Rosie Saez, senior vice president and Leadership Practices Group director for Wachovia, started out a community activist and has been with the bank for nearly two decades. Wachovia is No. 11 in The 2007 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^®.

Get more advice from Saez and other successful women in the upcoming March 2008 issue of DiversityInc magazine, all about "women we love."

Here are Saez's six tips for professionals at all stages of their careers, especially young people just starting out, which you can listen to by clicking the audio icons below:

1. Get grounded. It can be tough adapting to a professional environment when you first graduate from college. Saez, who was a Vietnam War--era student and passionate about issues of justice and equality, remembers being a "rebel rouser." She leveraged her early career in nonprofit work to get grounded in her personal and professional identity, and by the time Saez entered corporate America, she had learned how to set, implement and execute strategy to achieve the change she desired and make sure she was heard. 

Click the audio icon to listen to her story.

2. Take risks. You've got to be willing to take stretch assignments and try new things to accelerate your career. Saez took job opportunities even when she had no idea what her responsibilities were or how she would fulfill them because she knew they would help her get to the next level. Be willing to learn and be open-minded. Get feedback from trusted advisers. That's what Saez did when she left the nonprofit realm after 17 years to work in non-exempt recruiting. When a bank merger later eliminated her job, she took a position in community development even though she had no experience in that area.   

Click the audio icon to find out why this move was so important.

3. Develop transferable skills. If you have transferable skills, you can go anywhere. Specialize in specific areas of the business and be a generalist so you have your hands in everything but are the go-to person for key projects. It took a while for Saez to understand that she retained her skills even if she lost her job, but it helped her build an enormous sense of confidence. What are some of the most important skills to develop?

Click the audio icon to listen to Saez tell you about them.

4. Build relationships, find allies. This is especially crucial when you're entering a profession and you're the lone woman of color in the room, which Saez experienced when she first entered the banking industry. She was the only Latina in her department and supported all white men, who ran all the major business functions, in a staffing function. How did she handle the isolation and eventually break into their network?

Click the audio icon to hear her talk about the experience and how she made it work.

5. Be patient. It takes time to get your message across, especially for women of color, who often are perceived as having an agenda in favor of their race or gender when they speak up. Saez says you have to calculate how you communicate and tailor your approach to the people around you in order to get heard effectively. Stand up for yourself and pick your battles, but remember that not everyone moves at the same pace.

Click the audio icon to hear Saez talk about one of her most crucial career lessons.         

6. Mentor. Create meaning in your work and in the work of others. When you're one of a few Latina or Black-female role models, everyone looks up to you to know how to make it. Saez didn't realize how important this was before she started moving up the corporate ladder, but now she even has an anagram she uses to remind herself: PRINT.

Click the audio icon to find out what it means and why it's so important.

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Readers' Comments

Posted: Thursday, Oct 09, 2008 Want to Get Promoted? Listen to 6 Career Tips From a Latina Exec this is just what i needed to read to motivate myself to learn more and make myself more aware of what i need to do to get ahead and reach goals. thank you MARIA PEREZ