In this episode, we're joined by Meghan Anzelc, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Three Arc Advisory, and Christina Fernandes-D'Souza, Director of Data Science at Three Arc Advisory. They share how they've supported each other through their individual and interconnected career journeys as we discuss the value of mutual support, continued mentorship, sponsorship, and followership.
About Meghan
Meghan Anzelc, Ph.D. is an experienced executive in driving positive business impact through the use of data, artificial intelligence and technology. Previously Global Head of Data & Analytics at Spencer Stuart and Chief Analytics Officer at AXIS Capital, Dr. Anzelc is skilled at determining how existing and emerging technologies can be applied to business problems and providing jargon-free guidance to senior executives on technology and digital strategy and decision trade-offs. Dr. Anzelc currently serves as an Advisor to startups, served on the board and as chair of the Nom/Gov Committee of the Chicago Literacy Alliance, on the Grantmaking Committee of the Chicago Foundation for Women's Young Women's Giving Council, on the Steering Committee of the Women in Insurance Networking Group, and as an Advisory Board member to the American Physical Society's Advancing Graduate Leadership initiative. She holds a Master’s and PhD in Physics and Astronomy from Northwestern University and a Bachelor’s in Physics from Loyola University Chicago.
About Christina
Christina Fernandes-D’Souza has over 15 years of global, cross-industry experience combining strategy, data, analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and technology, in both the private and public sectors, delivering business opportunities and competitive advantage. Currently, Director of Data Science at Three Arc Advisory, guiding startups, established companies and their Boards on how to drive positive business impact from analytics and AI while managing risk. Previously, as a Director of Data Science at Spencer Stuart, co-lead building a global Analytics Function, focusing on analytics product development and digital transformation. As a Senior Data Scientist at Zurich North America, lead various analytical and machine learning initiatives in several Lines of Business. She holds a Master’s in Applied Mathematics, with a concentration in Actuarial Science.
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[00:00:07] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: Welcome to Women inAnalytics After Hours, the podcast where we hang out and learn with the WIAcommunity. Each episode, we sit down with women in the data and analytics spaceto talk about what they do, how they got there, where they found analytics alongthe way, and more. I'm your host, Lauren Burke, and I'd like to thank you forjoining us.
So this is our first ever episode with two guests, and today wehave Meghan Anzelc and Christina Fernandes-D'Souza joining us.
[00:00:46] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: Meghan is experiencedexecutive in driving positive business impact through the use of data, AI, andtechnology.
She is the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Three ArcAdvisory, and she has a PhD in Experimental High Energy Particle Physics fromNorthwestern. Christina has over 15 years of global, cross industry experiencecombining strategy, data, and AI in both the private and public sectors. She iscurrently the Director of Data Science at Three Arc Advisory.
And she holds a Master's in Applied Mathematics with aconcentration in Actuarial Science. I am very excited to have both of them herewith us today. So welcome, Christina and Meghan, and thank you so much fortaking the time to join us.
[00:01:40] Meghan Anzelc: Thanks to so much for havingus.
[00:01:43] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Yes, Lauren,first, thank you so much for having us.
[00:01:47] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: And so for today'stopic, we are actually going to be chatting about your intertwined careerjourneys, which is a real world example of some of the benefits of mutualsupport and mentorship in career advancement. So with that, my first questionis, how did you get connected to one another?
[00:02:10] Meghan Anzelc: Yeah, we, we first met when weboth worked for Zurich, which is an insurance carrier. And Christina had beenon the team and I was joining new. So I was stepping into a new leadershiprole, one that offered a significant increase in scope of responsibility frommy last role. So it was the first time I was managing managers and a muchlarger scale team.
And as part of my onboarding to the company, I wanted to reallyget to know everybody on, on the team, both in terms of their work and whatthey were doing, but also their career aspirations and what they hope to do.And so through that, I met with everybody on the team individually.
