I Used To Be A Chemical Engineer And Now I'm A Career Adviser

Helene Lollis teaches women to climb the corporate ladder.

by Julie Washburn Souza

January 1, 2008

F ive years ago when the company Helene Lollis had worked for since college closed its Atlanta location and relocated to Chicago, she was left with a tough choice. She had a wonderful, rewarding job she enjoyed, but unlike most of her co-workers who made the move, Lollis decided to leave the career she loved and stay in Atlanta. Lollis holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering and worked for Amoco, which later became BP-Amoco, in its development and processing of polypropylene, a plastic used in products from car doors to food packaging. Along with the technical work, she also had moved into marketing and merger acquisitions with the company.“It was a great job, and it was very hard to turn down going to Chicago,” Lollis says.

But both Lollis and her husband grew up in the Southeast, and when they moved in 1994 from Chicago to Atlanta for her job, they felt like they were home. “We fell in love with Atlanta,” she says. “We sold our snowblower when we left Chicago, and I had no desire to go back and have to buy another.” Lollis is not a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants type of woman. Even though she left BP with no plan, no job and no solid prospects, she says she knew she would land in a good place – she just didn’t know where.

“I may have been cocky or ignorant, but I wasn’t scared. I was sure my skills were very marketable, and I was excited about trying something else. At that point, I had no idea that I would be buying a small business.” Lollis left BP amicably with a year’s salary to give her time to find another job. At first, she says, she took some time off to do some home improvement projects and volunteer work, but after six months she was bored and ready to re-enter the work force. Lollis loved being an engineer, but she also had discovered she had talent in the communications field. She enjoyed marketing the plastic products she helped develop. And, when BP acquired Amoco, she helped to facilitate the change and found she also enjoyed merger-acquisition work. In her next job, she wanted a chance to use her communication skills as well as her engineering expertise.

Lollis was toying with the idea of starting her own consulting firm to help big companies acquire other companies when by chance she came across another opportunity. In 2002, she and two friends, Monica Anschel and Yvonne Taylor, became partners and decided to buy a company whose mission is to help women take control of their career paths. They renamed the business Pathbuilders Inc.

“The company wasn’t in very good shape when we came in, but there was so much potential there. We were driven by passion and a desire to help other women. Within the first two years we had doubled our revenue,” Lollis says.

Pathbuilders works with high-potential executive women to determine the trajectory of their careers. Through executive education, peer exchange and structured mentoring, the firm teaches women to manage their careers and ultimately take control of their destinies. As president of Pathbuilders, Lollis helps companies develop high impact female leaders by working with them to determine the trajectory of their careers. Through executive education, peer exchange and structured mentoring, the company helps teach women to manage their careers – from the entry level all the way through to senior management – and ultimately take control of their professional destinies. The company provides training programs and mentors to help the women learn what it takes to advance. Mentors are often graduates of the programs themselves who have come back to advise other women. In addition, she works with companies to develop gender diversity in senior-level management.

As a chemical engineer, Lollis knew the challenges of being a woman in a traditionally male-driven field. She could identify with the women who came to her for help. “My background helped set the stage for my career today. As a chemical engineer, I was accustomed to being the only woman in the room.” Lollis’ clients include Coca-Cola Enterprises, The Home Depot, Southern Company, and ING Financial Services. In addition to helping train these executive women, Lollis provides advisory services to help the corporations create environments in which women can move forward more easily.

“We’re helping both companies and women succeed. We feel that we are supplying the building blocks to help build paths for women. It is incredibly rewarding work,” Lollis says. To many observers, Lollis says, her career change seems drastic, but she thinks being a consultant isn’t that much different from being a chemical engineer. “Consultants solve problems, and as engineers, that’s what we were trained to do as well.”

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5 Tips To Managing Your Career
• Build and maintain a strong network before you need one, both within and outside of your organization.

• Create a personal profile with key accomplishments and the impact they had on your organization.

• Know yourself, your unique talents, and how to communicate that information to others.

• Project a positive attitude, in spite of any difficulties you encounter.

• Times of change are times of opportunity — identify ways to contribute where your unique talents align well with organizational needs.