Sixth workshop and a "fashionable" weekend

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This weekend I took a class at the Fashion Institute of Technology called “How to think like your CFO“. It was taught by the former SVP of Finance/CFO at Calvin Klein, and we got to analyze financial statements of fashion companies and tell the story behind the numbers. It was very interesting - we analyzed a company that was changing its business model from just being a cashmere wholesaler to opening retail stores and establishing a private label business. We even saw a spreadsheet of a merchandise planner, and learned how finance people use sales data to make decisions on which segment of business to invest in and expand. In the past few weeks I have been listening to the earnings call of Tapestry and ASOS and was reading their equity research reports in my free time, but I was frustrated in picking up what’s important among a sea of numbers. After the class, I feel like I now finally understand how to analyze the KPIs in fashion.

It’s a very refreshing experience, as it recently occurred to me that I want to do corporate finance at a fashion company. I’ve been reading Business of Fashion and visiting the clothing stores I read about in my free time since this summer, but this weekend signifies the first step I took to do something about it and actually evaluate this interest as a potential career path. I am so glad I did it, despite having second thoughts and fierce debate in my mind about whether I should go the week prior. I’ve always loved fashion - it’s been a source for me to express myself emotionally, and sometimes a great piece of clothing/accessory would really make my day and make me feel different. I really hope to contribute my efforts to running a successful fashion brand that speaks to the customers and give them the joy of expression that they need in their day-to-day life. Anyhow, though, I still haven’t applied for a job in the retail industry yet, part of it is because I think it’s too soon to leave my current job, and also part of it is because I now do more and more data analytics in my current job that I think would be pretty transferable to my future job in retail/finance. So no rush, but hopefully I can keep this going and if I haven’t changed my mind, make the switch - perhaps after 2 years?

Ok, now back to ballet! Today we did tendu/plie in the first position, second position and third position, and we also did a lot of plie - releve.

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Fifth workshop and some career thoughts

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Ok, so my big speech at the lunch went well, and now people are getting me involved in more initiatives. I was trembling after the meeting because I couldn’t believe what I just did… things are getting real? I can’t believe it. Now it’s time to actually make the change, instead of sitting back and complain about it. I can’t believe I get to be in this position just a year and a half into my first job! And also, just a day later, our firm announced a re-organization to drive the revenue synergies among previously acquired firms. So, in the next few years we will hopefully be witnessing some big changes among our businesses, which hopefully can transform the way people provide data services. Pretty exciting times!

During lunch today I also read about Fortune’s feature for David Soloman, CEO of Goldman Sachs who is also a DJ. It was pretty inspiring, especially when reading about how he said that if he decided to do something, he’d do it in the highest of his capability, or he’s not going to do it. It’s also inspiring how he managed to have such a demanding job while also being able to keep his hobbies and have a family, giving me confidence that if I want to, I can have it all too. I also aspire to be excellent in what I do, but in most of the time I feel like I am just doing things in my 80% capability, or otherwise I feel like I will burn out. Which is actually not a good way of thinking and hinders progress. Like for example, last night I didn’t really do a good job cleaning our apartment because I was tired, and then my roommate had to re-do my task, and seeing her clean what I just cleaned again did not make me feel good. I think as the year ends, one of my new year resolutions would probably be trying to do everything at my 100% capability, and see how things goes.

This also ties to our management team’s discussion about career progress. Many people asked them for advice on how to get promoted, how to be successful. But in our global town hall, our group president advised that we should think about it the other way around - making our goal to be how to make our business better, and actually do it, instead of arranging for meetings after meetings with the managers and ask for advice on how to promote.

Ok, enough work talk, now back to ballet! Today we learned a lot of things, such as sauté (jump), grand plié, and revised tendu. We also practiced postures by lying on the floor.

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Fourth workshop and a celebration

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I was again late for 10 minutes for my third workshop, because I was busy chatting with my co-worker about the business problems our firm is facing. We as an analyst class at our company (investor relations advisory business within a data analytics firm) are having lunch with the management team of our department tomorrow, and we charted many bullet points on things to improve within the organization from an analyst’s perspective. I prepared a big speech tomorrow with 6 gigantic bullet points, but I was kind of uneasy how it is gonna be received by the management team, because they are all constructive criticisms. Our group is experiencing some pretty high turnovers and is facing some growing pains, which made our working experience somewhat unpleasant, but I do hope to be a part of the effort to solve these problems and make our workplace better. Anyhow, so therefore I was late for my ballet class, and the pianist - a slim retired man dressed in business casual - gave me his usual stare while I sneaked into the classroom… making me feel a little guilty and hope I wont be late next time.

Today, we reviewed many of the moves from last class, but mostly talked more about posture, weight placement, plié, tendu a la second, releve in second and port de bras.

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