BA Q&A: All Things Career!

backsh Okay. Listen. If y'all get it, if you know, you know, If you don't know, just tune in next Wednesday. You do not want to miss this episode. But let's get in today's show. It's all about your career questions. We took y'all's amazing questions dug up everything you need to know about taking your job into your own damn hands, from how to stay up for yourself at work to

the truth about imposter syndrome. Today's show, to be Honest, is your essential Brown Ambition guide to advancing in your career. All right, let's get into the show. All right, So let's shake up this mailbag and see what kind of questions y'all have this week, I've got a really interesting mix. I'm loving all the career questions, y'all keep them coming. Our first question comes from listener Ashley from the Gram.

She says, Mandy, how do you manage new job jitters when you're moving into a corporate space as a career changer. What rituals have you developed to manage imposter syndrome? All right, Ashley? I feel this deeply because I think anyone who's starting a new job, especially if you're starting a new job and you've switched career paths, or you're in a different industry, or even just joining a new company, it can be stressful.

But what I like to do is kind of turn it on its head and look at it this way. Nobody knows anything about Ashley. They don't know where you've been, they don't really know what you've done. They are getting the first impression of you right now. So really take that as like an opportunity, an opportunity for a fresh start, an opportunity to do things a little bit differently than

you did at your previous job. So sitting down and thinking through, you know, what are some of the things that I wish I had done at my previous job that I kind of want to do differently here. For me, a big one was boundaries. So setting boundaries when I started a new job, the first thirty days of your new job, that's when you really tell people, you know, here's how I like to work. Here is where I

keep my boundaries. And when I say boundaries, I mean are you going to be the person who's available at nine pm to answer emails or even later? Are you going to be the person who's you know, awake in the morning at five am and they're going to get a response from you. Those are little signals that you can send to your manager or your colleagues that's going to tell them, oh, you know, actually is available all

the time. So I should not feel any kind of way about hitting her up on Slack or texting her or sending her an email, you know, with an urgent quote unquote urgent question whenever I want too. So in those first thirty days, think about how you want to work and what kind of boundaries do you want to

set For me? It was really important to you know, establish Okay, I'm going to be available online between the hours of nine to let's say four thirty when that's my cut off time for when I have to go pick up my kid, and making sure that everyone knows that and if I want to, you know, set aside an hour or two once the baby is down to answer some emails. That's fine, but really be careful about what signals you're sending to people in terms of how

they can communicate to you when you're starting a new job. Now, as far as imposter syndrome, no one really knows what's going on inside your head, which can kind of be some comfort. So when you show up, you know, no one is thinking, oh, Ashley is nervous. You know, Ashley does not sure if she can do this job. It's fine and it is normal to have those feelings of oh crap, I'm in a new role. Am I actually

going to be able to do this? Or is someone going to tap me on the shoulder in a week and be like, ooh, ash I don't know if it's a good fit. That's probably not going to happen. But I just want to normalize this idea of having imposter syndrome, Like if you ever gone to a women's focused event or a women's career event or a leadership conference. I guaran freaking to you that there was a session on

imposter syndrome. But if you go to a conference like a general business conference or a corporate conference where it's majority, you know, guys, because that's just how the world works, I doubt there's going to be a session on imposter syndrome, or if there is one, it's probably going to have pink and purple colors and be targeting women. The fact of the matter is that both men and women have

imposter syndrome because it's a freaking human response. It's a human response to being put into a new situation that you haven't proven yourself in yet and just kind of wondering, you know, can I do this? So, first and foremost, imposter syndrome very normal. Women and men can deal with it. But you ask me, you know, what rituals have you developed to manage it? First and foremost, just acknowledged this

as a normal set of emotions. I'm feeling this way because I am challenging myself and that is a good thing. If it is terrifying to show up to work on your first day because you are making a big leap or you have moved up into a new, more senior role. That's how it's supposed to be. You know, you haven't been tested yet, so you're gonna feel a little bit nervous.

