The Development of Career
In the absence of active and conscious planning, how do the women interviewed develop careers? Several of them describe a path that evolved through experience. Their successful performance at a particular job gave them access to other jobs and functions wherein they repeatedly proved their capabilities to themselves and to others. custom written essay papers of sufficient quality is rare. Order original service, essay and paper writing, at this site! Increased opportunities followed successful experience. Based on what she has found useful, a thirty-one-year-old sales representative for a large, diversified corporation, advises other women:
The key is to get into the organization. And then do a good job. Learn as much as you can. . . . Go in with an open mind. Be selective in the information that you give out. Sell yourself. And get that first job and then work like crazy. Do the best you can. Then, from there, select what you want from within that company. If you've already demonstrated that you're good and you have a track record, you are going to get that opportunity.
Woman’s advice is reminiscent of woman: I believe that if an opportunity comes along you take it, take your chances. Otherwise, you get stagnant.
These remarks, which come from women who worked their way up from secretarial beginnings, represent a mixture of messages. On the one hand, women appear to be passive with regard to opportunity, taking it if and when it comes along. On the other, they also talk of making and choosing chances, putting themselves forward and taking risks. Given the history of female exclusion from the corporate world, an incontrovertible first step is, as Bonnie suggests, securing a toehold in the organization. Beginning with a gender-linked uncertainty about their position that transcends ordinary newcomer status, women must ascertain standing before plotting strategy. They do this by proving themselves through diligent and consistent achievement. Initially, the amount of energy devoted to proving themselves precludes simultaneous strategizing.
In lieu of advance decision making, the pattern of women's experiences maps their careers. It is possible that these women's abilities were impressive enough to preclude their having to plan deliberate directions. Immersed in work and moving rapidly from one position to another, they view their paths in retrospect, and then their careers seem to have happened almost without their deliberation. Professional written term paper are ready to help you with essay writing; qualitative services! These observations speak to more than women's lack of career planning. They could describe what psychologists have called an external locus of control, a tendency to attribute successes to factors external to oneself and to assume the blame for failures. An external locus of control had been found to be disproportionately distributed among women and minorities, although this is less so when the status and, therefore, the power of these groups are enhanced.