Women: If you could give career advice to your younger self, what would you say?

[Anonymous]

Don't have a kid with special needs?






Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have your babies sooner. I had mine at 32 and 34, hoping that by waiting my career would be less affected. Spoiler alert: my career still took a huge hit. As a female litigator, there’s never a good time to have a baby.

Had mine at 32, where can one find a man who wants to commit early in life?

A state school in the south.

[Anonymous]

#1: Marry someone who roots for your career success and will support you.

#2: Go to grad school for longterm earnings, even if you take off to stay at home for awhile.

#3: Work part-time or do small jobs to keep skills relevant while SAH.

[Anonymous]

Careers have phases. It’s okay to let your job take a backseat for a while and focus on your family, but definitely keep a foot in the door.

Show up to in person gatherings whenever possible even if not required. Get face time with the leadership team.

When you’re ready to lean back in, look for people to mentor/advocate for you and high profile opportunities to shine. Give those relationships and opportunities your all.

Take some of those personality tests and try to learn from reviews to really understand your strengths and growth areas. Be open to the idea that some of your greatest strengths may not be what you trained for, and learn how to further develop those (I’m saying this as a trained scientist who is now in a high level management role).

Learn to write well - or in this day and age, at least learn how to use AI effectively to write well. I’ve seen numerous people be denied leadership opportunities in part because they couldn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:#1: Marry someone who roots for your career success and will support you.

#2: Go to grad school for longterm earnings, even if you take off to stay at home for awhile.

#3: Work part-time or do small jobs to keep skills relevant while SAH.

+1 to all of this.

[Anonymous]

Get a prenup and
Make your husband work hard and progress in his career as well.
Otherwise, you will end up supporting a deadbeat

[Anonymous]

Follow your nature not the glamour. I should have been an English professor instead ended up high stress jobs in fancy offices.

[Anonymous]

Be sneaky - look out for yourself - learn how to golf - drink scotch - be thin and very pretty

[Anonymous]

Practice soft skills more- relationships and likeability matter

Rework your resume annually and plan your next job after orientation is complete

Look to see what ‘add ins’ may help you advance- MBA, MPH, or even Lean, 6 Sigma, PMP, etc

Look for opportunities- what is available to get you set up for the next promotion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marry Rich

💯

Excuse me? Id say the opposite. Challenge yourself, and see how far life can take you when you have that mentality.

[Anonymous]

Don't major in humanities.

[Anonymous]

stay thin
do not trust anyone especially other females with any information
insist your husband or partner do 50% of the kid efforts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:stay thin
do not trust anyone especially other females with any information
insist your husband or partner do 50% of the kid efforts

😑 staying thin is hard. I workout and eat healthy, but I don’t want to go to bed hungry and wake up at 3am. So the weight is still creeping up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm reaping the rewards of listening to my gut instincts my entire career even though I would get contrary advice from others. So - listen to your internal voice. It is there to guide you to your most aligned life.

Don't listen to naysayers or the voice inside that is NOT you - your ego.

+100

When it comes to your career, follow your gut and the advice of trusted mentors. Consider that your family may have good intentions or may just be scared for you, but in the end, get a little comfortable with upsetting them. I turned down what would have been a great first job out of undergrad because my parents insisted I couldn’t afford to live on my own (the salary was low but I wouldn’t made due), so I agreed with them, passed up the job, went back home and ended up working for a jerk for a year before I went to grad school. Had I taken that job offer, I would’ve ended up working for a terrific boss who wanted me there and had been all in on supporting me for a fellowship.

So, yeah, sometimes you should not listen to your parents because they don’t always know what’s best for you. Upset them, it’s ok. They’ll get over it.

[Anonymous]

Good to concentrate on career, but it's not your job that will take you out most likely. Several of my jobs were horrific, but I could leave them behind.
Watch out for declining health, your partner, people around you, finances.