Charting Your Course

Women like you—women with high-powered degrees and professional expertise—graduated from business school with great expectations and extraordinary options.

Since you left, have you remained committed to a career on the fast track, moved to a slower lane for personal reasons, or chosen to take the off ramp while focusing on family needs? Charting Your Course provides an opportunity to consider what choices will work well for you and how to negotiate the "lane changes" you want.

Charting Your Course uses case studies, individual introspection, team exercises, and lectures to help attendees develop a strategic plan for creatively blending a professional career and a meaningful personal life. Engage in strategic conversations to help jump start your career transition.

The program has enabled hundreds of alumnae to rediscover their core interests and capabilities, build a long-term plan for professional development, and realize their personal visions of success. Discover what CYC can do for you.

Charting Your Course will be offered May 27 - 28, 2009.

About the Program

• Program Registration

  Please use our online registration form.

  Cancellations must be submitted in writing up to 30 days prior to the start of the program to receive a full refund. Due to program demand and the volume of preprogram preparations, cancellations received within 30 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of one-third of the program fee; within seven days are subject to two-thirds of the program fee. Cancellations after the start of the program are subject to full payment.

• Venue/Dates/Fees

  Charting Your Course will take place on May 27 and 28, 2009, at Harvard Business School.

  • $400 per person for Harvard Business School alumnae and alumni spouses and partners
  • $375 per person for Harvard Business School alumni club and association members
  • $500 per person, all others
• Participant Criteria

  Charting your Course is designed for women who have been out of the full-time workforce or in alternative employment and those who are anticipating a move away from their current work structure.

  This program is for you if you are considering, or are currently:

  • Transitioning in your career
  • Ramping down from a fast-track career
  • Increasing career commitment (i.e. from part-time arrangement)
  • Exiting the professional workforce to care for family (children, elders, etc.)
  • Reducing your career commitment to raise a family, pursue personal interests, or achieve greater work-life balance
  • Reducing your career commitment to accommodate a spouse or partner's career

  Participants will come from diverse industries and positions. They may not have followed a linear career path. They may also be considering a variety of next-step career options: in traditional, full-time employment; nontraditional, part-time, or flex-time employment (including positions in the non-profit sector); or entrepreneurial ventures.

  Enrollment is limited to 60 participants; therefore, early application is encouraged.

• Getting Reconnected

  Many women choose to reduce their career commitment while they devote the majority of their time and attention to family demands. Though temporarily out of the full-time professional workforce, many of these individuals have expressed a strong interest in staying connected to the business world and to other professionals like themselves.

  As a part of its commitment to lifelong learning, Harvard Business School offers Charting Your Course for women who are currently out of the full-time workforce and those who are anticipating a move away from their current work structure. Charting Your Course: Developing Options that Work provides an important opportunity for women to meet and discuss the impact of career changes, and to consider strategies for future professional involvement. The program provides a forum for exploration, tools for engaging in community and professional work, and a network of peers. The program's overriding goal is to support a broader range of business and personal choices for women.

• Expert Coaching on Career Options

  Explore and experience this unique program—led by Tim Butler, Senior Fellow; Director of Career Development Programs—includes cases, discussions, and group exercises that focus on you, your dreams, and the choices you can make to achieve them. Participants create their own plans for the integration of personal and professional success—defined in their own terms. CYC is a program that is certain to raise new issues and open new doors.

• Two Days of Exploring, Learning, and Networking

  The first day opens with a working breakfast, followed by three class sessions and a reception. We will conclude the next day with three additional sessions and a working lunch. All program activities are intended to provide maximum opportunity for exploration of career options, as well as skill and relationship building.

  2009 Charting Your Course schedule (pdf)

  There are a number of challenges currently facing women who have chosen to leave the workforce to raise children or care for other family members. Some of the issues raised in this program include how best to:

  • Identify a new professional agenda (either "for profit" or "non-profit").
  • Build a network of other professionals facing similar challenges.
  • Imagine the resume that you want to present in the work place, and determine appropriate business and non-profit commitments that will build that resume.
  • Develop criteria for new types of working relationships.
• Comments from Previous Charting Your Course Participants

  "Charting Your Course was just the catalyst I needed to think about my career transition—from identifying those skills I wanted to engage to expanding my network. I have now successfully entered into a position that I would not have originally identified, however is a perfect fit."

  "Very energizing and inspiring. It was a great opportunity to remove myself from work and home obligations to think about me and my goals/aspirations."

  "I found the presenters and the participants incredibly knowledgeable and supportive. I learned a lot!"

  "This program met my expectations and more; I learned a great deal from the presentations and gained an unexpected amount of ideas from the participants."

  "CYC provided me a substantive start in determining what I want to do next with lots of good tactical suggestions I can implement."

  "A great way to figure out how to stay fresh and challenged and position myself for work in the future while I am home with young kids."

