Thereafter, I picked up a few post grad diplomas in Economics, Media Studies and Intellectual Property Law. I am not using my formal training much. My role requires a lot of business acumen and is not a traditional legal role as would be understood by most.

How long have you been working and now that you’re working, are there any things you miss about being a student?

 I have four years post admission experience, however if one considers my 2 years as a Candidate Attorney, I have been in the labour market for 6 years.

I miss the lack of responsibility and accountability, I miss the long holidays.

Time for second base - tell us about your work typical day.

My typical day entails being in different countries in a single day as the portfolio under my care is all the countries in the SADC region! Thank God for technology because most things I am able to action from my desk in South Africa.  For these countries, I would be involved in negotiations, telecons, putting together parliamentary submissions, regulatory risk management, training of younger staff etc and general massaging of egos :)

Do you encounter any challenges that specifically come with being a young black woman in corporate SA?

Yes I do. Being in the technology space, I am often surrounded by senior, white men. When I was a little younger and wet behind the ears, I was tempted to be a “man in a skirt” at work. I thought this was necessary in order to avoid being overlooked or undermined. It was a continuous effort to be tough and assertive. However, with age, I have realized that being a woman in the workplace is my absolute strength. My femininity affords me a different perspective to issues and I bring a different skills set altogether, either than my formal training of course. In negotiations I have an intuition that I find lacking in men. I know when to push, when to relent or to simply be quite.

Three tips for people keen to join your line of work?

Honestly, I would love to see more young women of colour breaking into other disciplines. I would like to open my Sunday paper one morning and read about a Mbali Khuzwayo who has just returned from space. However, for those who insist on being lawyers, my single biggest tip is that the best lawyer is one who is able to think like a businessman. Once you understand your client, you are better equipped to assist and advise. Further, never stop equipping yourself, success is simply a meeting of preparation and opportunity. Let your moment find you ready!

*names and faces have been omitted purposely

Changing Faces: Sponsorship & Promotions Implementation Specialist

You were obviously born in the late 80’s (80’s kids are the coolest) meaning you experienced your childhood years in the 90’s, how was growing up like for you?

I grew up with my mom and step dad in various locations from Kempton Park, Carletonville and later Alberton where they currently reside. My sister and I lived with them along with a stepsister for a couple of years. My sister and I’s dad was always in our lives and we often went to visit him over the weekends or school holidays.

I also have a half-brother he is my biological father’s child.

So what do you now? No need to go into detail here, we're still getting there.

I am a Sponsorship and Promotions: Implementation Specialist

What did you study and are you using it at all in your current role?

Marketing, yes there are elements of marketing in my current role

Now that you’re working, are there any things you miss about being a student?

Not having to pay bills, still being my parents’ responsibility.

Time for second base - tell us about your work typical day.

The day starts off with a daily status meeting, after which I often have client and internal meetings throughout the day to update clients and internal stakeholders on the campaigns currently running on the radio stations.

Throughout the day I’ll will chase creative agencies for digital/ on air elements these will then need to be sent by myself to the radio stations after which client will need to approve all recordings, screenshots etc.

I am constantly pre-empting problems, solving problems and ensuring all campaign run to clients’ satisfaction.

Do you encounter any challenges that specifically come with being a young black woman in corporate SA?

Yes, our company in particular doesn't have many black individuals in management never mind any black women and thus many people don’t have confidence in our abilities no matter how much we prove ourselves. There is still a lot of work to be done.

Three tips for people keen to join your line of work?

You must be able to multi-task, manage various stakeholders and remain calm under pressure.

Thus I would advise anyone who wants to do what we do to find a stress reliever to keep them sane i.e.gym.

Always think before you speak.

Remember it’s not personal it’s about the bottom line.


