A B-School Dean's Tough Love Career Advice To Young Women

Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Dean Sally Blount, one of only a few female deans of a top-ranked business school, has some advice for young women—and it’s not what many would like to hear.

In a brief yet poignant talk at the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier this month, Dean Blount urged young female graduates to go into the most challenging and demanding jobs in business straight out of college, jobs that are more likely to be pursued by their male peers.

“I would argue that the first job is not the time to focus on comfort, balance or even mission,” she declared. “That can and should come later. The first job is the time in their lives for these women to gain credentials, take risks, travel, and land as big and bold an opportunity as they can find.”

FEMALE GRADS ARE UP TO 50% LESS LIKELY TO ENTER THE MOST COMPETITIVE BUSINESS TRACKS

Noting that women make up more than half the entering freshmen at college, but only a small fraction of CEOs, board directors and government leaders, she said Kellogg has identified three “critical pivot points where we are losing women on the way to the C-suite: the launch, the child-rearing years, and the transition to senior management positions.”

“Today,” she said, “I want to focus on the launch, that critical first job after college because there have been a lot of troubling statistics out of Northwestern and Harvard that show that in their first year out of college, women from these top schools are up to 50% less likely than their male peers to enter the most competitive business tracks, like investment banking and mgt. consulting.”

Blount, who became dean of Kellogg four years ago after serving a six-year stint at dean of New York University’s undergraduate business program, then recounted her decision to join the Boston Consulting Group in 1983 after graduating from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in engineering systems and economic policy.

‘I DO STILL KNOW HOW TO WRITE A KILLER POWERPOINT DECK’

“When i look back on my own career, I now realize how important my own first real job was at BCG,” she said. “It set me on the trajectory that has actually landed me as the first and so far only female dean of a top ranked business school. At BCG, I was imprinted in the ways of business, I developed critical problem solving skills and I do still know how to write a killer Powerpoint deck,” quipped Blount.

“If you want our best and brightest young women to become great leaders we have to convince more of them that their first job has to be in business and they have to go for those big business jobs no matter what career they want to pursue. Business is the dominant social institution of our age and if you don’t understand business you won’t be an effective leader in any sector.

“The reason I care so much about getting more women in entry level jobs in business is because that’s how you build confidence and that’s how you build understanding about how the world works. The best and brightest of this generation is opting out before they even start. That’s why we have to be pushing even in this room from the very beginning, your daughters and your granddaughters, push them to take big jobs.”

Besides the advice she offered young women, however, the most compelling part of her talk had to do with her daughter Haley White. She told the Aspen audience that after her daughter was accepted at Princeton University, she decided to take a gap year.

‘THIS IS WHAT THE PERSON I WANT TO BECOME WOULD DO’

“She proceeded to research and craft a very impressive 12-month itinerary that was going to take her to three projects in three different countries,” recalled Dean Blount. “As she was presenting this final plan to me, I suddenly realized that my 18-year-old daughter was proposing to make her way around the world on her own—literally. And I flinched. I told her, ‘You know I’m not quite so sure I can back up this plan.’ And to my amazement, my strong-willed daughter didn’t lash out at that moment to defend it. She stopped and she turned to me and said, ‘But Mom, this is what the person I want to become would do.’

“As you might imagine, Haley has taught me a lot of lessons, perhaps most importantly she made me realize that we have a responsibility to both encourage and support young women, to (help them) be deliberate in dreaming about the people they want to become.”

When Haley graduated from Princeton in 2012, she apparently sprung another surprise on her mother. “When she announced after college that she was planning to go into management consulting in Mexico City, I checked the clench in my stomach and listened in awe as she went on to explain that she needed to understand how business works in emerging economies, how it creates jobs and wealth and can lift people out of poverty. I can’t wait to see the woman that she will become.”

Blount spoke on the changing roles for women and what the future might hold as part of a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival on July 2. She was part of a panel that included Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington, Brown University President Christina Paxson and former U.S. Representative Jane Harman.

Alanea Kowalski

Coaching Global Leaders, Executives and Expats in building creative and effective teams. #Global #Talent Optimizer. Stand Out from the Crowd!

8y

Good article with strong points. I think it underscores the need to make a conscious and well thought out choice for the "launch" and not just "fall into" something. This brings to mind the famous Einstein quote; "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

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Anu Vuorikoski

Educator, Investor, Advisor, Mentor. Former CFO and Consultant.

9y

But you can't get P&L responsibility right out of college unless you start your own company....BCG, Bain, McKinsey and others are great places to open your eyes to possibilties. The clients often are "what you want to become"! And many get hired by clients for jobs with or leadig to P&L responsibility!

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BCG has a big name, but no matter how big the name, consultants don't have P & L responsibility. If you don't have P & L, or if you're not on track to have it, you're just another fish in the ocean. Whether you went to Princeton or your local community college, you can't get ahead without getting your hands dirty. For many, the attraction of consulting is that you get to tell the actual risk takers what to do without taking the actual risk yourself. If you're not willing to bet your job on your recommendations, then you don't have what it takes to reach the C Suite.

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Interesting post!

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greg wooten

retired/ disabled at none at this time

9y

Can somebody help my situation? Just need someone to look at it

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