So that was really my first memory of Christina is meeting withher one on one. To get a feel for her work and what she was doing and what shewas interested in.
[00:03:00] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Yeah. So for me.Meghan was when she joined, uh, she was my boss's boss. And through someorganizational changes, I directly, uh, started directly reporting to Meghan.And soon after that, I had a family, a close family member, emergency healthissue, and I remember, you know, just, sort of going through that process andin a complete blur, the memories are a blur to me. But I vividly rememberMeghan's empathetic, you know, leadership and support during that time, um,from talking, talking with me, figuring out, you know, how can she support mewith my work?
Uh, she had family members who have gone through similar, youknow, health crisis. She offered, um, for me to talk to them to get, you know,that additional support. I can just remember, walking away to take care of myfamily member without the pressures of work. Like having everything sort ofkept ready and in place because Meghan helped me and supported me.
[00:04:10] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's awesome. And Iknow that was back in 2015, right? So since then you've said you've workedtogether at three different organizations. Have your roles looked different inthe way that you've been collaborating at each of those organizations?
[00:04:26] Meghan Anzelc: I, I would say yes, absolutely.I think it's evolved sort of in a couple of ways. So one is, I think, kind ofthe natural progression. As you get to know someone better and you work withthem more, there are certain things that just become easier. It's very easy forChristina and I to sort of pick up some new piece of work and Kind of cutthrough to what's most important and how do we start making progress?
We know each other's styles very well. We know how each otherworks very well. So there's sort of an ease and a comfort level that comes withjust the time itself. But I think the other part is the actual kind of natureof the relationship has changed as the roles and companies have been different.So in that first experience working together, like Christina said, right, I washer boss's boss at the beginning, and then she reported to me directly, and itwas a much larger team with a lot of, um, a lot of significant changes on theteam.
So there was a lot of. Um, kind of struggle among team membersas they were getting kind of settled in and really trying to transition that,that entire team to a higher performing organization. And so just the nature ofthe relationship, I think was a bit different just because of the scale andsize of the team.
Whereas at Spencer Stuart, when I was trying to recruitChristina in to come work with me, that was a very different dynamic. Sobecause it was a build from scratch function, I was the only person on the teamat the beginning. And so Christina was the first person I wanted to hire in.And part of my conversation with her was around how things would be differentbecause there would only be two of us at the start, that hopefully gave her alot of exposure and flexibility to try out different things and to participatein different aspects of the work, then perhaps what there was the flexibilityto do when it was a much larger team, right? With a lot of responsibilitiesthat had to be delegated.
Um, and then it was also very uncertain in the sense thatbecause it was new for the organization, I really didn't know what was going towork, where we were going to have success or failure, what we were ourchallenges were going to be.
And so very much wanted to have a partner in figuring that outand collaborating very closely together. So it was a little bit differentdynamic, I think. To me, because of the context and the situations that thedifferent companies were in at the points in time where we worked together.
[00:06:55] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Yeah, I agreewith Meghan. It was back in 2015, uh, when I worked for her at Zurich becauseit was such a large team and I was growing in, in my roles andresponsibilities, the dynamic dynamics were very different. Um, I didn't wear alot of hats like I did at Spencer Stuart. Like Meghan said, we were a smallteam and we were building from scratch.
And so I wore a lot of hats and in order to succeed in doingthat, I needed a lot of support from Meghan, um, and a lot of trust andflexibility to do, try out, do new things and do different things. And learnfrom if I had any failures to learn from it really quickly with her support.
[00:07:42] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's awesome. Andthat's, uh, that's so interesting to hear how each of those experiences you'recollaborating with each other kind of in the same way, but the roles and theorganizational structures around you are the thing that's changing, but therelationship at the core, that support and mentorship has been maintained.
[00:08:04] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Exactly.
[00:08:06] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: And so I know atSpencer Stuart, you together worked to actually build out the data andanalytics function from scratch. So Christina, moving into a role where you arenow on such a smaller team, now supporting Meghan, what did your experiencelook like and how did you support each other through this?
