CAREER GROOVES DOING IT FOR OURSELVES Success Stories of African-American Women in Business By Donna Ballard Berkley Books 150pp $12 As BUSINESS WEEK's Wall Street reporter for the past five years, I've interviewed thousands of bankers, traders, brokers, and analysts. But I can recall only two African-American women among them. Despite executives' stated desire to make Wall Street look more like America, it still looks a lot like Greenwich, Conn. Donna Ballard, a former bond analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co., wrote Doing It for Ourselves to try to change that. As she says, Ballard believes that if young black women knew more about careers in finance, they would seek them out. She set out to introduce readers to successful black women, explain how they landed their jobs, and describe their work. Ballard partially succeeds. She has compiled two dozen upbeat interviews with the Street's handful of black women and others from publishing, fashion, and entertainment. A few are accomplished veterans, while some are twenty- and thirtysomethings whose career advice must be taken with a grain of salt. Yet all provide inspiring examples of perseverance. Take Benita Pierce, who rose from selling bonds at a New York bank to heading her own small securities firm. She describes how, during an apprenticeship at the bank, she first encountered and felt drawn to the adrenaline rush of the trading floor. In time, Pierce talked her way out of being made a clerk and into getting a phone, a desk, and a few accounts, which launched her sales career. Another subject is Karen Gibbs, an anchor at CNBC who covers money markets. Her childhood curiosity about coins and how prices change led in time to a major in economics at Roosevelt University. ''I love money--always have,'' she says. For her first job as a part-time board marker at the Chicago Board of Trade in 1976, she walked a catwalk above the trading floor to chalk in price changes on a blackboard. Next came a stint at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. as a commodities analyst. One of the most impressive stories is that of Toni Banks, a 56-year-old grandmother who works for BUSINESS WEEK's parent, The McGraw-Hill Companies. After dropping out of high school in the 11th grade, her love of books got her jobs in several New York bookstores. Over time, she worked her way up from a job as switchboard operator at the McGraw-Hill Bookstore to that of an account executive selling textbooks. Ballard does a good job of showing readers a snippet of women's lives at places from J.P. Morgan & Co. to Merrill Lynch to the Teacher's Insurance Annuity Assn., a large pension fund. She provides a close-up view of the hectic pace, affluence, and sacrifice of the fast track. But Ballard misuses words and employs too much finance jargon, such as ''fixed income'' and ''hedge funds.'' A two-page, double-spaced glossary provides young readers with little help. Nor does the author probe enough. Only a few women satisfactorily explain what they actually do or how they really got their jobs. All the same, the book should give young black women a few contacts and some much-needed encouragement. By LEAH NATHANS SPIRO RELATED ITEMS PHOTO: Cover, ''Doing It For Ourselves'' Return to top of story

Updated June 15, 1997 by bwwebmaster
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