Archive for 'Career'

Our Lack of Self-Confidence is the Elephant in The Room.

Wherever you look these days, it’s all about the empowerment of women and girls. The global movement supporting and encouraging women to take leadership roles, to excel in the traditionally male-dominated industries as well as the access girls have to becoming scientists and engineers, is creating incredible and extraordinary changes for women everywhere.

Yet, it does appear as if the world is holding its collective breath. It seems to watch and wait to see what happens next before declaring that yes, women have made it. Unfortunately, the issue of self-confidence or rather the lack of it, continues to be the elephant in the room for many of us.

Destructive repetitive paralysis

By buying into our own limiting beliefs (that we are not good enough, no one will listen to us, we are not worth it and other negative statements of the same type) we habitually and unintentionally stand in our own way to success. We get stuck in the cycle of destructive repetitive paralysis; the cycle that disempowers us in moving forward because we lack confidence in our abilities and in ourselves.

And many of us insist on going it alone. Rather than reaching out to other women and asking for help to dislodge the paralysis and support us, we tend to retreat and try to figure it out by ourselves. It’s such a painful and debilitating cycle, it’s no wonder we end up losing any shred of self-confidence we possess. I believe removing the elephant from the room is the answer, and to do so we must connect with other women: encouraging each other whilst encouraging ourselves, as well as promoting and advocating positive female role models.

Female conversations and connections are captivating and unique to women. Our discussions are full of profound passion and inspiration; we identify with each other’s experiences; we sense a familiarity in stories that are shared; we celebrate the resilience and strength we see in each other. We have the power to nurture and motivate one another to become brilliant. In this type of environment, where we are supported and supporting each other, our self-confidence is unshakeable.

The elephant leaves the room.

 

 

The complexity of corporate cultural fit

Hi Dorothy – I have recently been turned down for a senior global business development position where I was one of the final 2 candidates who went through a rigorous process, including testing and pursuit of references. I asked for feedback from the headhunter who told me that it was about minimal skill set differences between candidates which finally counted, but she also referenced a better cultural fit. The position involved international relocation so there was a discussion about possible family repatriation, including the requirement of school fees in the package. I have been divorced 3 times, but had children with my third husband. He is a headmaster, so the kids are with him Monday to Friday, because they attend his school. Although nothing was said, I just sensed when we were discussing this part of the process with the VP HR (female), a certain coolness setting in and change in attitude and that I was discriminated against because of my personal circumstances. My sector is not huge and I found out afterwards that even though I have more experience, the successful candidate was male, married, with a family. This would never happen to a man . Angelina

Hi Angelina – thanks for your mail. This is indeed complex.

Corporate culture and cultural fit is hard to define and varies from one organisation to another. It involves clearly stated organisational values, very often found in their web site mission statements. But perhaps more significantly, it  also touches upon an infinite number of intangibles and unwritten value codes which are hard to pin point and decipher.  Hiring managers are human beings with a range of personal opinions and values, which even subconsciously impact the hiring process. One person’s confident is another’s arrogant. Leadership, decision- making and communication styles, as well conflict resolution skills all come under the microscope. Age demographics play a role as do religious and cultural perceptions. Sometimes these can be superficially ascertained by researching the senior management and whoever is involved in the hiring process. What do people say about them in your network which you mention is not huge? Do they leave any clues via professional online profiles or other social media or in the press?  Why did you think the fit would be good?

On one point I would tend to agree is that men whose ex wives have custody of their children Monday-Friday would not generally be perceived in a negative way. In fact this might even be seen as an asset. I have also been involved in expatriate transfers where accommodation for child visits in the school vacations has been factored in because of budgetary impact (flights, larger housing etc) either for a single man transferring, or with a new family.  It is also very common for children to go to boarding schools in their passport country to avoid disruption to their academic progress.

