Wisconsin Women in Government kicked off its professional development series with a panel discussion Thursday, in which three women spoke on how they overcome challenges in the workplace.

The panel included Dr. Cathy Sandeen, Chancellor of University of Wisconsin Colleges and UW-Extension; Jennifer Collins, Executive Director of the Madison Library Foundation; and Liz Eversoll, founder and CEO of SOLOMO Technology, Inc.

Sandeen said like many others in the room, she too is a first generation college graduate.

 “My dad used to say, ‘it’s okay for the girls to waste their time in college, they’re just going to get married anyway,’” Sandeen said.

Without higher education, Sandeen said her life would be very different. She said her advice to women was to take risks. Many women might have talked themselves out of some of the jobs Sandeen has applied for, she said.

Collins said her biggest takeaway from the last twenty years is the way other women have empowered her.

“Every single one of my bosses in those last twenty years has been a woman,” she said. “And almost always, I had a great female mentor.”

Collins noted the difficulty of being a working mother, though she said she never felt like she sacrificed anything or missed a step in her career.

“There are times when I chose jobs that made less money and had less hours because that’s what I needed to do to be there for my family when I needed to be there,” Collins said.

Eversoll encouraged women to create opportunities for themselves.

The only job she ever applied for was her first job out of college. Every job she had after that was a job that she created, she said. She worked with a management team to tailor a proposal and pitch it.

“Whether you’re in a small organization or a large organization, you can create your own opportunities,” Eversoll said. “You’re going to hear no a lot, but no doesn’t really mean no. It just means you don’t have the right people on board or your data’s not right or you haven’t pitched it quite right.”

Despite their different fields, the women said they had encountered similar challenges, such as those faced when entering the workforce.

Women are hired for their experience and men are hired for their potential, Sandeen said.

One way to address that problem is to do what many men do: network, the panelists said. Make time to do it, Eversoll said, as it is not going to happen on its own.

Eversoll also encouraged women in college to start networking early. Today, networking is easier than ever due to LinkedIn and other social media outlets, she said.

Second, don’t underestimate the book club, Collins said.

“The book club can do wonders for your networking world,” she said. “It’s very hard for me to be everywhere and do everything, so I have to find ways to make them work together in order to make networking part of my life.”