Judy C.Lewent was appointed Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer(CFO) of the drug giant Merck in 1990.This appointment grabbed headlines in the United States as she had become one of the few women to hold a top financial post in a major U.S corporation.A look at her career path is informative and helpful to people who seek to pursue their own careers.
Lewent showed an interest in finance at an early age.As a seven year old girl,she would sit on her grandpa’s lap to read the business pages of the local newspapers.She grew up in Manhattan where her mother worked as an accountant while her father was a shipping executive who treated her as an “intellectual peer.”After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1970,Lewent obtained a master’s degree in finance from the Sloan School of Management at the famed Masacheussets Institute of Technology in 1972.she decided to pursue the graduate degree as a number of jobs she held while in college convinced that she needed this degree to be viewed seriously in the corporate world.
After receiving her master’s degree,she became an associate in the corporate finance office of E.F.Hutton.In 1974,she took up a post at Banker’s Trust as an assistant Vice President before moving to Pfizer as controller of the Roering division.In 1980 she accepted an invitation to join the laboratory division at Merck,Sharp and Dahme( the forerunner of Merck),where she first held the post of director of acquisition and analysis.she would later serve as assistant controller,laboratory division (1983),Corporate Executive Director in charge of Financial Evaluations and Analysis(1985),and finally Corporate Vice President and treasurer(1987),the post that she held before her appointment as CFO.While assigned to the laboratory division,she made an acquaintance with and eventually worked for the division’s director,P.Ray Vagelos,who would later become Chairman and CEO at Merck.Lewent referred to Vagelos as her mentor and stated that without his assistance,she would never have been appointed to her post.Vagelos simply said that at the time Lewent was the best candidate for the job.
In describing herself,Lewent said that she was an intense,aggressive and hard charging person.As CFO,Lewent oversaw all financial matters in Merck,including the handling of US$1 Billion in cash and short term investments and US$1 Billion in pension funds.
As Lewent’s career path illustrates,a career is a sequence of work related activities and experiences that cover the course of a person’s life.This definition recognizes that a career develops over time,encompasses objective conditions such as particular job duties and levels of responsibility and also includes subjective reactions such as enthusiasm and boredom.The subjective assessment of career aspects is particularly important as it is the individual who ultimately judges the success of a career.While success is sometimes measured in terms of advancement,(as in the illustration of Judy Lewent),career specialists also emphasize that individuals must set their own parameters for success and that such criteria can be far ranging such as pay,adventure,working in new areas or helping others.
Regardless of the criteria,one noted career expert argues that the crucial element in an individual’s career is experiencing psychological success,which is all about feeling a sense of personal accomplishment and fulfillment.Psychological success energizes our efforts and gives us the drive to undertake the new challenges that foster our development over time.In order to establish a career that embraces the enhancement of skills and the growth likely to be associated with psychological success,individuals need to engage in career management.
Career management is the continuing process of setting career goals,formulating and implementing strategies for reaching the goals,and monitoring the results.Failure to engage in career management causes individuals to leave the development of their careers virtually to chance.This is a risky proposition.
