Tuck Women in Business (WIB) is a student-run organization that aims to create an empowering community in which women can share resources, build skills, and support one another on their paths to becoming successful business leaders. Tuck WIB invited Kathryn Sollmann, career coach and author of The 4 Jobs Club and Ambition Redefined, to share her insights on how women can expand their career options and achieve better work-life balance.
Tuck WIB: Was there a particular instance that inspired you to pursue a career in coaching and writing?
Kathryn Sollmann: Though I have had an eclectic career—spanning the investment world, career coaching, communications, marketing, event planning, executive recruiting, and corporate training—I have always considered myself first and foremost a writer. Writing has always been my greatest passion. My pivot to career coaching came from living in the New York City suburbs and observing so many smart, well-educated women who left their careers to have children. These women would say to me, “Oh it’s great that you’re still working. I’d like to get back in, but I don’t know who would want me.” Then I would find out, for example, that they went to Princeton and left a big job at a major Wall Street firm. And I would think, where’s the disconnect? I could see that these women felt something was missing from their very full lives. So, I was inspired to get these smart and capable women back to work…which started my career in coaching and recruiting.
WIB: What inspired you to write your latest book, The 4 Jobs Club?
KS: I first focused on helping women get back into the workforce, and then realized that both returning and current professionals were thinking very narrowly about their work options. And thinking only that work meant trying to get to the top of an organization, never seeing your kids, and traveling the world. Before the pandemic, I wrote my first book, Ambition Redefined, to show women they could create their own definitions of ambition and success…which might mean leaning “in-between” rather than “leaning in.” In that first book, I talked about all the flexible ways to work. Then the pandemic hit, and so many women despaired that work just couldn’t work. So I thought, well it has worked for me in flexible ways since college … and it has worked for all the women who got to the C-Suite. But how did those women get there … when they had 4 jobs—a career, and caring for kids, aging parents, and households? I wanted to know if it was true that these women had hot-and-cold running help, multiple nannies, and Mr. Mom’s husbands at home. So, I embarked on interviews with 50 women in the C-suite to find out. I also wanted to “right the wrong” that women coming up in the ranks feel that senior women aren’t doing enough to show how they make it all work (something I found out in a national survey I conducted).
WIB: What was the most surprising thing you learned while interviewing executives for The 4 Jobs Club?
KS: The most eye-opening thing is that these women in the C-Suite have pretty regular lives, and they work hard to keep it that way. The majority have two-income households, they never have multiple nannies, some have a cleaning person only once a month, most make it home for dinner (and frequently cook it), and they have interesting, successful kids. They are laser-focused on being the best professionals, mothers, daughters, and partners they can be. And they keep all the balls in the air not by throwing lots of money at all the tasks. They bring their business skills home and create processes, structures, and routines that keep everyone and everything in their household healthy, organized, and happy.
WIB: If you could give women at Tuck one piece of advice, what would it be?
KS: Oh my, just one?! Here you are, Tuck women, at one of the best, most prestigious academic institutions in the world … ready to capitalize on a big investment of time and money. You will have all the training and opportunity to start an exciting new career, but don’t forget that you are also laying the foundation for many phases of a very fulfilling life. Many of you will want a relationship and children, too. Start thinking now about how you will make it all work … and look for a partner who will be invested in sharing all the responsibilities of your daily lives. It’s not just about love … it’s about a partnership with someone who wants to help you make work fit in life. Know that with strategy and planning, you CAN make it all work, and believe, unwaveringly, that it’s important to always work (even 5 to 10 hours a week) to keep yourself employable and on track for your own long-term financial security. Life has many twists and turns: make sure you are always firmly in the driver’s seat.
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