[00:08:27] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Right. So we werea small, but mighty team of two in a new industry. And, you know, in our pastexperience with the insurance industry, We aligned and collaborated a lot withactuaries who are, you know, data oriented like us. Who have built trust andcredibility in the insurance industry.
But with Spencer Stuart, it was, uh, a different industry, youknow, professional services and executive search. In particular, we didn't havecolleagues that we could look for support right from the start. And the factthat It was from scratch the first time around a lot of, you know, uh,uncertainty in, in building it out. And so we really had to lean on each otherand learn from each other and trust each other and pick up at areas that we sawwere, you know, needed attention.
Meghan was really concentrating on getting sponsorship fromother areas, but I needed help, you know, in the technical space, I would have,you know, lean on Meghan. You know, get her advice on how to navigate, um,those sort of experiences.
[00:09:45] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's interesting. Soyou are not only learning the kind of operational side, the strategy side ofsetting this up, but also the leadership side, like how you build outrelationships with others. I know something you've talked about before isbuilding allies as well. Um, so I can imagine that for you as well, Meghan, wasreally a good experience just to learn more about different ways to collaborateand how to collaborate with these different cross functional areas.
[00:10:16] Meghan Anzelc: Absolutely. And I, I learned aton from Christina through that process in, in many ways. And I remember aconversation we were having, like she said, where a lot of our conversationswere focused on like, how do we um, divide and conquer the work. How do wesupport each other and, and figure out what are the best paths to get to wherewe're trying to go.
And I remember having a conversation with her, I don't rememberthe exact topic, but it had to do with building some of these cross functionalrelationships. And I was describing to her how I saw the situation currentlywith one of the other teams and what I was trying to achieve.
And Christina was like, oh, I've also done these 18 otherthings over the past few months that I didn't bother telling you because itwasn't important at the time, but I now know really well how to navigatethrough this team. And by the way, you should include this in how you'respeaking to this leader. Because I've learned that that really resonates andyou should watch out for these two other things because I've learned that, youknow, leadership on the team has gotten burned through that in the past. It wasjust the most fascinating conversation and really eye opening to me of both, Iknew that Christina was great at building relationships and finding ways tobreak through barriers to get what she needed out of something, but just seeingsome of that kind of show up in real life in a meaningful example wasimpactful, and she had insight into the organization that I just didn't.
And because she had approached the organization differentlythan I had and was talking to different people than I was. And so had acompletely different perspective, but incredibly value add. And so I've learnedvery much as a leader that, you know, yes, I need to be building relationshipsacross the organization.
I need to be managing up. All of that sort of thing, but beingable to really take advantage of the ways in which other people on your teambuilt relationships, the ways people information gather and find ways to breakthrough friction points can be incredibly valuable.
And, and I think leaders are missing out if they're not payingattention to their team members. And, and the ways in which their team membershave identified to, to get things done, right. And to build successfulrelationships. So that was sort of the start of an incredibly new, not new, butsort of a whole section of our relationship that was incredibly valuable to beable to get things done in this environment where it was just the two of us.
And there was so much uncertainty, um, and so much, you know,sort of potential risk of getting it wrong and, and not being able to besuccessful. So I think that was it. something that really let us be much moresuccessful much faster because we were finding ways to take advantage of eachother's strengths and what each of us was learning in the organization.
[00:13:14] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That is so interesting.And Christina, if you don't mind, could you share a little bit more about yourapproach to building relationships, finding supporters and allies as you aremaybe building out a new function or just learning about a new organization?
[00:13:36] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: So, I don't havea roadmap to that. I think it's really organic, um, and genuine in buildingthose relationships with my peers or my colleagues. Really presenting myself astrying to figure out what they need and how I can help them. And organicallyfrom that they end up, you know, providing me the same support.
