Preparation for my promotion process began well over a year prior to the official promotion round. I had travelled on my own to the Paris and Milan offices in late 2011 to implement the Risk and Control Assessments in the branches, and the majority of 2012 had been spent continuing to demonstrate that I was operating at the level of Vice President, and to 'knock it out of the ballpark' as my boss kept reminding me.
I had been very lucky with my move to NYC. Having gone to my boss in London on my return from honeymoon to let him know that Mark and I intended on moving to NYC later in the year, with the intention of giving him ample time to find someone to replace me, I wasn't quite certain what the reaction would be. Fortunately, he immediately asked if I'd like to transfer with the team and work out of the NYC office, to which I replied a definitive, "Yes!", and he set about organising the transfer for me.
It was a relatively painless process, apart from the employment lawyers at work leaving the visa application process to the eleventh hour prior to our scheduled move date, and the additional laborious task of having to line up for hours at the US Embassy in Mayfair. However, the visa process itself was very straightforward. The L1 visa that I was being transferred under is an employer-sponsored visa for employees who have been with the company for more than two years. It is initially granted for a 2 year period, which can then be extended for another three and, if the employer is a well-known company, is merely a formality. Although our move to NYC and the shipment of our belongings both to NYC and back to Australia was going to be a small financial burden on Concep, at least the cost of my visa was something that had been taken care of by my work. Plus, the relief of me having a job to go to upon our arrival in the US meant that we had one less thing to worry about.
The move to NYC provided me with another dimension and opportunity to take advantage of in my career, with a significant number of the Commodities stakeholders being based in the US. I knew that the promotion process was already underway, and was nervously anticipating the interview that would be scheduled between myself and my promotion 'sponsor', who would be a Director or, more likely, an MD at the company. I finally heard from my promotion sponsor, and our meeting was set for early the following week. On the day of the planned meeting, I hadn't heard from him to confirm a time as planned and assumed that he was too busy to meet that day and would have to reschedule. However, he contacted me mid-afternoon to confirm the interview and check whether I would be right to pop up to his office in an hour's time. I quickly revised my notes and soon made my way up.
He immediately put me at ease and, refreshingly, conducted our meeting as more of a discussion rather than an interview. This both comforted and concerned me, as I wasn't quite sure whether we would have covered enough ground for him to be armed with adequate ammunition in order to fight my corner in the Promotion Committee meeting that was being held in mid December. Nonetheless, I had to trust that the interview had gone as well as it could have and that I had done my best to impress.
The weeks following went by without any news. My boss in London had been told that no news was good news in the lead up to the formal promotion announcements around 'bonus time' in February. During this time, I had discovered that I was pregnant, but informing work about it was something that I thought would best be left until after I had been told news of my promotion, one way or the other.
In the week of 'bonus day' in early February, we had a somewhat unforeseen turn of events. Three people in our US team were made redundant. Two days after redundancies had occurred, we were still getting used to our dramatically-reduced team and the knowledge that the work that had suddenly been left behind would have to be redistributed among us immediately. That afternoon, one of the two remaining Directors in our team called each of us in to an office one by one to give us our bonus messages. I was called last, which I wasn't expecting as I thought that my boss in London would be the one to deliver my message. However, as I was now a US employee, my message was driven from HR in the US.
I was immediately told that I had been successful in my promotion and was now a VP. As much as the huge wave of immense relief swept through me, I couldn't help the bitter sweet feeling I had about that week, which had seen three people lose their jobs. Also, the fact that I was still concealing my pregnancy made me feel a bit guilty, which was silly. It was just unfortunate timing. I had been advised that although the US has minimal employment laws, one of the laws that the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission did have was The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which forbids discrimination based on pregnancy when it comes to any aspect of employment, so for this reason, the likelihood of me being let go after my promotion was, luckily, non-existent.
I wanted to be able to tell my team in London about my pregnancy in person, which meant that I should really tell my ultimate boss in NYC prior to my London trip at the end of February. I decided that I would tell him the news the day before I left for London, which would also be the day of my anatomy sonogram, and enough time for the dust to have settled following the redundancies.
When the day came, I went and asked if I could speak with him for five minutes. He waved me in and I began telling him that I had some news. I think he actually thought I was resigning, as when I told him I was 'with child', he looked almost relieved! I started telling him that it was a huge surprise for Mark and I, probably going in to a bit more detail than I needed to! I told him that I'd be off from around the end of July for about six months, but jokingly said that the good thing was that if I was in London, I'd be off for the whole year. I told him that I was committed to my job and would be making sure that things would flow smoothly in my absence. He congratulated me and we had good chat, so much to my relief, it had all gone well!
