Coffee Chat with My Mom for Mother’s Day

Coffee Chat with Mom for Mother's Day featured by top Seattle lifestyle blogger, Whit Wanders

Mother’s Day is this weekend! In honor of Mother’s Day, I thought I would feature my amazing mother.

Welcome to a quick coffee chat with my mom and I!

My mom is a BOSS and I mean that in the most literal of terms. She is absolutely fearless, even leaving the United States with 4 little kids to sail 1/2 across the world.

My mom is someone who always approaches things very thoughtfully. She is not always the loudest voice in the room, but you always want to know where she stands.

She was who I called when I was struggling with my toxic work culture and needed to find my North Star again. She helped me realize that climbing the career ladder did not make me happy.

My mom is the one that taught me everything I know about finance and investing! She always thought it was important that I have a good financial foundation and started explaining bank accounts, credit cards, stocks, and bonds when I was in my teen years.

So grab your coffee and let’s get chatting with my mom about her first job in Corporate Finance:

COFFEE CHAT WITH MY MOM

What was your first job?

My first real corporate job was working for a National Bank in the Investment Division. I was a Municipal Bond Trader, specifically on bond underwriting and trading.

At the time very few women were on the trading desk, it was mainly dominated by men 10-20 years my senior. And in their generation, most women in their lives chose to work full time raising a family.

What did you appreciate about the work-life?

I was very fortunate to be treated on equal footing with my male coworkers. We were all close in age. There was respect for each other’s ideas. We kept our communication open and learned about each other. Work was a positive place to come to each day.

At the time I didn’t appreciate my unique opportunity. I literally fell into an unusual situation. The majority of women entering the workforce with me did not have my experience.

What did you learn the most about working in Corporate?

Later, after I moved on to a new firm, I realized the office culture was crucial to my job “ happy” factor. The brokerage firm I joined was a different world. Very rigid and an old boy network. Each person was out for themselves. There was no collaboration and it was not a positive environment.

Work seemed to drain my energy, when before it really invigorated me. It’s important that a work environment is a positive challenging atmosphere. That is how you thrive as a person and as a company.

Make sure to remind your mom how special she is this Sunday, May 10th for Mother’s Day! If you are still in need of gift ideas for this weekend head over to my Mother’s Day Gift Guide!

♥ A big thank you to my mom for participating! She doesn’t typically like to get in front of the camera!