The intention is alwayslet's provide impact and we'll do it together and we can do it together. Um,and I think people tend to trust. You know, I focus on trust and they tend totrust me and, and through that trust, you know, they open up in and letting meknow some of the dynamics of the organization, um, that are in play and that Iwouldn't have known having, you know, just entered the role. So I think that'sreally been, if you will, my secret sauce and um, it's a two way, it's a twoway relationship and you always have to keep, keep that in mind.
Yeah. I think that's, that's really how what's helped me, youknow, build strong relationships with people.
[00:15:03] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's awesome. It's itmakes so much sense. It's really focusing on that, that it is a collaborationthat if you're working at the same organization on the same team or ondifferent teams, you have that shared goal, and you're going to be able toachieve it faster and more productively and with maybe even bigger impact, ifyou are aligned on doing that together and willing to work together ascohesively as possible to make that happen.
[00:15:31] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Absolutely.
[00:15:32] Meghan Anzelc: I think the other thing thatChristina does really well is to find ways to use me and my role to help withsome of that in, in ways that are appropriate. So a couple of examples, right?There were many times where Christina has come to me and said, you know what,Meghan, I've been talking to this, this group, this team, and they're doing,they're going through such a painful process on this task that they have to do.
And I think there's a way we could help them. And what I wantto do is I want to take X days of my time or the time of my team and divert itand use it to help this other team, right? Which is, which is amazing in somany ways. Um, so one is, is sort of that. Keeping me in the loop as to herperspective on where our time as a, as a small team was going to be mostvaluable sort of collectively for the organization and reprioritizing to whatshe saw as being the most important and impactful at different points in time.
Um, and then sort of bringing me in where, where needed, right?Of like, can you give a heads up to so and so, um, because that message needsto come from you that, that this is happening, right? Or. Um, there were anumber of times where Christina came to me and said, you know what, this personhas been really helpful and I need you to thank them because it's going to bereally meaningful if you send a note to them and their boss describing theircontributions and how helpful they've been to me and to our team.
Um, Right, or let's take so and so out to lunch because theydid a whole bunch of extra work on the side to help us out. Can you, you know,organize a lunch? Can you buy lunch for the team? Right, those sorts of things,really small stuff. But I think one of Christina's real strengths is knowingwhere to use me.
Right, and kind of my role and and, uh, the whether it's thebudget or the title or the, you know, messaging, whatever is kind of going tobe helpful and finding ways to really add meaningful about value back to thoserelationships. Like she said, right? That that sort of two way street. Um, butreally spending time to identify what's going to be most meaningful for thatother team member, whether that's, you know, public recognition or a note totheir boss or, or just taking them out for lunch and spending a little timegetting to know them.
So I think that's another kind of key strength that Christinahas in this relationship building is finding ways to really, you know, getrecognized people's contributions in ways that are incredibly meaningful tothem.
[00:18:12] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Thank you forthat, Meghan. Um, I'd like to add, it's not always easy to take things back toyour boss and reprioritize and Meghan makes it very easy. She, you know, hasbuilt a great relationship with me. And, um, I think you would say that, youknow, that, that trust that is involved in a relationship comes from theleader.
And so Meghan's made it very comfortable for me to call her. Goto her and say, I think we need to do this, or I think we need to reprioritizewhat we're working on to help another team. And she trusts that, that what I'mbringing to her is of value. And that's really important in a leader to be ableto go to your leader and, you know, sort of have them have your back, if youwill.
[00:19:01] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's, that's soawesome. So not just supporting each other and supporting others you work with,but helping each other support other people in the best way possible.
[00:19:13] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Absolutely.
[00:19:14] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's amazing. I lovethat, how second nature that now is in a part of the way you collaborate. Uh,that's, that's such a great skill to have, and I can only imagine how valuablethat makes both of you, especially working together in any organization you'rein.
[00:19:33] Meghan Anzelc: We also have a lot of fun thathelps.