*names and faces have been omitted purposely

Changing Faces: Intro - Millennial women

Millennial women, or " burnt-out by age 30", as they have been described, are the ambitious generation of women born between 1980 and 1995. 
Career-focused and impatient to reach the top, they are likely to see off old stereotypes and change the workplace faster than their predecessors.
At SA universities, women now outnumber men by almost two to one in obtaining tertiary qualifications, says Amrop Landelahni.
Graduates in accounting reflected a 50/50 gender split in 1999. By 2011, women represented 58% of all graduates and the trend is up in the sciences, engineering and information & communication technology.
And 53% of graduates coming into corporate jobs are millennial women.
Millennial women are more career-focused than their mums and delay having children into their 30s. This is because they have grown up in an output-driven and high-performance environment.
"Burnt out by age 30 and focused on their career, they are task-driven and seek out a high-performance environment. They perform markedly better than men".
Source: Financial Mail 28 Aug 2014 


The extract above is from an article I came across while doing some random research and it turned out to inspire this series I am about to introduce to you, right about now.

I have decided to dedicate the next couple of weeks to a series I call "Changing Faces" - a story of how young black women are changing the face of corporate South Africa. 

In her book, "Lean In" (which I quote a little too much a little too often), Sheryl Sandberg addresses the issues that prevent women from climbing the corporate ladder as fast as their male counterparts. She slightly touches on the subject of how women of colour are faced with even greater barriers in this regard. I appreciate that she merely touched on it, knowing that she cannot tell a story that is not her own...



I've worked for three companies, none of which have had a black representative on the board, let alone a woman. I am not complaining or suggesting these positions should just be handed out all willy-nilly but it would be nice to have a familiar face that one can identify with, someone to make you believe that it's attainable, know what I mean? 

When I was still a student I met an amazing woman called Phuti Mahanyele, she was the person who made it seem possible for me, I thought hey, if she can get there, so can I. Little did I know the Phuti's of this world a few and far between. When I entered corporate I was just like "hawu, kanti where is everyone? (but where is everyone - sorry, can't translate hawu)". By everyone I meant people who looked like me, people who showed me that people like us can get there too. 
What I've grown to learn is that they are all here, they are my peers and some, my very close friends. They may not be holding those high-flying positions right now but best believe they are well on their way! 



So, over the next couple of weeks, allow me to introduce you to the new face of corporate South Africa:

She's young, she's beautiful, she's smart and yes, she's black.
Her place is in the boardroom, high heeled and present!



P.S All the women who will be featured in this series will be those born between 1980 and 1990. Though they will not be named, I'm sure they will inspire at least one reader, and that's enough for me!
P.P.S One favour from me, please share with any young women you think may benefit from these?
#okthanksbye


Sheryl Sandberg's TED Talk which is basically a summary of her book can be found here

Laughing straight to the bank

“So, what exactly do you do?” is a question I get asked, a lot.

First thing’s first, let's get this right, not everybody who works in a bank is a banker.

Firstly, there’s front office (FO) vs. Back Office (BO):
No, this has nothing to do with where you sit like how back in school the naughty kids would sit at the back of the class…unless you were in my 11th grade English class where we were seated according to marks, the higher, the further back.

FO are the client facing guys, they are the revenue generators and interact directly with the clients - the Bankers and Traders.
BO are more of the support people, the record keepers who make sure that the engine is running smoothly - Finance (the accountants), IT, Risk, Compliance etc.
There are also the fence sitters who can't decide (OK, I kid) , the middle office, these are those who do a bit of both, they support FO as BO and may from time to time have some sort of client interaction - Researchers, Credit Analysts, Legal. 

Though everybody works harmoniously singing Kumbaya, there are also a lot of egos flying around, like FO people look down on BO people and within FO, the Investment Bankers are; how can I put this, the Kanye Wests of the bank!

Banking is so wide and varied that if I had to break it down in a detailed manner it would take roughly my whole life and most of you would stop reading halfway anyway so I'll stick to one particular division for now. Naturally it would be where I sit, Debt Capital Markets (DCM), which in my case, falls under Investment Banking (IB). 

Before I moved to DCM I struggled with getting the low down on this side of banking as most available info out there focuses on IB as most would know it - Project Finance/M&A/Advisory, which is all good and well except I'm not required to build models and I work, on average 60 hour weeks as opposed to 80 hours like some of my IB friends.