• Resources

  Alumni Career Services has a variety of tools and programs explicitly supporting HBS women. Through education courses, resources and services, we are here to help you manage your career: Resources for Women.

  Read the October 10, 2004 CBS News/60 Minutes article, Staying at Home

• Hotel Information

  Rooms have been blocked at the Doubletree Guest Suites for this program. In an effort to provide you with direct control over your reservation, we ask that you contact the hotel directly to secure a room at the discounted rate.

  Doubletree Guest Suites Boston
  400 Soldiers Field Road
  Boston, MA 02134
  Phone: 1-800-222-8733 or 617-783-0090
  Rate: $189.00/night (Reserve by May 3rd, 2009)
  Reference code: HBS - Charting Your Course

  Other recommended hotels:

  Charles Hotel
  One Bennett Street
  Cambridge, MA 02138
  617.661.5031
  In Harvard Square, a short walk to HBS.

  Inn at Harvard
  1201 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge, MA 02138
  617.491.2222
  In Harvard Square, a short cab ride to HBS.

  Sheraton Commander
  16 Garden Street
  Cambridge, MA 02138
  617.547.4800
  Just outside Harvard Square, a short cab ride to HBS.

• Questions

  If you have any questions about this Lifelong Learning opportunity, please contact:

  Silvia Bajo
  Alumni Relations
  Harvard Business School
  Soldiers Field
  Boston, MA 02163-9986 U.S.

  E-mail: sbajo@hbs.edu
  Telephone: 617.495.6582
  Fax: 617.496.3844

  Fees, faculty, course content, and dates are subject to change.

  For a window into the intellectual capital of HBS and other expertise from around the world, visit: hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu

  In accordance with Harvard University policy, the Harvard Business School does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, age, national or ethnic origin, political beliefs, veteran status, or disability in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities.

  The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies:

  Ms. Nancy Vena
  Harvard Business School
  Soldiers Field
  Boston, MA 02163-9986

CYC Faculty

• Myra Hart

  Myra Hart's research and teaching focus on entrepreneurship—particularly on the founding and leadership of high potential ventures. She is a member of the Diana Group, a research team of five professors investigating the unique challenges and opportunities that women entrepreneurs encounter as they search for the human and financial capital necessary to launch high growth ventures. She teaches the Women Building Business MBA course and leads the Charting Your Course alumni/ae programs. She and Angela Crispi co-chair the Harvard Business School Models of Success initiative.

  Hart has also served as chair of the entrepreneurship unit and director of the Marjorie Alfus/Committee of 200 Case Writing Initiative. Her course development work includes two MBA courses, Starting New Ventures (with Marco Iansiti) and Women Building Business (with Lynda Applegate), and two Executive Education programs, The Entrepreneur's Tool Kit and Women Leading Business: An Executive Forum, short programs intended to update entrepreneurs and senior executives in the latest management research being developed at the school. She has been recognized by Harvard Business School with the Apgar Award for innovation in teaching and the Greenhill Award for faculty leadership.

  Her interest in entrepreneurship comes from personal experience. In 1985, she joined Tom Stemberg as one of the four founding officers of Staples, the Office Superstore. She served as the company's Vice President of Operations at its founding and, in 1987, took over as Group Vice President of Growth and Development with responsibility for the company's geographic and business expansion. Prior to joining Staples, Hart was director of marketing for StarMarket Company. She was also general manager of the family-owned residential and commercial real estate firm Hart, Shaw & Company for several years. Today, she works with several young ventures as a board member, advisor and/or consultant.

  Professor Hart is Chair of the Center for Women's Business Research and serves on the advisory boards of several professional women's organizations. She is a trustee of Cornell University where she serves on the Academic Affairs and Campus Life, Research, Tenure, and Development Committees as well as the University Council and the President's Council of Cornell Women. She is a director of eCornell and has served on Harvard University's Advisory Council on Shareholder Responsibility and the Executive Committee of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.

• Timothy Butler

  Timothy Butler is Research Fellow of Business Administration and director of career development programs for HBS's MBA Program. His research interests focus on career decision making generally and the relationship between personality structure and work satisfaction in particular. He has published technical papers on career assessment psychometrics and small group dynamics in academic journals (most recently "A Function Centered Model of Interest Assessment for Business Careers" in the Journal of Career Assessment) and numerous practitioner oriented articles in periodicals such as Fortune, Fast Company and the Harvard Business Review. His books, both co-authored with James Waldroop, include Discovering Your Career in Business (Addison-Wesley, 1997) and The Twelve Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back (Doubleday, 2002).

  Tim Butler's research on the relationship between personality structure and business career satisfaction led to the development of three psychometric instruments, The Business Career Interest Inventory, The Management and Professional Rewards Profile and the Management and Professional Abilities Profile. These three inventories have been presented with interactive interpretive tools as an integrated Internet-based business career self-assessment program known as CareerLeader, which is used for business career assessment and development by over 240 business schools and corporations around the world.