[00:19:37] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's awesome. And sokind of along the same lines, how have you each benefited from being connectedwith each other and collaborating together both in organizations and just alongyour career journeys?
[00:19:50] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Yeah, soChristina here. So I think it's really important to highlight that we choose tocollaborate and stay connected because we enjoy working together. We enjoy learningfrom each other. And like Meghan said, it's overall been a very fun experience.And that we continue to champion for each other.
So having someone like that in your corner makes it so mucheasier to navigate the trials and so much more fun when you experience thetriumphs. Uh, I'd say, you know, observing Meghan as a leader. I've learnedwhat it truly means to be a best leader you have to lead with your followers inmind.
Um, as I've said before, Meghan's built a relationship with mewhere I really feel safe to express my thoughts, my ideas. You know, give myfeedback and even difference, uh, in opinion. I've learned from her how importantit is to empower people to make decisions for themselves and take ownership oftheir work all while providing resources they need and finding ways to developtheir skills.
What I've learned that Meghan does really well is she has thegreat ability to set a clear vision, provide real practical solutions,especially in ambiguous situations. And that has helped me tremendously in myapproach to problem solving.
Another great skill she has is in facilitating conversations.You know where you have members of cross functional teams coming in together.Um, and everyone has their own perspective. So really facilitatingconversations where you're resulting in, you know, productive outcomes is stillsomething that I'm trying to learn effectively from her.
[00:21:49] Meghan Anzelc: And I've, I've learned just somuch from Christina and continue to learn so much. And I think in addition tosome of the things I've, I've already highlighted, I think there's sort of the,the building of trust that Christina has touched on a few times that I thinkhas helped enable all of this. Um, benefit from our, our relationship over theyears to, to happen, right.
And I think some of that goes back to very early in ourrelationship where she mentioned having a family crisis and needing support tobe able to take care of her family situation. And at the time we didn't knoweach other very well. And of course the right answer is to give people whatthey need to take care of their lives inside and outside of work.
That is absolutely just the right answer. What I think is oftenunderappreciated by bosses and managers and leaders is that doing that in waysthat are effective for the individual pays off so enormously. And I did notknow that at the time, right? I did it because it was the right thing to dobecause it's what I would want someone to do for me if I was in the samesituation. I had not anticipated or expected the tenfold payback that Christinagave me, right? That by giving her that ability to take care of what she neededto take care of, she was incredibly dedicated, focused, driven, impactful,helpful, right? Like all of the things in ways that were just extraordinary.
And I think over the years from that trust, right, we're at apoint where I know that I can go to Christina at any point in time and say, um,you know what? We had that podcast recording with, with Lauren and I think Iflubbed this. What do you think? I feel like I missed this thing and Christinawill give me her honest answer, right?
She will be diplomatic and kind in the way that she gives mefeedback, but she will give me what she sees, right? And her perspective on thesituation. And so that, that's really, really valuable. And I think anotherpiece that's often undervalued by leaders is, um, when you start, you know,kind of managing whole programs and departments, you lose your connection tomuch of the day to day if you aren't really careful about how you approach it.
And so having someone like Christina to go to and say, um, youknow, here's the messages I want to get across in the presentation I'm going togive next week. Did these actually come across to you or not? Right? And, anddid I miss something? So that ability to get like honest feedback and hercoming to me with things that aren't working.
Like, hey, by the way, you don't code anymore but these 14things are broken and we need to fix them. And here's the two actions I needyou to take to help enable these things to be fixed. Right. That's incrediblyimpactful and powerful, but that comes from that longstanding trust that wehave in each other, right?
And that ability to be vulnerable and to know that the otherperson is still supporting us, even if they agree, right? Even if Christinawalks away from this and says, Yep, Meghan, you totally flubbed the podcast.This whole section was terrible, right? Um, but knowing that there's thatsupport behind it of, of that, regardless of the outcome, she's looking out forme, too.