Whether discrimination happened in your case as a mother who was willing to relocate, it’s impossible to say. If your sector is quite small, your personal circumstances might be public knowledge,  or perhaps you declared them openly as you did to me. The fact you weren’t cut earlier in what seems to have been a thorough and therefore expensive process, would suggest they may not have been critical factors.  I have known male candidates with multiple divorces rejected because of the personal values of the hiring managers.   They were family run and owned business

Expatriate
Expatriate appointments are never straightforward. Some companies prefer to re-locate single people because of cost and also because the success of the transfer might hinge on the partner and children relocating successfully. This is especially true where high levels of employee travel are involved, leaving the family isolated in a new country. Others favour family units which they perceive rightly or wrongly, to provide an anchor for the transition.

Testing
If you haven’t already received it, most companies will give more detailed de-briefing from any testing procedures carried out. This might provide some useful insights as to what type of organisation you should be targeting your next application. It might also be a useful investment to go through a testing process yourself (MBTI for example) that may also provide some answers for the future.

I would focus more on not on what didn’t work in this particular instance – but what strategy do I need to move forward to be successful next time.

Good luck!

Learn to Be a Woman Who Toots Her Own Horn

So: women don’t talk about their achievements. They don’t get noticed. Climb the ladder to the C-suite. They have internal barriers of all sorts that cause them not to be a woman who toots her own horn enough. Hmmmm…

Rather ironically – since I play a euphonium in the town band – me too. Or rather that was me too, until I created a strategy that simultaneously leap-frogs over the barriers and acknowledges and works with them.

Why Not?

The two big barriers for most of us seem to be fear and embarrassment. Fear – that we will look like braggarts and be cut down to size by those with whom we live and work. Embarrassment – well, that speaks for itself.

What Would Your Mother Say?

So what do I do?

I brag.

Like my mother does about her children. Like I do about my own daughter. I think about how Mum wants the world to know how her daughter is creating, doing, being, and I tell everyone who needs to know.

I do it with joy, with abandon, with the knowledge that this makes a difference to how I see myself and how others see me. I do it to model the behaviour to other women and, I hope, encourage them to copy it in their own lives. Not gratuitously to stoke our egos, but to achieve balance. Something this world needs badly.

I pay attention to the emotional response I’m getting. I articulate what I am doing, and why. It gets a strong reaction. Often denial and dismissal, sometimes anger, but mainly recognition.

I also brag about the accomplishments of the women in my life. Behind their backs. In front of them. I detail their skills, their talents and their wonderful personality traits. I talk up the successes they have had and the projects and endeavours in which they are engaged.

Talk about embarrassment! Not mine – theirs. But I persevere. They get used to it. And most of them come to like it… They also tend to accept my version of me.

So – be your own mother, be a woman who toots her own horn, climb the ladder and be a difference in the world!

 

Vicki Alstine aka @BubbleOffCentre works as a freelance editor and can also be found behind the scenes at 3PlusInternational where she researches and tweets terrific articles of interest to professional women.

 

 

How Do YOU Spell Success?

Allow me to think inside the box.

Because sometimes, having too many choices and seeing too many possibilities can leave us feeling empty and unhappy. Since using peripheral vision and being aware of ‘so much more’ is a signature female trait, we often question ourselves, “What if I should know better/do better? Am I missing something”? I have asked myself this question many times when thinking about the topic of success.

My husband was raised in a strict Christian household, and comparing myself to him and his value system I often felt like ‘the rebel’ and gave myself the nickname grace hog. Why grace hog? I like achievements. I like to work long hours to complete projects and then feel good about what I have done. Conversely, when I haven’t achieved anything in a few days I tend to become cranky and frustrated.

“Am I missing something?” Why do I give achievements such precedence in my life? Does celebrating my little successes not put me on the ‘too much pride’ spectrum instead of on the ‘walk by faith’ path (…that I should be on?). Not so.

