It’s the question every magazine headline screams at working women – can you truly have it all?  And Amanda Murphy, Head of Corporate Banking, UK Commercial Banking for HSBC and working mum, added her comment to the debate with a resounding “No!” when she appeared at the Women In International Business Conference that Forward Ladies hosted as part of Liverpool’s International Festival for Business Conference!

Amanda was the headline speaker in a day which celebrated women from a diverse range of backgrounds working and working in international business. And it was a theme which continued through the day from other key speakers.  All agreed there is a compromise – but you have to find what’s right for you.

1. Don’t try to do it all from scratch – For Amanda, while she may not miss parents evening, the cakes for school fairs and parties are bought in the supermarket, unpacked and put into a Tupperware box! However, it’s true to say that women still do 80 percent of the household activities but – we do less than our mothers did in the home and our husbands do more than their fathers did.
2. Communicate what you want – be clear, confident and able to articulate what you want and where you want to go.
3. Network until you’ve established your support community – these relationships will help you in developing our network even further. Don’t underestimate their reach.
4. Create balance – The trick is to create balance – ask for help and get others to support us – including the children, who will respond if we ask them to.
5. Go for challenging roles – The difference between men and women in recruitment is also an eye-opener, according to Amanda. Men looking for a job will see that they can do four or five of the tasks required will say “I’m in” while women will see one of the ten tasks they can’t do and will say “I’m out”.
6. Take ownership – Men also “own” their achievements, while women tend to share the glory by saying what we” achieved.
7. Be comfortable with who you are – Yet because we are a tad more emotional, we run from it – but it’s the passion which makes us great and we should make use of it.
8. Find both a mentor and a sponsor – a mentor who will talk to us and help us learn and to push us to be better, while a sponsor will talk about us to others.
9. And never forget the work ethic – it’s the entry ticket to making it in business!
10. Be Resilient – When you facing failure, learn from it and building on the experience.

About Amanda Muphy

Amanda Murphy joined HSBC in 1995 on the Bank’s Graduate Training Programme. Her first role at the Golders’ Green retail branch in London encompassed everything from lending to local businesses, helping customers buy their first homes, to cashiering at the till.  Since then Amanda has worked in many areas of HSBC’s Global business including as a Relationship Director in the UK, Canada and Dubai for Corporate Banking, a Senior Risk Manager in Hong Kong, and within our Group Learning and Development Department. Having enjoyed assignments all over the world, in 2011 Amanda took on the role as Head of Commercial Banking in Indonesia, a fast-growing and exciting emerging market, where she led the business to double digit sustainable growth for 3 consecutive years. In October 2013 Amanda returned to the UK to lead the Group’s largest Business Banking segment, before taking on the role of Head of Corporate Banking for the UK in November 2014.

Amanda has an LLB from The Queen’s University and an MBA from Warwick University. She is also ACIB qualified. Married with three young children, Amanda looks forward to time with her family, friends and dogs. Her interests include golf, the theatre and travelling; and whenever the opportunity presents itself, she and her family enjoy returning to the family home in Dublin.