One of my strategies for not so much getting rid of it, because like I said, you just have to learn to live with it, but kind of easing that is having sponsors slash allies that I can turn to for advice. So if there was a hiring manager that brought you into the company, they obviously see potential in you and they wanted you for a reason. So remind yourself that even if I don't know if I can do this, you know, Janis or whoever hired you, Richard,

they believe in me. They think that I belong here, So let me go to them and ask questions. Asking questions is another really good tool to use and one that you may be afraid to actually do because you're worried. Okay, well, if I'm asking questquestions and people may not think that I'm ready to do this, But your first thirty days in a job like this is that honeymoon phase when

you can you can ask those questions. You can you know, make sure you know where the bathroom is, and on a larger scale, make sure you know how this system works or how that tool works. Ask all your questions. Ask all the questions. The worst thing you can do is walk into this role and pretend like you already know what's going on, and then just suffer in silence because you're like, oh, crap, I have no idea what anyone's talking about. I don't know what those acronyms mean.

Ask a lot of questions, and if you don't feel comfortable speaking out in you know, semi public settings like in a group meeting, that's when you turn to that sponsor, that mentor that ally, the person who brought you in, the person who referred you, or your directs, your direct supervisor, and just ask them, hey, I've actually I've been here a few days and I've come up with a list of questions I would love to grab, you know, half an hour of your time and just walk through these

questions so that I feel more prepared to do the job that I'm here to do. Largely in companies, you know you're going to have a team there who's gonna want you to succeed, because if you don't succeed, then it makes them look bad, and you know people don't like to look bad, right, so they're gonna want to

help you. Ask for help, ask questions. Recognize that if you're feeling like a bit of an imposter, that's just a sign girlfriend, that you are doing the right thing, that you are probably in the right place for yourself because you are growing. All right, BA fan Up next, more on how to be your best advocate at work. All right, ba fam, we are back. Our next question comes from an anonymous IG fan. Again, we're at Branda Mission podcast on IG, so follow us. You can dem

us your questions there. Okay, So this person says, Hey, Mandy, I just saw your TikTok about that Mercedes recruiter. I have a question, and I hope it's not too forward or bold of me to ask. I want to renegotiate my pay. I feel like I'm underpaid as the only billing specialist doing work for two emergency rooms. Any advice on how I can go about that? Okay? So, if you guys haven't seen this yet, you've got to check out.

You can go to my ig. I'm at Mandy Money on Insta and I'm at Mandy Money with three a's on TikTok, and basically what happened was there is this recruiter. Her name is Mercedes S. Johnson. I'll never forget her

name now. So she posted on LinkedIn a screenshot or she posted on LinkedIn, and she was bragging about having a job candidate accept an offer for eighty five K, and she decided to take time out of her day to go on LinkedIn and make fun of this person and say, you know, the budget was actually one hundred and thirty five K, and I don't have time to help people learn how to negotiate. I just want you guys to know it's really important to know your value.

And I think I, like a lot of people had a visceral reaction to that post from Mercedes because one it was just dumb. Two it was not helpful at all. I think she thought she was really doing something profound with that post, trying to inspire people to know their value and to negotiate. But I just don't see how she can say she didn't have time to give advice to that job candidate, but yet she did have time

to go on the internet and post about it. You know, I just thought it was really especially for someone in her position as a recruiter, you know she's in a place of power. And also you know she in her public persona talks about herself being someone who helps people negotiate and you know, fulfill their career ambitions. And I just think it was, oh, I don't know, it was. It was a bad look for miss Mercedes. But to this questions point, it was a good reminder, and we'll

just try to find a silver lining here. It was a good reminder of why it is so important for

us as job candidates. Advocating for ourselves in the workplace is so important because even the people who think maybe there to help you get what you deserve, ultimately, we are always going to have our best interest and we should have our best interest at heart all of the time, and we have to learn to step up for ourselves and to do our own research to find out when we are not being valued way that we should be valued.

So in your situation, Anonymous, where you say you actually want to renegotiate your pay, you feel like you're being underpaid,

it sounds like you're working in the medical field. And honestly, listen, I've got family who work in hospitals and it is grueling work, and there is so much turnover as a result of the pandemic that there are people like you who are being left doing more work than ever but not actually getting paid anything differently, So renegotiating pay Listen, I am the person who will who will always push people to just ask the questions, no matter how you

know bold they may seem. Ask the question. You know, go to your manager and just say, point blank, you know, I've I have been taking on all this additional work. Is there any opportunity to discuss my compensation and to get an increase? You can absolutely do that. You don't have to wait for your animal review cycle. Just go ahead and do it. I can't promise you they're going to do something about it. I'm not even gonna I don't even know what the odds are that they may

do something about it. Your best bet is to get a competing offer from another job that's actually going to pay you more, and then you can actually bring that to your current employer and say, you know, I've got an offer from X, Y Z, and they're offering me double what you're paying me, or fifty percent more, whatever it is. You have to be ready you should be