As a matter of fact, success means different things to different people. And, as so often in life, there is no right or wrong, better or worse, there is just that… a difference. To illustrate it, I invite you into my box. The box, today, being the 16 personality types categorized according to the theories of Carl Jung and the personality assessment tool (MBTI) developed by the mother-daughter team Myers and Briggs, and their definitions of success. Have a look:

ISTJ – The Duty Fulfillers – An ISTJ’s feeling of success depends upon being able to use her experience for the benefit of an institution, and also upon the level of structure and lack of chaos in her life, and in the health and welfare of her family or other social structure.

ESTJ – The Guardians – An ESTJ may enjoy a sense of success if she is able to live her live within her defined system of principles, but her true and lasting success will come from the ability to create and sustain good and lasting principles, and thus to address all situations in her life adequately and consistently.

ISFJ – The Nurturers – Success for an ISFJ means being able to fulfill a role providing value for others and ordering her world in a way in which safety and security is balanced against a genuine respect for the aesthetic and positive qualities of life.

ESFJ – The Caregivers – The ESFJ is at her best when it involves caring for and about others, measuring her success by the happiness and gratitude which is reflected back to her from the people in whose lives she plays a part.

ISTP – The Mechanics – An ISTP’s feeling of success is dependent primarily upon her mastery of her physical world, but is also dependent upon the existence of strong, reliable, interpersonal relationships.

ESTP – The Doers – Success to an ESTP is usually not measured in ongoing terms, but in transient moments of achievement, moments which bring the ESTP the needed feeling of having won the day.

ESFP – The Performers – The successful ESFP will always be found where she can live in full and open engagement with people and able to express her talents, appreciations and joys before the world at large.

ISFP – The Artists – For the ISFP, personal success depends upon the condition of her closest relationships, her aesthetic environment and the development of her artistic creativity, her spiritual development, and how much she feels valued and accepted for her individual contributions.

ENTJ – The Executives – Success for an ENTJ is something that can be clearly seen, a real world result which can be measured. And whether measured in dollars, bricks, bread or just happy people, the successful ENTJ knows the result is due to her belief that it is just plain commonsense to try and make the best of every situation and get the most out if it for the most people.

INTJ – The Scientists – An INTJ’s feeling of success depends primarily upon her own level of understanding and accomplishment, but also depends upon the level of structure in her life, and her ability to respect the intelligence and competence of those who share her life.

ENTP – The Visionaries – ENTP people measure their success by their “aha” moments, by the sense of satisfaction which comes as they spread their newly written maps before them and contemplate the new adventure, design, investigation or conquest which has now become their road ahead.

INTP – The Thinkers – The INTP’s feeling of success depends upon her opportunities to exercise her active mind, her opportunities to seek and find Truth, and the condition of her relationships and extraverted life.

ENFJ – The Givers – Success for an ENFJ comes through involvement in the process of making things happen for people; through the accomplishments and satisfactions of those she has helped to enrich the human world with greater value, and through finding that her efforts on behalf of others have fulfilled her own life as well.

INFJ – The Protectors – The INFJ feels successful when she has used her very deep understanding of something to do a real service for someone.

ENFP – The Inspirers – An ENFP’s feeling of success depends upon the availability of opportunities to grow her understanding of the world, upon feeling that she is living true to her personal value system, and upon the condition of her closest relationships.

INFP – The Idealists – For the INFP, personal success depends upon the condition of her closest relationships, the development of her creative abilities, and the continual support of humanity by serving people in need, fighting against injustice, or in some other way working to make the world a better place to be.

You see? Just because Ms. Jones feels most successful doing a real service for someone else, doesn’t mean you have to feel about success her same way. And vice versa. Not right or wrong, just different.

What MBTI personality type are you (here is my short MBTI overview)? What is your definition of success? Have you ever felt guilty for being successful? Why?

Anna Smith is the community administrator at whatdoyouwantfromthem – the informal network for managers. You can connect with her on twitter @wdywft or via email anna@wdywft.com.