DCM in a nutshell:

As the name suggests, this division solely focuses on raising funds by means of issuing debt. The process goes more or less as follows:

1. Client issues a document called an RfP (Request for Proposal) - in which they basically state that they require a certain amount of funding to either pump into a new or existing project or pay off some other debt.

2. Banks then respond to the RfP in the form of the infamous pitchbook where they recommend the type of debt (loan/bond).

3. Client then mandates which banks they would like to work on the deal (can be one or multi, depending on deal size).

4. A whole lot of preps and emails and inter-bank meetings take place.

5. In the case of bonds - Investor meetings known as roadshows are set up - this is the bank's chance to sell the bond to various potential investors across the world. This usually takes place over 4-5 days meaning you could be in New York on Monday, LA on Tuesday, Frankfurt on Wednesday, London on Thursday. And by "you" I certainly don't mean me because only Associate Directors (AD) and up cover this part, Analysts & Associates however will help with the preps including investor profiles and timetables (so you're part of the action in some way lol).

6. The day comes to launch the bond, from the time the markets open, so does the orderbook. Think of is as an auction where investors are the bidders. Throughout the day you track the orderbook closely (because juniors are required to write up a deal review at the end of the day).

7. The book will finally close at a time agreed upon by the parties involved (mandated banks and the issuer). Sometimes this may be around dinner time, only you are not having dinner because this is the point where all the mandated banks have a conference call where the bond is priced and terms (interest rate, years to maturity, terms and conditions, etc.) are concluded.

8. The deal is finally announced on Bloomberg. Note: up to this point, everything you've been doing has been considered insider information. Up to this point the deal has been called by some random project name like "Project Umhlabauyalingana" or something. Up to this point you don't know whether you're working for a bank or the CIA.

9. Once the deal has been announced, your work is done and it's passed on to the traders who monitor its activity in the secondary market. 

Deals obviously don't come by every day so in between, work is usually around keeping clients informed about that's happening in the markets, prepping for meetings for potential deals just to keep the relationship going so you're top of mind when one comes up, keeping up to date with the global economy and prepping for any drastic changes that may pop up as a result of. 


Quite a mouthful I know but that was as succinct as I could make it. Hope it's brought some enlightenment and thank you for stopping by!


P.S: Working on a concept that’ll showcase different industries and jobs in a cool and interesting way that I’ll hopefully be sharing with you guys in the near future.

Prologue

If you could rewrite the past, would you? 
Would you rewind and set the wrongs right? 
How frequently would you make amendments and at what point would you be happy with the results? 
When would enough be good enough and when would it all simply be ENOUGH? 

This was the pop quiz playing in my head after I watched About Time starring Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams (still looking exactly as she did in The Notebook – what pill is she taking?). The story is of a young man who, on his 21st birthday discovers that he has the ability to travel in time. As you’d probably guess, the movie naturally revolves around him constantly and conveniently going back to the past to improve his future. 

Similarly in the sense that both depict the tale of having 100% control of your future is a movie called Ruby Sparks where a young author, battling with his romance life, writes his ideal girlfriend to life; she is and does exactly what he wants – how’s that for “ticking all the boxes”?

As cool as it sounds, if a genie were to appear to me tomorrow, none of my three wishes would be wasted on time travel. I believe that everything that happens in our lives occurs exactly when it’s meant to. To tamper with life in that manner would simply be a disservice to really living.

You know you often hear about how people who've worked in corporate suddenly "find their music" and leave their handsomely paying jobs to open a cake shop or travel to Africa in efforts to stop hunger, and perhaps adopt a poor African child or two? For me my music was not found outside of corporate but rather in a different industry. 