Um, I think it's something that's been such a rich part of ourrelationship that has grown from this many years of working together in manysituations, in numerous companies, and it's so, it's so rewarding and sovaluable.
[00:25:32] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's awesome. It'sgreat to have that unbiased feedback, but also then the support. in the casethat you need to give that feedback. Um, but I do want to say both of you areknocking it out of the park. So hopefully there will be no post podcastconversations.
Um, but I do want to touch on something that we talked aboutwhile we were prepping for this. And you touched a little bit on earlier whileyou were talking, Meghan, which is followership. So can you just share whatfollowership is and why it is so important as a leader?
[00:26:08] Meghan Anzelc: I think from my perspective, itis. That ability to kind of set the vision and to have people buy into it andin that level of trust. Right? I think the real trust in the leader that thedirection they're setting and where they're trying to go and how they're tryingto bring you there, um, you buy into, right?
And you're willing to follow, even if you don't understand allthe pieces or if there's, you know, a high level of uncertainty or ambiguity inthe situation, right? But sort of that trust in, in that vision and thatperson's ability to lead through a situation. I, it's not a trait that I hadreally appreciated early in my career.
And I think I've learned how important and impactful it is. So,so one I think is from our time at Spencer Stuart hearing how the executivesearch industry talks about followership and views followership as a valuabletrait. So that on a, on its own was something that I hadn't appreciated before.And then the other piece is what I think we alluded to earlier, that you canmove much faster and build momentum and accelerate your progress much moreeasily.
When that trust is already there. And so having that abilityto, to build followership, um, lets you take kind of calculated risks. Thismight be uncertain. This might not work, but if people believe in the visionand in your ability to lead through the situation, right, they're willing totake those risks with you.
And you can just move much more quickly. And I think kind ofbuild that momentum towards success much faster when you have people. Veryclearly, right? When you have people who are willing to follow you, um, and themore of those people who are willing to follow, you know, almost sort of sightunseen, the faster you can do that, right?
Because you're not sort of spending a lot of time up front withthe buy in process, um, but instead sort of, like, jumping immediately intowhat it is you're trying to accomplish. And then again, that working togetherto adjust And make sure that you're all on the right path and that, you know,things are going well.
So, those are a couple of the things I'd highlight.
[00:28:34] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Yeah. So I, youknow, I agree with Meghan with everything she said, you know, uh, followership.It's really a style and approach, um, that people want to follow and willfollow. And I, I didn't realize how important it was until I started to moveinto leadership roles and wished I had certain of People on my team that I'veworked with, you know, on the, in the past, it's helpful.
I find to have a blend of people you've worked with, um,because you already have those relationships with them. You know, which skillsyou can hone in on to get faster impact while allowing you to buildrelationships with new members on your team. And to Meghan's point at SpencerStuart. We really learned with executive search how valuable, um, followershipis and what, what emphasis executive search puts on that, that skill, uh, forwhen they're looking for executives to fill in, to fill a role, you know, aCFO, CEO is really important, um, skill to have.
[00:29:44] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: Absolutely. And I thinkthat kind of goes along like tools in your leadership toolkit that you'rebuilding along the way. And that kind of leads me into the question that I liketo ask with every one of these episodes, which is what is a resource that hashelped you in your career and that you think might help others listening today?
Christina, if you want to start with your resource.
[00:30:11] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Yeah. Um, so Idon't think I have one particular resource. But what's helped me in my career,uh, is really learning the art of negotiating and it's not come from, like Isaid, not just one resource. Like it's over the years, it's been sometimesbooks, sometimes podcasts, but the primary resource has helped me is reallyjust talking to people. Talking to women, talking to men, um, getting theirdifferent perspective on how they negotiate, how do they, how similar, um,their negotiating skills or how they navigate, you know, crucial discussionsand how dissimilar sometimes they approach, uh, men and women approachsituations.