The Guilt Volcano: Why Women Need Women Mentors

 

Guilt: Only one of the many reason why women need women mentors

I picked up Alison Pearson’s book “I don’t know how she does it “, the other day, (half price at St. Pancras), which I had read years ago. In 2011, somewhat incredulously the main protagonist, a Yorkshire lass, turned London Hedge Fund Manager, has been transmuted by Hollywood into a role played by Sarah Jessica Parker, in a movie by the same name, which I have yet to see, but stretches the imagination somewhat.

All that aside, this novel depicts really well, the daily angst that most professional women with kids go through. Although hilarious in places, there are details that most of us who have any career aspirations can relate to. I had great employers when my kids were young, who were incredibly supportive.They were ahead of the game in terms of facilities for working mothers, even setting up remote access via a modem, which in those days was the size of a small building block.

But I too, have made a client presentation with baby vomit on the back of my business suit. I have looked into the wide eyes of my toddlers as I have left them to go to the office. I have deflected the raised eyebrow “oh..not again” looks, as I explain that my son has been in yet another accident requiring emergency treatment. I almost qualified for validated parking at the local hospital; such was the regularity of the visits. Don’t worry he made it to adulthood!

Career hard hat area

And this is only a tiny cross-section of the debris that falls upon the heads and shoulders of the working mother which starts off as plumes of hot air, but swiftly turns into ash clouds, rocks, and eventually molten lava spewing out of the guilt volcano to engulf them. What happens then? Well many, if they can afford to, opt out, but many can’t and hard choices are made within couples. If the mother is a single parent then the balancing act is even more fragile.

For many women this is the professional danger zone. The career hard hat area.

New initiatives

Many HR policies focus on the practical aspects of encouraging women to return to work which is clearly operationally necessary. But I was heartened to read that organisations such as Accenture, Asda (which has recently launched a Mum2Mum Programme) Goldman Sachs, Citi-Bank, Sky and others, are beginning to introduce mentoring programmes for expectant mothers, matched with more senior women, who are also mothers.

Unfortunately, these initiatives quite often stop within a year. What I would like to see is an extension of these programmes so that women mentor each other through this entire critical phase in life (which is indeed only a phase) which can last longer. This will contribute to stemming the leak in the female talent pipeline.

Women look for mentors generally amongst their peers, very often in the same situation as they are. The dearth of female senior managers can make it challenging for many to find one within their own organisations. Unhappily, it can be as difficult to persuade women to mentor other women; in the way it might be difficult to persuade the UK to enter the Euro, or Obama to mentor Palin.

Women need to mentor each other

But women need to start supporting each other at critical times. More senior women have to lose the ” Suck it up, I did it the hard way” attitude, or worse still, convey a message that not having a family is the only route to corporate success, sometimes failing to encourage junior women or even worse still (is that possible?)blocking them all together.

Women, men and organisations, should all be looking for new ways forward without the necessity of harsh compromises, where all parties are the ultimate losers.

3Plus is holding a Career Booster and Mini-Mentoring Event in New York on October 13th at the Starlight Loft, Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington, New York from 1800-20.30. CLICK HERE to register. Join us and have a great opportunity to seek career advice and mentoring from a panel of international business women. Also win a Personal Branding Package (value $1500) including a professional business photo taken on the night!

 

Get radical 2011 style

No, you don’t need to burn your bra, claim that you don’t need a man, or pump your fist in the air. The culture that necessitated those actions is long gone. In fact, it is so far gone that younger women don’t even understand it anymore. Behavior like that seems quaint and funny, like rotary dial telephones or cars with hand cranks. It’s 2011; we have much better models and don’t need those old things now. Women have made such enormous advances that some people don’t believe gender discrimination even exits. This is a compliment. The women who pumped their fists have torn down most of the outward barriers to women’s equality with men. They certainly made it possible for me to be a stock broker and I am grateful.

