According to Jenn Folsom of Momentum Resources (MSB MBA ‘02):
Nothing beats A+ communication skills, both verbal and written.
Our clients also love to see creative problem solvers and “get it done” types of people.
They need those who can strike the balance of being able to work successfully in a team and without direction.
It’s all about results …
Jenn’s full interview in ForbesWoman is worth reading …
Yesterday’s Washington Post front page article “Movement to keep moms working is remaking the workplace” featured MSB-MBA rockstar alum Jennifer Folsom — a partner with Momentum Resources – a staffing service for MBAs.
Punch line: New mothers with MBAs, abandon the workforce at levels higher than graduates of any other advanced-degree program. One study found that 15 years after graduating, nearly 30 percent of mothers with MBAs had quit the workforce. That compares with only 4% of non-mother MBA females.
Many mothers are willing to give up income if that means taking control of their schedules, and, perhaps most important, doing meaningful, challenging work in their chosen professions rather than what they see as the less interesting work of the often-stigmatized “mommy track.”
So, there is a movement to close that gap.
How?
By coaching companies to move to a more results-oriented workforce … and to support mom-MBA friendly flexible scheduling and work-at-home venues.
As Jennifer says: “ Face time is so five years ago.”
Jen Folsom, MSB MBA ‘02, got some nice press in Newsweek … she’s become one of our rockstar alums !
Way to go, Jen.
* * * * *
Newsweek, The Vanishing 9-to-5 Job, June 25,2010
On a typical weekday, Jennifer Folsom works from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to about 8 p.m. Her hours may sound like they belong to a college student cobbling together a hodgepodge of part-time jobs, but Folsom is the director of a successful D.C. headhunting firm where she oversees a handful of employees with equally irregular schedules.
“We get the job done and I work 50 or 60 hours a week,” says Folsom, who adapts her work schedule to give herself time with her three sons. “I just don’t necessarily do it from 9 to 5.”
As the traditional U.S. workday continues to fade, Folsom’s experience may soon become the rule rather than the exception. Two generations ago, America’s workforce — from Ford’s assembly-line workers to IBM’s “company men” — would show up to work at 9 a.m. on the dot and leave the second the whistle blew at 5 o’clock. Now, one in five Americans works mostly nonstandard hours — nights, weekends, or rotating shifts.
Experts believe that statistic will balloon in coming years as the Great Recession accelerates a cultural shift in the corporate world, allowing more employees to tailor their work schedules to preference, position, and personal life.
Folsom has seen this firsthand. Her company, Momentum Resources, is designed to place professionals in senior-level positions with flexible hours.
When she helped start the firm in 2007, her biggest challenge was convincing CEOs that their stringent loyalty to the 9-to-5 workday was impeding them from acquiring top talent, specifically working mothers with impressive résumés.
“They just weren’t set up to do it,” she says. But the model has proven remarkably successful at companies like Best Buy and employers seem more willing to adapt these days: since 2007, Momentum has placed flex employees with more than 250 clients in the D.C. metro area, and Folsom says demand is growing.
Full article:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/25/the-vanishing-9-to-5-job.html
Here’s the link to some pics from the 2009 Fall outing. Great weather, great food, great fun.
http://picasaweb.google.com/profkenhoma/HomaPHOTOs09092009MSBGMA2009Outing#5383966163003763698
http://picasaweb.google.com/profkenhoma/HomaPHOTOs09092009MSBGMA2009Outing#5383966163003763698
The Homa Files 