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Super career women
By Helen Beckett
“Women can have it all” is the confident message that totaljobs.com hears from the lips of women on the frontline of industry. Female workers in the UK frequently receive less childcare support than their sisters in Europe, but nonetheless many juggle home and career successfully.
Doing any kind of job as well as being a homemaker automatically makes you a superwoman. So whatever your situation, check the following advice from our career experts to see what sort of job will work for you:
Highflier
The most talked about example of a woman who can have her cake – with Belgian chocolate icing, if she so desires – and eat it is Nicola Horlick. She continued high-profile jobs in the City while raising six children and famously got the better of her employer, winning damages in a court battle.
As Nicola’s story shows, life in a big corporation for the mother and senior executive is not easy and there will be tough calls to make. There may be times when you just have to tell colleagues, “I won’t be here after 4 o’clock.”
Job sharer
This can be a fantastic way to keep your skills honed in the workplace and to create space in your life for family. All sorts of professions are open to this arrangement including teaching, nursing and publishing. Success will depend as much on the strength of your partnership as the ability to split a job in two.
A successful job share may challenge you in more ways than you think. “I hate her!” laughs Jane Norman, a primary school teacher in Leicestershire, about her job share partner. “With my last job sharer I always shone. Now the children always ask for my new partner!”
Part-timer
Women at the highest and lowest rungs of the career ladder are choosing this route as the work landscape changes. A lot of women complain that they are working as hard part-time as full-time and certainly there’s less opportunity to have the social chitchat.
A product marketing manager for one leading internet company revealed her trick for cramming a full-time job spec into part-time hours. “If I don’t reply to an email, or don’t attend a meeting, the world doesn’t stop turning. People fill in and the job still gets done.”
Returner
If you’re returning to work after a spell away, don’t worry about finding the perfect job straight away. “It’s better to do a short course and see what you enjoy before making big decisions,” recommends career adviser Marie Henrique.
Don’t forget that as a mother you have important skills. Have you ever organised children’s parties? Many women build on their caring skills with diplomas in health and safety or youth work and go on to find employment in the local community.
Here are our three golden rules for superwomen:
- Rise above it. Don’t worry what other people think of you, it depletes energy and time.
- Break a few rules. You will be late or miss an important meeting from time to time. Learn to smile and apologise.
- Create your own pathway. Realise that you can have what you want. It may not always quite go to plan but you can create the career that you wish to have.
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