Charting Your Course

Women like you—women with high-powered degrees and professional expertise—graduated from business school with great expectations and extraordinary options. Do you know what is next for your career?

Whether you desire to reenergize your career after working in the same field for several years or wish to reenter the workforce after taking time off, a clearly defined vision and well-articulated career strategy are imperative. Charting Your Course will equip you with the skills, strategies, and tools you need to revitalize your career development efforts and achieve both personal and professional growth.

Charting Your Course uses case studies, individual introspection, team exercises, and lectures to help attendees develop a strategic plan for creatively exploring and defining new career directions. Engage in strategic conversations to help jump start your career transition.

The program has enabled hundreds of women 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 30 – 31, 2012.

About the Program

• Program Registration

  Register here

  Please note you will be asked to submit a short bio and picture as part of your registration. To view a sample bio, click here (pdf)

  Please note that registration has not yet officially opened for the 2012 session. Email pgrennen@hbs.edu with any questions.

  Note that 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 30 – 31, 2012, at Harvard Business School.

  • $600 per person
  • $500 per person for Harvard Business School alumnae and alumni spouses and partners
  • $475 per person for Harvard Business School alumni club and association members
• Participant Criteria

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

  • Transitioning in your 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

  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 75 participants; therefore, early application is encouraged.

• Expert Coaching on Career Options

  Explore and experience this unique program—led by Tim Butler, Senior Fellow; Director of MBA 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.

  2011 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.
  • 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."

• Hotel Information

  Doubletree Guest Suites Boston
  400 Soldiers Field Road
  Boston, MA 02134
  800.222.8733 or 617.783.0090
  Closest hotel to HBS.

  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:

  Patricia Grennen
  Alumni Career & Professional Development
  Harvard Business School
  Soldiers Field
  Boston, MA 02163-9986 U.S.

  E-mail: pgrennen@hbs.edu
  Telephone: 617.495.6582
  Fax: 617.496.9299

  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.

CYC Faculty

• 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.

• Margot Dushin

  Margot Dushin is Director of Programs for Harvard Business School's Social Enterprise Initiative, which she joined in 1996. Since 1993, the Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) has applied innovative business practices and managerial disciplines to drive sustained, high-impact social change. SEI is grounded in the mission of Harvard Business School and aims to inspire, educate, and support leaders who make a difference in the world. Margot plays a principal role in Social Enterprise's MBA Program activities, working with prospective and current students interested in social enterprise, leading social enterprise field-based and career efforts, and helping practitioners interact with students in a variety of ways in order to meet their organization's goals.

  Before joining Social Enterprise, she previously worked in HBS's Marketing and Communications Office on publishing and technology projects. Prior to Harvard, Margot worked at the Northern Rhode Island Collaborative, which provides services to students with disabilities to benefit from special education. Margot has held positions, volunteered, and served on the board at several nonprofit organizations focusing on education, literacy, and environmental issues. She graduated from Syracuse University cum laude with a dual degree in communications and English literature, and has done graduate coursework at Harvard in the areas of women's literature and history.

• Anna Kuwabara

  Anna Kuwabara joined MBA Career & Professional Development (MBA CPD) in 2008. In her role, she is responsible for the operations of the career coaching program - a team of over 40 coaches - and career programming for international students. Anna is also the MBA CPD sector manager for Social Enterprise and liaison to recruiters in this space.

  Prior to her work at the Harvard Business School, Anna served as executive vice president at the Longy School of Music, overseeing the school's administration, finance and strategic planning functions, and 110% growth in the school's net asset position. Prior to her tenure at Longy, Anna was the director of operations for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, supervising stage and house management workforces and coordinating logistics for the orchestra's domestic and international touring.

  Anna received an MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley (1990) and a BA in English Literature from Yale University (1984). She was a League of American Orchestra's Management Fellow (1991) and a member of the Boston Center for Community and Justice LeadBoston Class of 2006. She is a town-elected trustee of the Watertown (MA) Free Public Library.

• 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.

• 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.

• Christine Sullivan

  Christine Sullivan is the Director of Alumni Career and Professional Development and Senior Director of Alumni Relations at Harvard Business School. In this capacity, she oversees the delivery of lifelong career management services and resources to support and engage HBS alumni worldwide around a range of career related issues. Chris has presented to alumni groups throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and engages with the School's key corporate constituents to help them develop successful hiring and talent management strategies. Under Chris' leadership, Alumni Career and Professional Development has significantly expanded the number of programs, resources and services offered to alumni.

  Chris teaches in the HBS Executive Education course, A New Path: Setting New Professional Directions and provides executive coaching for the International Women's Forum and the Women's Leadership Forum and New Path. She has a particular interest in work identity, executive development and coaching, negotiating and work-life interaction. Her research interests focus on women's non-linear career paths and women's leadership issues.

  Chris has a background in investment management, holds a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology, and B.A. in Economics. She is active with the Susan G. Komen For the Cure organization and the Forte Foundation.