Not too long ago, the idea of women having established careers was rather far-fetched. However, the various waves of feminism have led to a tremendous influx of women into the workplace, and women have constituted an increasingly vital part of the workforce.
Today, it’s common to see many women contributing in diverse fields ranging from engineering to law. Despite challenges like the gender pay gap and workplace discrimination, there are many successful women in prominent positions whose expertise you can learn from when planning your career. Here are some things that some successful women have to say about career opportunities.
Balance your career with your real-life mission.
It’s common to have career goals and thoughts that outline what you would like to achieve in your field over time. However, your career could be a significant impediment to your overall satisfaction in life if it constantly holds you back from everything else you’re passionate about. Consequently, it’s always advisable to find the right balance between your career and real-life mission. You can even achieve this by tying your career to your passion in life, ensuring that you pursue both ends simultaneously and realize ultimate fulfillment. For example, Malliha Wilson, an experienced litigator, has always had a passion for civil and human rights, so she chose a career path that in the legal field that enabled her to deal with several human rights issues.
Today, Malliha works with Nava Wilson LLP and serves as the senior counsel specializing in human rights, corporate law, labor law, and other complex litigation. She was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and is a Tamil-Canadian. Malliha was the first visible minority to hold the office of Assistant Deputy Attorney General of the Ontario Government, a post she occupied from 2008 to 2016. Additionally, she was also a special legal advisor at the IMCO (Investment Management Corporation of Ontario. Furthermore, Malliha was also the Ontario Government’s Senior Appellate Litigation Counsel for more than 30 years, participating in over 20 important cases in Canada’s Supreme Court and Ontario’s Appeal Court. She obtained her undergraduate degree from McGill University and her law degree from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School.
Remain open to opportunities.
Ginni Rommety, the previous president, chairman, and CEO of IBM and the first woman to head the company believes in keeping an open mind concerning career opportunities. She advises that women must be ready to notice growth opportunities when they present themselves because these are often crucial learning opportunities. Rommety believes that it’s easy to know when these opportunities arise because they typically make you uncomfortable. Additionally, your first impulse will almost always be that you aren’t ready to take on such responsibility.
Nevertheless, Ginni Rommety recommends remembering that growth and comfort never coexist, so you should always be willing to explore new opportunities when they present themselves. If you’re a small business owner, there are numerous great ways to take advantage of opportunities to make your business more successful. For example, you can become more agile and innovative to ensure that your company can cater to the clients’ shifting needs in the marketplace. You can also develop a more robust employee engagement and advocacy strategy to make your workers more engaged and committed to your organization’s cause. Leading employee engagement solutions such as Ambassify can help with your advocacy efforts.
Ambassify is a social advocacy platform that helps organizations build trust, inform, and communicate with their employees. With this solution, you can build meaningful employee engagement that drives your company forward. Employee engagement is essential because engaged team members are less likely to leave the company, more aligned with your organizational objectives, and more productive. This employee advocacy tool helps you create relevant content for the right employees.
This way, you can customize your content to specific departments within your enterprise, initiate conversations that your employees resonate with, and promote department-specific initiatives. Furthermore, this employee advocacy platform’s in-built analytics helps you determine the best content to distribute to your community and also identify workers who are most engaged with your campaign. What’s more, several reputable companies like Codit, Picanol, and Switch use Ambassify to engage their audiences.
Kristin Lemkau: Expand your idea of a dream job.
Kristin Lemkau, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chief Marketing Officer, believes it’s essential to be flexible when considering your dream job. According to her, many people in companies fixate so much on rising to the top and getting their current boss’s job as a measure of success. However, you can easily miss out on opportunities outside your company if you narrow your idea of a dream job. Indeed, several other successful women like Suzanne Clark share this view. Suzanne is currently the president and CEO of the U.S Chamber of Commerce, the first woman to lead the century-old organization.
To conclude, there’s a lot to learn from many women who have experienced great successes in their professional lives. The points above are essential pieces of advice on career opportunities from some of the world’s most successful women.