It could be anything that you're negotiating, right? If it'smore scale and scope and responsibility in, uh, the role that you have or afuture role, the title that you, that you want for a future role, and ofcourse, compensation. Um, and just learning, you know, to really differentiateyourself to have that support when you bring, you know, the talks to the table,if you will.
Why are you asking for more compensation? And how, how do younavigate that? Or why are you asking for a different title? Uh, so I thinkreally that art of negotiating has been so helpful for me in my career. I tend,um, not to ask for more. And I don't, you know, I'm still learning to ask formore in level of what in my experience and my skills and what I bring to thetable.
[00:31:50] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's a such a greatresource, too. And I love that you touched on this, but it's evolving, likeyou're pulling in different pieces. You're learning from those around you, fromyour experiences. And as you advance in your career, it becomes more tailoredto each of those experiences and each of those like specific use cases, if youcall them.
[00:32:11] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Exactly.
[00:32:13] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's so awesome. Andso, uh, Meghan, what is your resource?
[00:32:18] Meghan Anzelc: For me, mine really, I think,dovetails very nicely with Christina's, even though we didn't talk about thisahead of time. Uh, mine is really informational interviews. So, similarly,talking to other people about their jobs, what they like and don't like. What,you know, what was their career path and how did they get there?
Um, informational interviews have been incredibly influentialthroughout my entire career. I, I did many, many of them when I was in graduateschool, um, looking to explore careers and understand different jobopportunities, um, before graduating. And I'll provide you with the link to theinformational interview questions that I used as a graduate student.
Um, and I still use many of those same questions today. Andwhat I've I still conduct informational interviews today to say, who else couldI learn from? Where do I want to go next in my career? Who has a similar pathand has kind of achieved what I'm looking to achieve and what can I learn fromthem about how to best navigate my own career path to get to those, um, careeraspirations.
So they've been an incredibly valuable tool to me. And I alwaysask two questions at the end. Um, one is, who else should I talk to, which thenis a natural way to start building and expanding your network and makes it veryeasy for you to meet totally different people than you would have been exposedto otherwise.
And then the second question is, what else should I have askedyou? And I sometimes get very, um, insightful answers. That touch on topicsthat I never would have thought to ask about. So that very kind of open endedquestion to let people tell you what you should know, um, can be reallyimpactful and, and sort of open up perspectives that you might not have.
So, so informational interviews is something I found tocontinue to be valuable throughout my career.
[00:34:22] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's so interesting.And it kind of sounds like these are almost micro mentorship sessions in a way,uh, which I think can be as beneficial as a long term mentorship, such as theone you guys have.
[00:34:36] Meghan Anzelc: Yeah. And it gives you theability to learn from a really wide range of people, right? And you can learn alot in, you know, what is effectively like a 20 minute conversation.
[00:34:45] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: That's awesome. That'ssuch a great resource. Honestly, both of yours were good. Those are greatthings that I hope our listeners can add to their toolkits and use them to makesome impact and advance in their own careers. Um, so just before we finish up,I wanted to ask, how can our listeners keep up with each of you?
[00:35:05] Meghan Anzelc: I'm very easy to find onLinkedIn. Um, so you're welcome to follow or, or connect with me. If you wantto connect, just customize the invite and let me know, this is how you cameacross me. I try to keep track of, of how I'm building out my own network. Um,so LinkedIn is very easy. And then our company website is the other way to kindof keep track of what we're doing and where we're headed.
So that's Three Arc Advisory. com three with the number three.
[00:35:31] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Same here.Connect with me on LinkedIn and our Three Arc company website.
[00:35:37] Lauren Burke-McCarthy: Awesome. Well, thankyou both so much, Christina and Meghan, for joining us. It was so amazing tohear about your journey, how you've supported each other, how both of yourcareers have advanced through the connection and collaboration you've been ableto have over the years. And I really appreciate you taking the time with ustoday.
[00:35:58] Christina Fernandes-D'Souza: Thank you so muchfor having us.
[00:36:00] Meghan Anzelc: Thanks Lauren.
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