One of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make has been an oxymoron because it was also the easiest – taking the plunge and making a drastic career switch to do exactly what I’ve always wanted to do. I tried this in my first year of working and again in my second year but as time would have it; it just wasn’t the right time. It wasn’t until I was well into my third year that the time seemed ripe, ironically this was when I was starting to get comfortable in my role. I was on a progressive path, I worked for an awesome company with amazing people and amazing brands but I just recall sitting in a strategy meeting for a new product launch thinking, "does the world really need another biscuit?!". Because that's what's it's all about right? Branding, regardless of what your product is, is centred within finding "the next big thing" but the next big thing is usually a slight variation of the existing BIG thing be it new packaging, new flavours, new features; we're really just…reinventing the wheel. Not to knock Marketing but as much as it came naturally to me, it really wasn’t something I wanted to wake up to five days a week, I had to make a U-turn – and so I entered the wonderful world of banking. The end goal was always either a taste of Wall Street or Canary Wharf, how, I had no idea but it was going to happened one way or another.

Investment Banking is certainly not like the movies but I’m pretty sure that there’s a doctor out there who chose their career thinking everyday life would be like an episode of Grey’s Anatomy or Scrubs. But as far removed from what Hollywood has sold us, I wouldn’t have had it any other way, no need to go back to the past, no need to re-write the script. 

I look back at 2014 and am grateful for every experience, the ups and the downs of starting over. The biggest downside of it is age-centric because well at certain ages we're expected to be at certain points in our lives. When I resigned from my previous company, one of my managers even sternly reminded me that I was not getting any younger, I nodded in feign acknowledgement but in my head I was thinking and that’s is exactly why I’m doing this.
 
Yes, of course it takes you back because you know your peers are going to continue to climb the ladder you once started together but it also teaches you to focus on your own path. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in a corner office 10 years from now wondering what it would’ve been like had I followed my heart. I wanted to find out immediately and I knew that putting it off would not make this any less desirable and well, you know what they say; it’s better to be at the bottom of a ladder you want to climb than halfway up one you have no desire to.

A lot of people were concerned, a lot doubted and others asked me what I’d do if I did the move and realised that the grass wasn’t greener but for me it wasn’t even about the colour of the grass but rather taking the risk and then living to tell the tale, happy ending or tragic. My tale hasn’t even started yet, the year 2014 was just the prologue.

Catchphrase: G.O.A.T

I have this thing where when I hear about someone inspirational I go into CIA mode. I gather all information that can possibly be available (to me) on that person; interviews, documentaries, books, movies, ex-wives, neighbour’s kids, dog’s DNA…anything! One of those people has been Muhammad Ali, this is largely due to my older brother’s obsession with the man (read as The Champ).

In our courting stage (i.e. getting to know him better), I watched a documentary titled Muhammad Ali: The Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T in social media speak). Well you could say things were getting pretty serious – by the end of the documentary I felt like I knew the man (read as The Champ). I was ready to jump straight into marriage!

Today that documentary has become my “feel good song”. There’s something about watching it that makes me just believe in myself, it makes me feel…invincible *cues dramatic superhero music*

See, I used to be that person who only does better when they get a stamp of approval from a person of authority. Though I longed for it, I was never one to “prove them wrong”. I required acknowledgement and validation in order to get better. Now this is a dangerous zone because when enough people constantly told me I couldn't or I wouldn't, I didn't. This stemmed from always being the “model kid”. From being the only one of my friends in the hood who could speak English, from being the first beginner swimmer to use the kicking board (refer to my blog post titled S.W.I.M), from being made captain of the first team hockey (more because of my leadership qualities – my friend Nontobeko was definitely the better player) from being made athletics captain of our house team in grade 7, from being made the first black (yes I pulled the race card) Head Girl of my primary school, from being given a solo part in the school choir (because I was Head Girl). Side note: I actually cannot sing and my Mom was shocked when I told her I'd made choir, let alone the fact that I was also selected to be the BEYONCE of the choir! And so the cycle continued throughout high school and university. I just worked hard and everything due to me came my way, and I guess I was likeable. And then, I started working!

