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Kari Wilfong returned to CO-OP Financial Services with experience to share.
The successful career path can be bendy, and sometimes women get ahead by changing employers or even leaving an employer to return later in a more advanced role. For CUES member Kari Wilfong, chief financial and administrative officer at CUES Supplier member CO-OP Financial Services, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., that meant working for CO-OP Financial Services for four years, leaving for four years and then coming back in 2006.
“I’m a retread,” she explains. “CO-OP was smaller when I left, and opportunities were limited. So I went to a multifamily housing enterprise as controller. It was a different industry. I was part of an all-women executive team. I found a lot of mentors and experienced a lot of growth. When I came back to CO-OP, which had grown, I was a different leader, ready for a different role. I came back as a VP and was promoted to CFO within six months.” She is currently one of four women on the organization’s eight-member executive management team.
For Wilfong, motivation is key. “Start with your passion,” she advises “Figure out what you really want to do, and then find the path to get there.”
Otherwise, much of her advice is classic. Ask questions. People are happy to help if they know you’re serious and want to learn. Apply for internships when you’re young. Put yourself out there where you can succeed or fail. Volunteer for challenging projects that lazy people will avoid. Build a peer network where you can give and take advice. Find a friend who will give you candid feedback and in whom you can confide. Join groups. Serve on community boards. Nonprofits are particularly glad to find women board members with financial expertise. And, this one is unusual: Identify the person you find most difficult to work with and turn him or her into an advocate.
The culture is changing dramatically for career women, Wilfong says. “I was surprised to find out I had become a cool mom because I went out into the business world to earn a living ... One of my daughter’s friends came to me for advice about how to dress for a business situation." Young women today expect more.
Because technology is dependent on new skills and ideas, “technology is providing tremendous opportunities for women,” she adds. “And financial services is very open to women in leadership roles.”
Richard H. Gamble is a freelance writer based in Colorado.
