Facebook VP Carolyn Everson on Motherhood & Career (VIDEO)
Mom of 9-year-old twins helping to lead fast-growing Facebook says integrating your career and family life is easier than separating them
Carolyn Everson is a busy woman.
Not only is Everson working as Facebook’s Vice President of Global Marketing Solution, but she’s a mom to twin 9-year-old girls, as well. So how does she juggle everything?
“I think the most important thing is to know what your priorities are,” Everson says.
Watch Carolyn Everson talk about how she melds motherhood and career:
When Everson introduces herself at conferences or other large work-related events, she identifies herself as a mother first, Facebook executive second, “which is a really unusual thing for somebody to say in business.”
Watch Carolyn Everson on How Facebook Can Help Small Businesses
Everson’s work life gives her family experiences they may otherwise not have had. For example, each quarter she brings her family on work trips with her; while she’s working during the day, her husband takes the kids on tours. They often eat dinner together, even if it is a working dinner.
Everson believes a working mother can be an incredible role model to her daughters or her sons. “I say mommy works because we need to pay the mortgage … I am trying to instill a work ethic in the kids that hopefuly will last a lifetime.”
One of the best pieces of advice Everson ever received as to how to support motherhood and career came from Wendy Clark, senior vice president of marketing at Coca-Cola. “She said, ‘It’s not about work-life balance, it’s about work-life integration.’ She said, ‘Think about how your family can be part of your job, and vice versa, as opposed to trying to divide everything up,’” Everson says. “And it was really great advice.”
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These are one expert’s views on the news. Share with us your thoughts in the comments box below.
Category: Career, Career Development, Videos
Who are you kidding? "trying" to have dinner with your kids twice a week is hardly having it all. If your family was your priority, you would work late 2 days and have dinner with your kids the other 5 days. And as a surgeon, how would you recommend "integrating" my children into my work environment? you take your kids to school (sometimes) but who is there when they get home to listen to their opinions and thoughts about their day to day immediate life? It sounds like your husband is the primary caregiver for your children, which is fine. Just don't spout that you have your cake and eat it too . …. from mother of two.