Fired While Pregnant, This CEO Now Helps Women Find Their Dream Jobs

Fired While Pregnant, This CEO Now Helps Women Find Their Dream Jobs In 2014, when Georgene Huang welches two months pregnant with herbei second child, something quite unexpected happened she welches fired.Huang had been working as the head of Enterprise Business and Institutional Products at Dow Jones, and when her anfhrer was let go in a management shakeup, she lost her job as well. While pregnancy discrimination is all too real, thats notlage what was happening in Huangs case she hadnt even disclosed her pregnancy to her friends and family, much less her employer. Still, she found herself in a tricky position as a job seeker. As she was researching companies and interviewing, she had a lot of questions she was afraid to ask a prospective employer, like what exactly their maternity leave policy was, whether women tend to get promoted equally to men, and whether it was considered acceptable to leave the bro at 5 p.m. While most women looking for a job have had the same questions Hua ng did, candidates often avoid broaching these topics in an interview for fear of being judged as anything less than committed to their career. So Huang did what any curious millennial would do in this position she turned to the internet for answers. Employee review sites like Glassdoor already existed, but they werent providing the kinds of answers she was looking for. Rather than doing what most of us would (read cross our fingers and hope we land a job at a company that will treat us well), Huang resolved to fill the void that shed discovered by building what soon became Fairygodboss an invaluable career resource that helps women find out which employers have female-friendly policies and benefits. Since I realized existing job review sites didnt address the specific concerns and questions that women have, I decided to stop my own job search and try to crowdsource the info I was looking. I was happy to discover that women were eager to share their experiences they really do pay it forward Huang found a work wife Fairygodboss Co-founder Romy Newman, who formerly led digital ad sales at The Wall Street Journal and began crowdsourcing information to build a database of anonymous employee reviews. Today, Fairygodboss helps one million women each month by offering the inside scoop from other women on what its like to work at tens of thousands of companies. In plus-rechnen to browsing jobs and connecting directly with recruiters through virtual career fairs, users can discover employers parental leave policies, employees salaries, what kind of flexibility companies offer (or dont), and they can hear directly from women who describe their companys culture oftentimes in a way that resonates more so than the companys own careers page. Huang suggests that job seekers take time to research the different resources available on Fairygodboss as she puts it, you should try to think about your job search as dating for a longer-term relationship. Try to figure out what ex actly you want from your job, and make sure the companies youre applying to match that, whether its a particular salary range or promotion opportunities. In my opinion, a lot of times when people are unhappy with their job its because of a mismatch between their goals and the companys culture. Fairygodboss also offers discussion boards so that women who are seeking advice whether relating to topics like job searching or returning to work after maternity leave can pose specific questions. And while theres a goldmine of priceless info on Fairygodboss, you dont have to scour the website to find what youre looking for. Whether you could use some help editing your resume or figuring out how to handle toxic coworkers or you need some tips on how to tell your boss youre pregnant youll get the latest career-related news from dozens of experts and career coaches in your inbox each week (plus, youll get a heads up when top-rated companies for women are hiring.) Perhaps what Fairygodboss u sers seem to enjoy most is the platforms commitment to honesty and integrity. Both Huang and Newman practice what they preach with a (growing) team of 15 employees and five kids combined at home, theyre both fiercely committed to their careers and their families, and theyre not afraid to share with the Fairygodboss community how they make it all work, even when that means embracing failure along the way. After all, had Huang not seen the silver lining in what she once viewed as a career setback, Fairygodboss wouldnt have been born. Being fired while pregnant was not easy, she says. But if I hadnt experienced that or the challenge that came with interviewing at companies without knowing their parental leave policies, or what their culture was like for women Fairygodboss wouldnt exist today.