World Rulers

The problem is that men have dug in at their last position of defense and they are going to fight for that position with all that they are worth. What is the position they’re defending? It is their privileged social status.  “Urgg! you say, not that again.” Stay with me here.

In spite of all the gains women have made in most areas there is no question that men still rule the world. All you have to do is look who runs Wall Street (money) and who runs Washington (power) and you know that they do. There is no serious argument against that fact. You personally may not want to get into those games for the pure pleasure of it like men, but there are millions of women do. Moreover, those women are educated and qualified and there is no serious argument against that fact either.

Social Status

Here is the rub. Women have been banging on the doors of  Wall Street for three decades. There are a small percentage of women who succeed individually, it is true. Usually they have had some type of god-father or male protector who made sure other males didn’t run them out of the business or … they have stories like mine. However, for most women who have tried, working in the financial services industry in line positions found it was untenable.

The alleged Herculean efforts Wall Street firms have made to hire and keep women in their ranks have not worked. Their excuses are too detailed for this post, but basically, they all boil down to men’s defense of their privileged social position. Nothing is going to happen in these overwhelmingly male dominated areas until we get radical 2011 style.

Take Action

Now it is time we applied Title IX-like mentally to Wall Street firms by putting the onus on them to prove to us, the tax payers, that they don’t discriminate. Proof is 35% of senior positions being held by women.  And if they refuse, cities should not do business with them anymore. We can find smaller firms to bring our cities municipal bonds to market. Ladies, demand that your city council put their investment banking firms on notice or you’ll vote the city council out of office and put someone else in their seats who will.

Tameron Keyes is the author of No Backing Down, My Story of Suing One of The Largest Investment Firms in the World and Winning. She was a stock broker in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills for fourteen years. She now advocates for women’s equal status in the financial services industry. Follow Tameron on Twitter – @TameronNBD or visit her Facebook page – No Backing Down.

Beat graduate unemployment! Head to China

I recently left Britain to try my luck in China, knowing that my homeland will only benefit from having one unemployed graduate fewer. Three weeks ago, I came to Jinan, a city of 5million about 200 miles south of Beijing, to begin a teaching job. Before moving here, I was told by one expat that, “You cannot describe the Chinese way of doing business. You can only experience it.” It has certainly been an experience.

We Need Most of You

I work at a privately-owned chain of language schools, all run by a single manager. Companies here are very hierarchical: there are strict divisions between the staff and the management, and between the Chinese and foreign employees. Good manners are considered hugely important. There are days when I feel physically drained by the effort of being polite to so many people. My boss is very friendly, but there is no doubt that the business is his own personal fiefdom. At the first meeting of the semester, he gave a short speech about the code of conduct, ending with a rather downbeat pep talk for the teachers: ‘I hope you will be very happy here, because we need all of you…well, most of you’.

The Head of the Table

It was probably an empty threat, but in theory he has the power to withdraw all our work permits and force us out of the country. However, he seems quite fond of me, and refers to me as ‘beautiful Alice’ when introducing me to colleagues. He doesn’t mean anything inappropriate by it, but it makes me feel as if I have failed some sort of feminist initiative test. At work dinners, which are common and quite formal, I am summoned (not invited) to sit near him at the head of the table – a sort of decorative prop, as the youngest white woman on the team. I believe it is considered an honour.

