Three representatives from Citigroup were kind enough to join us for the brunch: Gloria Lin from New York, Tasha Bartuzik from Los Angeles, and Tanya Silvio from Chicago.
I'm the first-year co-director of professional development for Women's Business Connection (WBC) at UCLA Anderson, and as such, was able to participate recently in a brunch hosted by WBC with several key finance firms in the LA area. The brunch was held on Sunday, October 23rd, and we were able to have firms such as Credit Suisse, Citibank, Houlihan Lokey, Goldman Sachs, Oaktree Capital, and Amgen in attendance. The best part of all this is that this isn't the average "mixer" type of event--it's geared specifically toward women who are seeking industry jobs and as such, these events tend to be more intimate and a bit more candid than your garden-variety networking event.
The brunch was graciously hosted by fellow first-year students Miho Goto and Laurel Martin, both of whom I'm sure will secure top-notch jobs in the finance field come summer. Not having been to a brunch networking event before (but having attended plenty of lunch and light-dinner events), I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The event was held on Sunday at 10:30 AM at Hotel Angeleno, basically right by the world-renowned Getty Center here in West Los Angeles. From the moment I walked in, I knew it was going to be a great event as the food spread was quite impressive (always a good sign in my book).
The event was set up in a round-robin format, with each of us going from one table to the next after about 20 minutes of chatting. This was very efficient as we were able to choose with which companies we'd like to network prior to the event. Armed with my background in private wealth management and a high-level knowledge of finance, I was able to uphold my end of the conversation and soon everyone found the conversations free-flowing, as was the case with the coffee & orange juice.
What I found especially noteworthy, as mentioned before, is that the WBC brunch series is specifically set up for women by women. So there are discussions honed in around work-life balance, family life, glass ceiling issues, and other unique challenges that women may face in the industry. The fact that we were able to have frank conversations with women who are successful in their fields was like a breath of fresh air.
The three sets of 20 minutes flew by in a blink and soon we found ourselves saying goodbye. The finance brunch series set up by WBC was a great event and I very recently--just this past Sunday--attended the consulting brunch series. Look for my blog post regarding this new brunch next week!
-- Connie Kim
