Hello Reader, If you "negotiated hard" for your salary, you probably did it wrong. One woman got the raise she wanted with a single sentence. No pushback, no tactics, no fight. One of my clients had just received an offer from her dream company. Great role and amazing people. And a salary that was good, but not quite what she knew she was worth. She messaged me, being half apologetic about it. “The offer is wonderful, but I think I want more than that.” I told her I was glad, glad she knew...

Hello Reader, Every time she opened LinkedIn to message a hiring manager, the same thought stopped her: “I have nothing to offer them, I only want something.” She had it exactly the wrong way around. She is a woman I worked with who was genuinely afraid of networking. Reaching out to senior people, approaching companies, putting herself forward for roles. And the fear underneath it was always the same. “They are up here, I am down here.” “I am bothering them.” “I am asking for a favour.” “I...

Hello Reader, I have worked both in a start-up and in big pharma. The route to promotion in each is almost nothing like the other, and almost nobody tells you that before you pick. In a start-up, title comes up more easily but teams don’t. 1) People assume a small company is the fast lane into leadership, and in one sense it is. A start-up can hand you a better title and a higher salary if it decides to do so, because often the HR processes are less well established. Negotiate well when you...

Hello Reader, A highly competent senior scientist was there. But a junior colleague got promoted. He talked about his work in meetings (loudly and repetitively), she didn't. She isn't less qualified, less talented or less experienced. It's just that she questions every small action of hers. Before speaking up, she questions: 1. Is this worth mentioning? 2. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging. 3. My work should speak for itself. I hear this from women in pharma & biotech every week. And I...

Hello Reader, 38% of women in STEM report patterns of being made to feel invisible, disrespected, or overlooked at work. (McKinsey – Women in the Workplace 2025 report) And yet – "doing a good job" is the number one strategy professionals rely on for career progression. Here is what I’ve seen: Doing good work is necessary. But it is not sufficient. I think we have all seen examples of colleagues who do visibility wrong. Constantly highlighting every little thing, they did that day....

Hello Reader, Corporate professionals think 10 times before rejecting a position, but my client did it without any hesitation. Because she already built her network to support that transition and help throughout the process. “Candice” used to define her life and her career based on her work and her studies. When we started working together: 👉 She was prepared to accept any job offer that was going up the ladder, based on where she was there and then. But her excitement was missing and her...

Hello Reader, You’ve outgrown your current role. But you don’t want to manage a team. You’d probably be great at it. But the admin, the people management, the endless meetings about meetings, that’s not what excites you.What you actually want is to grow horizontally.More responsibilities in areas that light you up.New projects. Different challenges. The kind of work that makes you want to jump in on a Monday morning.And for that, you need to have an honest and courageous conversation with...

Hello Reader, High performance doesn’t protect you from feeling completely stuck at work. “I’m highly motivated and ambitious. But my work just isn’t fun anymore.”A woman I spoke with recently told me this.She had been excelling in her role for years.Delivering results.Getting recognition.Doing all the things.But internally? She felt stuck.She wasn’t growing anymore. She’d already started looking for her next challenge, including starting an MBA.And on top of it all, she was putting pressure...

Hello Reader, I’ve watched too many brilliant women burn out trying to fix toxic bosses. Before you do anything else, protect your energy first. I know that sounds basic. But I’ve seen too many brilliant women burn out trying to “fix” a person or a culture that was never theirs to fix. So here’s what I’d recommend: Step 1: Strengthen yourself. You may not be able to control how the people around you behave. But you can control how you respond, and how much you let it bleed into your evenings...