Today I’m sharing some thoughts from a group of women entrepreneurs and experienced professionals at one of my mentoring salons…on the best career advice they ever got.
Whether you like it or not, you have to pretend like you’re the bomb all the time, especially if you want to be an entrepreneur or work in a male dominated industry. Exaggerate like nobody ever would. Be confident. I know it’s hard. You’re young but you totally get it. Just go in there. Get good advice and then just go in their and speak firmly and hold your head up high.” – 40-something, Business Development, Tech
In figuring out what you want in life, one truth is that you will find out more about what you don’t want to do than what you do want to do. Same thing if you’re looking for a partner. You find out more what you don’t want in somebody than you do.” – 40-something, global marketing director
The advice that I always carry with me is that whatever you do, you can undo. Luckily, you live in a world where you are surrounded by contacts and friends and you can continually learn, so you can always get another job. You always learn something from a job …learn all the secrets and then go back and apply that to your next job.” – 30-something, entrepreneur
Weighing risk vs. security is tough. The big risk for most young people is going from a full-time job, employed by someone else and having an income stream to working at a startup and risking your income but optimizing your return. The only way to remedy this is to get really quiet and ask, “What do I really, really, really want?” What values are important to you? What does your normal day look like? How much “time” do you want in your life? What’s type of work do you want to be doing? What are the type of people that you want to be working with? It’s doing the hard work… which is the soul searching work. It’s getting really quiet with your voice versus all the other voices that are out there.” – 30-something, founder, CEO, consulting business
Never say no to something just because you are scared.” – 40-something, EVP, tech industry
Don’t take a job just because you think it is sexy. – 40-something, from corporate/ brand marketing to Founder, CEO
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