My first year went pretty well, then going into my second I worked for a manager I must've rubbed up the wrong way because I was born. Out of the blue (true story) they completely changed the way they treated me. To this day I'm still not sure of what I did or didn't do and I have never bothered to go CIA on that issue. It was like a long and winded telenovela-episode period of my life which I shall tell in detail on my Oprah interview, which she seems to have forgotten about. I haven't *side eye*

To maintain your attention I’ll stop there. *Fast-forward* I decided to move cities got a new job and decided from then on to take on life with a Muhammad-Ali-kinda-attitude (taken down a few notches). My mission became being great, believing I was great and convincing others of my greatness through hard work and persistence (refer to Project Management blog post). What had changed my attitude? The infamous Muhammad Ali “underwater training regime” shot. The man (read as The Champ) managed to get himself a two-page spread in Life magazine after photographer Flip Schulke told him there was no way he (Ali) could get coverage in the magazine. No, the story doesn’t end there; Schulke eventually shot him (with a camera) after Ali told him that he was the only boxer in the world who trained under water. Success. Nobody could tell His Greatness he couldn't. Nevah!

And now we have all these cool images, only thing is…Ali couldn't even swim (watch the documentary for this one).

Tame your Tongue

“We are what we repeatedly do” Aristotle

At the beginning of October I embarked on a personal challenge I would like to call “taming my tongue”, which entailed telling the truth no matter what. Now I’m no pathological liar but over the past couple of days I’ve come to realise just how much I lie on a daily basis. And by lying I don’t mean hiding a man’s body under my bed and then telling people the off smell in my room is due to the bacon and egg sandwich I had forgotten under the bed for 8 months, no, I’m talking silly lies, like telling my mom I was actually about to call her when she calls to find out why I hadn’t called in three days or telling the beggar on the side of the road I have no food for her while subtly pushing my half eaten Steers burger under my seat (not that I do such things). Minor things, harmless even, but lies nonetheless.

I don’t care who you are but it’s not easy to be 100% honest (this includes “omitting the truth” as others may say, where you neither lie nor are you fully honest).  The truth is (see what I did there?), sometimes you are pushed into a corner and the only lifeline that you have is a little “harmless” white lie. Take my case for instance, when I was in Grade Two, every Monday we would have to write “News” of what we did over the weekend and the people with the best news would be granted the privilege of re-telling their news in oral form to the entire class. Now my family did not do fun family things over the weekend so after growing tired of my boring News, one Monday I simply wrote the date, the heading “News” and one sentence “This weekend I sat and did nothing”, I remember my teacher, Mrs Rattray, wrote boldly in her red pen “All weekend???” then she put a big fat sad face! That was the last time I ever had boring news, from then on I miraculously had fun things to do on weekends, and when I say fun I mean a breath short of going to Disney World! I had more fun stories to tell than my Caucasian friends who always for some reason did things on weekends (??) I finally had a chance to shine on the grade two carpet, re-telling my news! Of course 99% of my stories were merely figments of my imagination and in retrospect I think Mrs Rattray most likely saw right through my white lies but she probably enjoyed the stories too much to give me the third degree!

Lying is really just a way of running away from reality mixed with the fear taking accountability for your actions (more often than not, of what you have not done)! While my weekend news of fictitious stories were harmless, they were unnecessary and benefitted nobody. They achieved nothing but painted me as someone that I was not.

It’s easy to tell your boss you’ve done something when you haven’t, what is not easy is admitting that you forgot because you know it will make you look incompetent. But hey, once in a while we all make mistakes and at times some tasks slip our minds. Sure you may say you’ve sent that email or balanced those books or called your agency to schedule a meeting knowing very well you haven’t then hastily do it before anybody notices to make it look like “you got this” but when the truth comes out, as it usually does, all you are left with is egg on your face and a tainted reputation. Be a man/woman of your word, don’t leave things for last minute and don’t make promises you can’t keep, it’s such things that push you into a corner forcing you to lie and not just in the work place but in life in general. Learn to tame your tongue!

In closing I would like to close off with the following quote by Mahatma Ghandi which pretty much summarises my point of this whole post:

“Your words become your actions, 

Your actions become your habits, 

Your habits become your values”

Therefore, think before you speak and think before you act because your actions and your values are what build your character!