For her, finding sponsors has been pivotal in helping her advance, both to understand the professional landscape and the unwritten rules. Johnson started in a different career path than most of her counterparts in the consulting world; she began at a family-owned business in the financial services industry where she examined trading by company executives and wrote articles for mutual fund companies. She decided to earn her MBA—working full-time, while pursuing classwork part-time on the evenings and weekends.
While participating in on-campus recruiting, she interviewed with an investment firm in Baltimore for an investment banking role and started as an Associate, only to find out a month later the group was being sold. Johnson was getting married at the time so she took a pause to reflect on what she wanted in her future career.
She had also been intrigued by their reputation among her peers and in the media, such as in Working Mother magazine, as a place where she could enjoy a challenging work environment, but also be able to carve out the time she needed to start a family. Johnson joined a Big 4 firm in and worked there until August , appreciating the flexibility they offered her—first working remotely from California while her husband completed a graduate degree; then working from home most of the week when her first child was born; and finally offering her a transfer to the London office to accompany her husband who had been offered an opportunity there—a stint that was supposed to be a year and ended up being more than five.
When they moved back, she and her husband decided it was best for the family to focus on her career, and he became the primary parent. Johnson was looking for a firm that was supportive of developing people like her into partners, and the recruiter who had hired her at her prior firm was then at PwC so she pursued an offer there. They moved to New York for two years and then returned to Washington D.
As one of the senior women in her practice group, she is proud to take part in diversity and inclusion initiatives that help promote the idea that it is possible to have both a successful career and family, especially as an underrepresented, minority woman.