  Dr. Butler teaches the Career Development class in the MBA Foundations curriculum. He has taught for executive education programs and lectured at business schools throughout North America and Europe and has consulted to senior managers from organizations ranging from small technology start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations. His consulting work has been most extensive in the investment management industry.

• Monica Higgins

  Monica Higgins is an associate professor of leadership and organizations at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Higgins joined the Ed School in January 2007 after approximately 11 years on the faculty at Harvard Business School (HBS) in the Organizational Behavior Unit. Higgins' research and teaching focus on the areas of leadership and career development, mentoring, entrepreneurship, and organizational change. She has a multimedia longitudinal project underway called Building Career Foundations that examines the development processes, networks, and career choices of the members of the HBS class of 1996. In addition, Higgins has launched a project on senior leadership teams in PreK-12 public education. Her publications include her recent book, Career Imprints: Creating Leaders Across an Industry and over 80 journal articles and case materials on leadership development.

  Professor Higgins earned her A.B. in policy studies with a focus in organizational behavior from Dartmouth College; her M.B.A from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration; her M.A. in psychology from Harvard University; and her Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the Harvard Business School and the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard, she worked in personal card acquisition for American Express Travel Related Services and in the Capital Markets Technologies Division for BankBoston. Professor Higgins also spent approximately five years as a consultant for Bain & Company in their Boston office and for Harbridge House, an international organizational change consulting firm based in Boston.

  Professor Higgins lives with her husband Michael and two daughters, Sarah and Rebecca, in Lexington, Massachusetts.

• Pam Lassiter

  Pam Lassiter, author of The New Job Security, a Wall Street Journal-award winning book, is principal of Lassiter Consulting, a firm that provides value-driven career management services to companies and individuals nationwide. As a consultant in career management for over twenty years, Lassiter designs programs, seminars, and training sessions for companies that need to "liberate" (outplace) or retain (internal career development) their employees. Her internal career development work enables professionals to grow within their current companies, improving corporate productivity and profitability. Her work with companies and individuals that are facing transition focuses on directing searches of senior level executives towards timely, satisfying conclusions.

  She has worked with national firms such as Right Associates and R.L. Stevens in their individual and group outplacement work and is the New England Director of ExecuNet, directing thousands of professionals in an improved process of networking that allows professionals to identify the strategies and the connections they need to reach their career goals. Her strategic alliance with Mastery Works puts the tools that are used by Fortune 100 companies to retain and develop their high performers at your fingertips.

  Ms. Lassiter's undergraduate degree is from the University of Texas in English/Spanish and her master's degree is from Boston University in psychological counseling with specific graduate coursework in career development and business management.

  Lassiter makes appearances on regional and national television and radio programs and speaks on a regular basis to professional groups and national conferences. She has received multiple awards and recognition from professional associations. Her articles on career management appear in human resource and business publications including Fast Company, Fortune, The Financial Times, Bloomberg radio, and CFO.

• Laura Moon

  Laura Moon joined the Harvard Business School as director of the Social Enterprise Initiative in April 2005. The Social Enterprise Initiative at HBS generates and shares knowledge to help individuals and organizations deliver social value through the nonprofit, private, and public sectors. Laura manages the Initiative's strategic and operational goals, including working with faculty members to oversee a series of new research projects, linking faculty and practitioners with shared interests, creating methods to communicate the work of the Initiative, overseeing executive programs, and managing the Initiative's operations, staff, and budget.

  Prior to joining HBS, Laura served as Executive Director of the Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni consulting team, a leading provider of pro bono management consulting services to the nonprofit sector. In this role, she set strategic and operational objectives, oversaw program evaluation, collaborated with faculty to lead educational programming tailored to the nonprofit sector, sourced and evaluated proposals from prospective nonprofit clients, and engaged alumni to apply their business expertise to the issues faced by local nonprofit organizations.

  Laura has also worked as an independent strategy and marketing consultant serving medium- and small-sized firms in the non-profit, management consulting, and high-technology industries. She helped launch the Donors' Choice Foundation, whose mission was to increase philanthropic giving through technology and innovative donation methods. She was also a Director at Age Wave, a business development firm with a portfolio of five companies, where she managed strategic planning and corporate communications efforts. Additionally, she has held positions with the Social Venture Network, the San Francisco Food Bank and Stanford Magazine. Laura received her BA from Harvard University and her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she served as student co-chair of the Public Management Program.

• Christine Sullivan

  Christine Sullivan is the Director of Career Services for alumni at Harvard Business School. Chris comes to HBS from the Boston College Carroll Graduate School of Management, where she developed and implemented new programs and strategies for their MBA and alumni career centers. Prior to that, Chris was the Director of Career Development for the Simmons Graduate School of Management. She holds a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology from Fordham University and a B.A. in Economics and Business from Skidmore College. Chris spent the first five years of her career with Massachusetts Financial Services Company in Boston.