I had been very lucky with my move to NYC. Having gone to my boss in London on my return from honeymoon to let him know that Mark and I intended on moving to NYC later in the year, with the intention of giving him ample time to find someone to replace me, I wasn't quite certain what the reaction would be. Fortunately, he immediately asked if I'd like to transfer with the team and work out of the NYC office, to which I replied a definitive, "Yes!", and he set about organising the transfer for me.
It was a relatively painless process, apart from the employment lawyers at work leaving the visa application process to the eleventh hour prior to our scheduled move date, and the additional laborious task of having to line up for hours at the US Embassy in Mayfair. However, the visa process itself was very straightforward. The L1 visa that I was being transferred under is an employer-sponsored visa for employees who have been with the company for more than two years. It is initially granted for a 2 year period, which can then be extended for another three and, if the employer is a well-known company, is merely a formality. Although our move to NYC and the shipment of our belongings both to NYC and back to Australia was going to be a small financial burden on Concep, at least the cost of my visa was something that had been taken care of by my work. Plus, the relief of me having a job to go to upon our arrival in the US meant that we had one less thing to worry about.
The move to NYC provided me with another dimension and opportunity to take advantage of in my career, with a significant number of the Commodities stakeholders being based in the US. I knew that the promotion process was already underway, and was nervously anticipating the interview that would be scheduled between myself and my promotion 'sponsor', who would be a Director or, more likely, an MD at the company. I finally heard from my promotion sponsor, and our meeting was set for early the following week. On the day of the planned meeting, I hadn't heard from him to confirm a time as planned and assumed that he was too busy to meet that day and would have to reschedule. However, he contacted me mid-afternoon to confirm the interview and check whether I would be right to pop up to his office in an hour's time. I quickly revised my notes and soon made my way up.
He immediately put me at ease and, refreshingly, conducted our meeting as more of a discussion rather than an interview. This both comforted and concerned me, as I wasn't quite sure whether we would have covered enough ground for him to be armed with adequate ammunition in order to fight my corner in the Promotion Committee meeting that was being held in mid December. Nonetheless, I had to trust that the interview had gone as well as it could have and that I had done my best to impress.
The weeks following went by without any news. My boss in London had been told that no news was good news in the lead up to the formal promotion announcements around 'bonus time' in February. During this time, I had discovered that I was pregnant, but informing work about it was something that I thought would best be left until after I had been told news of my promotion, one way or the other.
In the week of 'bonus day' in early February, we had a somewhat unforeseen turn of events. Three people in our US team were made redundant. Two days after redundancies had occurred, we were still getting used to our dramatically-reduced team and the knowledge that the work that had suddenly been left behind would have to be redistributed among us immediately. That afternoon, one of the two remaining Directors in our team called each of us in to an office one by one to give us our bonus messages. I was called last, which I wasn't expecting as I thought that my boss in London would be the one to deliver my message. However, as I was now a US employee, my message was driven from HR in the US.
I was immediately told that I had been successful in my promotion and was now a VP. As much as the huge wave of immense relief swept through me, I couldn't help the bitter sweet feeling I had about that week, which had seen three people lose their jobs. Also, the fact that I was still concealing my pregnancy made me feel a bit guilty, which was silly. It was just unfortunate timing. I had been advised that although the US has minimal employment laws, one of the laws that the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission did have was The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which forbids discrimination based on pregnancy when it comes to any aspect of employment, so for this reason, the likelihood of me being let go after my promotion was, luckily, non-existent.
I wanted to be able to tell my team in London about my pregnancy in person, which meant that I should really tell my ultimate boss in NYC prior to my London trip at the end of February. I decided that I would tell him the news the day before I left for London, which would also be the day of my anatomy sonogram, and enough time for the dust to have settled following the redundancies.
When the day came, I went and asked if I could speak with him for five minutes. He waved me in and I began telling him that I had some news. I think he actually thought I was resigning, as when I told him I was 'with child', he looked almost relieved! I started telling him that it was a huge surprise for Mark and I, probably going in to a bit more detail than I needed to! I told him that I'd be off from around the end of July for about six months, but jokingly said that the good thing was that if I was in London, I'd be off for the whole year. I told him that I was committed to my job and would be making sure that things would flow smoothly in my absence. He congratulated me and we had good chat, so much to my relief, it had all gone well!
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