ready prepared to take that new offer and walk. But that can be some that can be really good leverage, especially if you're you know, you want to stay, but you just want to be paid what you're worth. Sometimes companies, you know, if you don't give them a reason, like a really good reason to give you a pay raise, they can like drag their feet. They just don't have that incentive, you know, So the risk of you walking down, like walking away from the job and leaving them in

the lurch. Sometimes you just got to like play hardball in that way. You got to say, like, yo, I'm ready to walk, I've got this juicy offer, what are you going to do about it? And then you can see how fast they move to get you that raise. Okay,

So that's my advice to you. You can ask the question, and I would go ahead and ask that now, just to establish the fact that they know, okay, she's asked for this, she's feeling overworked, and then they can actually then you give them some time to figure out what they're going to do, and then on your own going out and you know, leveraging your network, telling everyone that you're looking for a new opportunity, seeing what else is out there getting some interviews you know, and fine and

potentially even getting a different offer. Then you can bring that additional leverage to them and use that for your negotiation process. All right, thank you very much for that question. Hey, hey, bea fam it's Bandy and I am back to answer more of your juicy, juicy career in finance questions again. Hit us up at brandonbissionpodcast dot com or are ig at brand and Bission Podcast with all of your juicy

money and career questions. I am really excited about this question, Rebecca says, First and foremost, send my love to Tiffany as she's healing. Thank you very much for that, and I will send some extra love to Tiffany myself. Rebecca says, I love you both, and I get so much great advice and insights into navigating the professional world as a woman of color. My question today is about my boss. I'm a recruiter and the company that I work for

is wonderful. I love the culture they're cultivating. I don't want to make a move, but my boss is extremely tough to work with right now, she's overstressed and obsessed with hitting all our KPIs regardless of whether we hit our financial goal that we commit to every month. To boil it down, she finds a way to give us backhanded compliments on our performance as an office and it's honestly demoralizing. I've heard this from many co workers as well.

We've been venting to each other and it's becoming toxic to the culture. I want to say something to her, but she is a domineering and stubborn force. I would love if you can give me some tips on how to approach her. Ooh yeah, toxic bosses? Why do they have to ruin everything? And you know what's great about this question? I mean, obviously it sucks and I feel bad for you, but I love that you can have at least you're identifying and recognizing that your company culture

is largely good. So what sucks is that you've got a boss who's like screwing it up because largely the culture itself is very different than what your interactions with this boss have been. So how can we tattle on her? That's what I want to know. I don't actually think it's your job to fix her or make her a better manager. My question is like, how can we tattle on her in a strategic way to get her out of your way so that you can actually enjoy this

great culture that this company is committed to building. And I think toxic managers like her deserve to be called out and dealt with because they're ruining like an employees experience. And if companies want to retain employees and not have us all quitting on them, they need to know who

their shitty bosses are. Who are the shitty managers who actually could use a little bit of professional development support, some training like who deserves and the manager sect to get a performance improvement plan, And it sounds like your boss does. So what are the levers that you can pull within your company to actually let people know that this manager is making it harder for you to do your job and it's not just you. So that's my

first question. I've worked at places where you could actually once a year, they would have a survey that you could send out and you could provide anonymous feedback on your manager. But if you guys have that annual survey and if it's not coming up in the next couple of weeks, then I think it's time to actually take this to it can be either someone in HR. It

can be your boss's boss. You can arrange something called the skip level meeting, where you intentionally reach out to a person above your boss and have a candid conversation about what you've been experiencing. Do not go in there. This is my advice to you. Don't go in there empty handed. In terms of data and information and actual examples of what has happened, I think you should definitely

be in the collecting of data phase right now. So start writing out what has she said, what has she done that has created a toxic work culture, And the more concrete examples you can give, the more likely it is that they will actually do something about them. So if you walk into your manager's manager's office and you say, hey, I'm having a really hard time with Tracy. She's making

my job just you know, horrible and awful. Now, you're just creating a problem that this manager's manager has to figure out, make their job a little bit easier, and also make it more likely that they're going to take your claim seriously. By having some cold, hard facts. Not only does this illustrate the reality of what's going on, but it also shows them, well, this person is bad enough where Rebecca feels like she has to keep tabs