Guanxi

The success of a Chinese business depends on the owner’s guanxi (pronounced gwan-see), a term which could be loosely translated as ‘connections’. It’s perhaps best described as a mild form of corruption: backscratching rather than bribery. It’s about having friends in high places, and treating them to expensive meals until they owe you a favour: my boss seems to have quite a talent for it. Guanxi is the mysterious voodoo by which the entire Chinese bureaucracy is powered. Foreigners in China know it exists, but we can’t accurately judge its strength. The guanxi is exercised on our behalf by our employers, and so the exact workings of it remain a mystery. If a visa application comes through unusually quickly, we believe it is thanks to the guanxi of our new boss; if an application is delayed, it may be due to a hex laid by a disgruntled former employer. The most useful thing I have learned during my three-week crash course in in local labour relations: the guanxi can be thanked or blamed for anything which happens.

by Alice Bell

5 Steps to Raise your Visibility

I often hear women com­plain about their lack of visibility. They are not heard in meet­ings, not seen dur­ing a net­work­ing event, not noticed by their col­leagues, their boss, worse, not acknowl­edged for their con­tri­bu­tions, not given any credit, nor pro­mo­tion.

Here are five steps to raise your visibility

1. Reveal Your True Colors
2. Don’t Think Twice, Be Bold and Show Up!
3. Cre­ate Your Own Tribe
4. Find a Sponsor
5. Do the Work and be Per­sis­tent

1. Reveal Your True Col­ors.Lead from within. Develop your con­fi­dence. Build on your strengths. Ask for feed­back and get it! Take off your nice girl hat and be feisty, raw, wild and crazy! Com­mu­ni­cate clearly on what you do, where you want to go, who you are. Get your­self a per­sonal career coach and sev­eral men­tors. invest in your­self so that you are very clear on what value you can add to the com­pany, to your clients. Only then, when you have a clear sense of who you are and what you want, can you get it!Ask your­self, “What makes me unique? What value do I bring? What prob­lem do I solve? You don’t have to wear red stilet­tos… (no, Rox­anne, you don’t have to put on the red light…)Story Just like in The Red Shoes, an ancient fairy tale revis­ited by Clarissa Pinkola Estès. She shows us that there is a way to con­struct a life that is uniquely our own; a life made by hand. “In our cul­ture, we may travel life’s path in one of two ways: 1) in hand­made shoes, crafted with love and care accord­ing to the unique needs of the indi­vid­ual soul; or 2) in Red Shoes, which promise instant ful­fill­ment, but ulti­mately lead to a painful, hollow-split exis­tence.”  Wow…powerful…just think about it for a minute…
2. Don’t Think Twice, Be Bold and Show Up! If it seems pretty obvi­ous to you, just think of the num­bers of oppor­tu­ni­ties you missed because you just were not there! Strate­gic meet­ings, net­work­ing events, con­fer­ences where attend­ing is strate­gic for your busi­ness and your job exper­tise. Or maybe you were there phys­i­cally, but not really 100% present. Show up, develop a real pres­ence, here and now. Raise your hands in a meet­ing as Sheryl Sand­berg, CoCEO of Face­Book reminds us, “speak up and keep this hand up!” Push the door open and step in!
3. Cre­ate your own tribe become the VIP mem­ber of your very spe­cial club! Another pos­si­bil­ity is that you were not invited…You are not on that “spe­cial short list” of “50 most tal­ented”, “top 10 experts”, best CEOs/managers/consultants/bloggers in the world? Stop wait­ing to be invited to come inside. Stop star­ing with envy and angst at the shop win­dows, the cor­po­rate glass walls, the places where deci­sion are made, projects are cre­ated, ideas are given life, blood and flesh to. Make a list of the top influ­encers in your com­pany or top play­ers in your field. Get in touch with them and play with them! But remem­ber, before, you need to have pre­pared what you have to offer that makes you unique.
4. Find a spon­sor, bet­ter, be noticed by one and become remark­able! In How Spon­sor­ship Can Help Senior Women Break the Marzi­pan Ceil­ing (I love this image, just pic­ture your­self caught in a thick pink marzi­pan office space, just like Hansel and Gre­tel…), a great arti­cle from The Glass Ham­mer, you will find out how to get your own spon­sor. Be strate­gic. Be inten­tional about spon­sor­ship early in your career. It really does enhance the climb. Mentors can be a path­way to spon­sor­ship. Connect.“Spon­sors get you the key stretch assign­ments that allow you to shine.” Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Found­ing Pres­i­dent and Chair­man of the Cen­ter for Work­life PolicyBuild­ing strong rela­tion­ships with indi­vid­u­als above you, as well as your peers, can help make poten­tial spon­sors aware of you and pro­vide an entry­way into net­works of power.Ker­rie Peraino, Chief Diver­sity Offi­cer of Amex.(Note to myself: you can­not buy your­self a spon­sor in a shoe shop.)
5. Do the Work, have Faith in YOU and Be Per­sis­tent. It won’t hap­pen overnight. Vis­i­bil­ity builds up with time, trust and con­fi­dence, one step at a time. Don’t give up if you feel you’re not mov­ing fast enough. Don’t give up if you ever fall or miss one step. Embrace fail­ure and learn from it. Be kind with your­self. Keep show­ing up, tak­ing risks and explore the edges of your com­fort zone. Things will even­tu­ally come together for you.

