Her Story
About Lillian
I have been working in benefits consulting for over 21 years, and I still love what I do. I consult with medium and large employers on their health and welfare benefits, helping them with their short-term and long-term benefit strategies. My work involves financial modeling, particularly when clients have mergers and acquisitions, and I'm very heavily involved in looking at innovative solutions in the market that can help them reach their objectives, whether that's retaining and attracting employees or mitigating costs. I also help them with carrier selection. What drew me to this field was that it was a good fit for my analytical skills, and in consulting, you have to be able to interpret a lot of data and make recommendations with clients, so I get to use both parts of my brain. After spending 20 years at one firm, I recently moved to our largest competitor about 4 months ago, which has given me exposure to working with much larger, jumbo-sized employers and learning different approaches to the work. It's a very dynamic environment that's constantly changing, which keeps it fulfilling. I get excited in the morning waking up thinking about what I need to accomplish, and it doesn't feel like work because I love what I do.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lillian
01What do you attribute your success to?
I was lucky to land in an industry that took advantage of my strengths. I was surrounded by some of the most brilliant people who I really looked up to, and I love what I do. I still love what I do after 20-something years. I think that's the biggest success factor - if you love what you do, you'll be good at it. And I was lucky to have found that very early on. I get excited in the morning waking up, thinking about what I need to do, and it doesn't feel like work.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
In the beginning, try to absorb as much as possible from your peers, as well as from consultants who have been doing this a while. It is a bit of a grind for the first years - it's definitely a grind. We used to work crazy hours, and now it's not as bad. I kind of grew up in the industry, but it's hard to see the end game when you're trying to absorb and learn as much as possible. I'm still 20-something years into it and I still love my career. It's a very dynamic environment that's constantly changing and fulfilling in that way, but it can be more challenging and difficult when you don't necessarily see the end game and you're just in the grind at the beginning. So I would just say try to learn as much as possible and focus on that, rather than worrying about where am I going to end up later on.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think being able to prioritize and do what you want is most important. For me, family was really important, and I was able to spend valuable time with my kids rather than just any time. They knew mommy has to work during the day, so it was about finding that balance. I value the balance between work and family. I wasn't willing to give up either - I wanted to raise my kids while also having a very fulfilling career. I think it's definitely something that can be done, and you learn to work around things. I set expectations early on, like when my kids were young, I told people that between 4:30 and 8, you're not going to be able to really reach me - you can reach me after 8 or before 4:30, but between those hours, they're really my family time. And people were very respectful of that.
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