on all these different instances and occurrences. So put the power. Take the power back in a little bit of control by starting to document all of the situations that have occurred where this boss has, like I said, created a toxic environment, ben demoralizing. Take screenshots if she's texting or sending emails or slack messages, whatever it is that are causing these situations. Take your screenshots, get organized, and then

plan a meeting. And if you want to combine forces with the other people on your team, there really is power and numbers if a company knows that it's not just one person who's having an issue with this boss, it's six people. And by the way, this team is in danger of falling upon heart, as are our financial goals and our business goals for this team. Believe me,

they will listen to you. So I think there's power and numbers if you want to get together a little consortium or a group of colleagues and maybe set up a group meeting to speak in a safe space with your manager's manager, whoever else at the company you can identify to accept this kind of complaint. That's a good strategy, but definitely walk in there with concrete examples. It's going to make everything go a lot faster and be a

lot more likely that they're actually going to take action. Now, how they react to your complaints about this manager and your documentation is going to tell you the real truth

about their work culture. If they really are committed to creating the kind of culture that you're describing, where they want people to feel welcome, where they want you to do your best work and to be thriving, and yes, we're going to achieve our business goals, we're not going to do it at the expense of our mental health and the expense of our happiness in general, then they will take your complaints seriously, or they should and actually

either do something meaningful to get this manager, you know, on the right path. They should get rid of her, reassign her, maybe they can reassign you to someone else. They should do something, take some sort of action, maybe give them, I don't know, a few weeks to do something. But if they don't do something, then that actually tells you what they really mean about that culture they're trying to cultivate, Because if they're not going to solve this problem,

then that culture was always a ticking time bomb. It was always going to fall apart because they're not protecting it. Companies have to be protective. They have to be unapologetically protective about anything that can be a threat to employee retention, employee happiness, and to that culture that they say that they want to cultivate. And the uncomfortable truth about that is that they're going to have to identify these shitty

managers and do something about them. And the more companies are willing to acknowledge that it's not just the lowest, you know, entry level employee that they have to pay attention to, it's managers, Like why aren't we training better managers like we cause they're causing so many issues out there right. So I'm obviously really really fired up about how important it is for companies to identify, you know, crappy managers, give them the support and training that they need.

I'm not even saying that it's your boss's fault, that maybe she's creating this. She may not even be aware of it, and you know what, it may be coming from her higher ups. They may be putting pressure on her. So we need to like get to the root cause

of it and they need to fix it. And if they don't fix it, then I think it's okay for you to move on, you know, find a company where you can work for, you know, work for that actually enforces the culture that they, you know, talk about creating or potentially moving to a different team at your company. So keeping an ear out and an eye out for who says they love working for their manager and see if maybe you could request a transfer to that team.

Even like, you got to look out for yourself, right, and you got to you gotta put your own foot forward when it comes to coming up with solutions. Sometimes that work best for you because the company may not always know what's what's best for you personally, but you're always going to have, you know, your best interests in mind, right, So if they don't have a good solution that works for you, sometimes colming with your own idea of a solution can help. Thank you so much for your question.

Thank you for setting this in. I hope things improve, but definitely pluck up the courage, get a couple of your colleagues together, go at this as a team and a unified front, and I think you'll actually have a really good chance about getting some sort of action taken in this case. Thanks y'all for listening. This is Mandy again with Brown Ambition. Remember hit us up at Brownambition podcast dot com. That is your one stop destination for

submitting your questions. If you want to be anonymous, just let us know. Anything career and finance related is on the table. Ask us anything, we will answer it all right. Can't wait to hear from y'all. Also, remember to tune into next week's episode. Like I said, may or may not have a returning co host who is back ish. I am so excited for you guys to hear it. I'm so excited for this new chapter in Brown Ambition's history. Thank y'all again for the incredible support and helping us

secure not one, but two Webby Awards. Can y'all even believe this? Two oscars of the Internet on our shelves. We could not be prouder and it's because of you, Ba fam for helping us get this recognition. It's as much your win as ours, So lah big kiss to you all, virtual hugs. Thank y'all for tuning in, and I will see y'all next week. Hey, Ba Fam, we could not do this show without your support or the support of our team behind the scenes. The Brown Ambission

Podcast is produced by Cumulus Podcast Network. It's edited by the wonderful Imani Crosby and produced by Tanya Bustos. Dennistimplinsky is our in house tech guru, and I am Bandy Woodrid Santos your co host, and I will see y'all next week.