Sing along!:

“And I’ll see your true col­ors
shin­ing through
I see your true col­ors
and that’s why I love you
so don’t be afraid to let them show
your true col­ors
true col­ors are beau­ti­ful
like a rainbow”.

It’s a Small Change To Your Job (devel­op­ing a strong con­fi­dence), That Makes A Big Change To Your Life!

Be A Lead­er­ship Braver, Now!

I’d love to hear how you’ve devel­oped your vis­i­bil­ity, what steps you took, how long did it take you, what obsta­cles you found on the road, what sort of help did you get too? Share the sto­ries of your suc­cesses and your fail­ures , true heroes and hero­ines’ journeys…

Gen Y: The Volunteer Workforce?

Unpaid

I graduated a few weeks ago and am currently amongst the mass of young people facing their uncertain futures.  I have experienced a range of feelings over the last few months from pure excitement and anticipation to sheer dread of the impending  9 to 5  life  that awaits me.

The most peculiar thing is the suddenness of leaving education, an institution that has guided me throughout my life. It has been constant and secure.  Now I must embark on adult life…alone. What if I get it wrong? I am, or have been until now, a wistful English student, with dreams of doing many different jobs throughout my life, and yes, a part of me does still want to be an astronaut, but to be completely truthful I feel I would be comfortable and work well in most environments. So where do I start?  How do I discover what I’m good at? These questions, paired with a feeling of paralysis from the enormous range of careers a modern woman can choose from, have left me stuck in some sort of real life ‘purgatory’. Read more »

Breaking Barriers in the Automotive Industry

The first female intern

A woman’s life in the professional world is fascinating! The wonder of it all is composed by simple actions. I didn’t realize this until I had the opportunity to share my past experiences with a new friend.

In my first job, about one year before graduating in electronic engineering,  I was accepted in the traditionally male dominated automotive industry in Brazil  and was hired to work in the After Sales department.  I didn’t realize then what a breakthrough it was for the company to hire a female intern for that particular function. I was the first one! And imagine that a few years later,  that group was 40% female, including the manager. The company finally noticed that women can be very good professionals in a field that was once dominated by men  and that we have qualities and strengths that are essential to complete the team.

Tested

A few months later I was promoted from intern to employee even though I had not yet graduated. At that time I was chosen to coordinate technical training , delivered to the dealers’ mechanics and electricians as well as the instructors. Having to trust a soon to be engineer was already difficult for them, imagine a woman! But everything changed a few weeks after I started there. During one of the training sessions, the instructor, the most experienced one, called me to help with a technical problem he was having. When I went to him, I noticed all the participants – who would never trust a woman for that specific subject- staring at me! I asked what the problem was and I was able to easily solve it… thank God! Now I have enough knowledge  and life experience to realize that I was being tested, which back then I ignored. Being young, I was also very naïve, not yet aware of the prejudice women can suffer in the workplace. And that was also my luck, since I just wanted to prove myself as a competent professional. Read more »

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