/g/ - girl talk

Is the userbase the right demographic (age wise) for this thread? I always thought high powered career women were usually in their 30s or something.

Hope I get to that point eventually, still early 20s.

I have a nice and well-paying job in digital marketing. I'm aged 25-30.

>What is life like for you?
It's good. I'm independent and support myself well.

>What are some hurdles you've had to overcome?
I took an unconventional route in my career. I don't have any education or degrees aside from high school. I moved to a country who employed me based on skills instead of degrees. It's the best decision I've made.


- What is your perception on how social media is influencing womens' values and path to success?
>It's just another media portal that pushes consumerism. Ironically now that I have enough money to buy any iPhone or branded handbag I want; I just don't want it. Money doesn't buy happiness, if all you buy is junk, clothes and clutter. I spend my money on traveling instead.

- What's your office culture like?
>Good if you have decent social skills. If not; you'll get annoyed by all the pointless meetings, socials and so on. If you don't participate with a smile; you'll soon be labeled a difficult person.

- What advice would you give to girls interested in your career path?
Don't waste time getting degrees, working 4 different part time jobs or struggling in your home country. Do some research and you'll likely find a country who will hire you based on skills, experience or the language you speak. Many companies offer relocation packages too. Just be open minded about the location.

I'm a doctor, physician, M.D. etc etc

>What is life like for you?

basically work and leisure, but since it pays so well I feel like I can really enjoy my life

>What are some hurdles you've had to overcome?

My career is mostly populated by men… sometimes some old doctors would treat me badly bc I'm a woman, others saw me as "weak and incompetent" I was told many times that "I couldn't do it"

>What is your perception on how social media is influencing womens' values and path to success?

Social media has the potential to motivate your girls to achieve their dreams but sadly, current feminism isn't really helping… at all

>What's your office culture like?

Just be patient, there will always be idiots everywhere

>What advice would you give to girls interested in your career path?

Study a lot and you'll make it, it's hard but so worth it

>>107445
this is fascinating, what country?

Does anyone have advice when it comes to networking?

>>107440
There are all types on imageboards, anon. Not to mention that you can be high-achieving in your 20's if you enter certain fields and/or play your cards right.
>>107452
What's your specialty? Was med school worth it?
>>107469
What field are you interested in? Here's some general advice:

- Join linkedin (I didn't do it but I heard that it opens a lot of doors)
- If in college, join special interest clubs. If out of college, join special interest meetup groups (especially one for people in your field).
- If in college, look at the research that the profs in your department are doing and volunteer to help. This is absolutely necessary if you're going into a scientific/research-based field (I think the same goes for many of the humanities as well).
- If in college, do as many internships as you can. Depending on what you are interested in, you may be able to do volunteer work for an NGO and put that on your resume + meet people in the field.
- If out of college and struggling heavily to find a job, join Americorps.
- If you're interested in an academic field and have the money, go to conferences. If you're in a big enough city then you may be able to find free lectures/speaking events and establish a correspondence with a speaker that you're interested in.
- Join your local Toastmasters. Not only does it help you gain soft skills, but they're usually full of high-powered people.

If you are having trouble networking or otherwise entering a field, demonstrating raw passion and willingness to learn goes a LONG way. A very long way. I managed to break into my very competitive field after digging myself into a giant hole because the interviewers could tell that I was very passionate about what I do and committed to life-long learning.

>>107475
The Americorps thing- do you have any experience with it? I am currently unemployed and having a hard time

>>107475
I'm still a general doctor but I want to get myself into family medicine
where I live at least is extremely worth it, it gives you a nice salary and you can always find a job as soon as you finish it, however is the most expensive thing to study and it's 7 years long (the longest career, most are 4-5 years long here)

>>107488
I haven't done it, but my SO is in it. Depending on what career you're interested in, it may not ultimately get your foot in the door (though it might!), but it'll give you more work experience and part of completing the program involves career help like excel certifications and resume advice. You get a stipend towards education for completing the program, which is also nice. It doesn't pay well (just a shitty stipend), but one of the great things about it is that it gives you a lot of time to think about what your action plan is going to be, in addition to support for the program. You don't have to worry about applying to jobs for a little while, or about things like what the job gap will look like.

It's been good for my SO- he started the program with no experience outside of academia and no career-related practical skills, and since starting the program he's grown some important soft skills and a knowledge base that would make him a really good candidate for a government, service, or educational job in our area (NYC).

If you're interested I would recommend attending an info session to see if it's for you. I can definitely envision cases where it wouldn't be the best path to take.

I'm 24 and a court reporter.

>What is life like for you?
I'm a freelancer so I don't work at the courthouse. Most of my work is at home just editing transcripts. I trained for this career so I could fund all my weeb wants and dreams and there is opportunity to travel for work so I eventually want to move out of the country.

>What are some hurdles you've had to overcome?
I moved out at 18 from a family with no money so the biggest challenge was supporting myself while paying for the college classes. I worked really late hours at Domino's and went without a lot but thankfully that's all done with.

>What's your office culture like?
I don't have an office I have to go into for the companies I work for, but when I walk into an attorney's office I stick out like a sore thumb. There's a very small percentage of court reporters my age and most everyone I work with is at least 10-20 years older than me so it's pretty lonely and hard to find new friends with work.

>What advice would you give to girls interested in your career path?

There are some amazing online schools out there that I wish I picked over the brick and mortar school I went to. Don't waste your time getting basics unless you plan to go back to college because all you need is a certificate to start working. Don't buy the most expensive machine when in school. I passed my certification exam on an extremely outdated $200 machine from ebay! And only way to graduate quickly is to practice, practice, practice.

I'm head of product design. The easiest way to explain it is that it's kind of like being a creative director but also involves user experience design.

>What is life like for you?
It's easy and comfortable. My job provides me a lot of freedom and is a wonderful creative outlet. I don't have a lot of stress with regards to my job.

>What are some hurdles you've had to overcome?
I'm an anxious person and don't have great public presentation skills, but I've learned what works best for me and have done courses to help me with that.

I've had to learn how to get over imposter syndrome and get comfortable with presenting my work and pitching my concepts to important people.

Also mentoring others could be a hurdle at times - it's mostly just getting comfortable with being in a position of power and measuring how to best dish out constructive criticism. Also figuring out how to direct people because everyone is different in terms of their personal thresholds and how they learn. I'd say I'm still learning how to get better at this.


>What is your perception on how social media is influencing womens' values and path to success?
I don't really engage with social media, but I don't think of it as having a positive influence on young women. Like someone else mentioned, it's just a tool glorifying consumerism. I'm interested to know what you mean by this question though?

>What's your office culture like?
It's predominately male in my team at the moment and I would like to see that change… tech tends to be that way though. Everyone is friendly and seems to share similar social and political values…Everyone is respectful. I haven't really worked anywhere where the culture was a shit show - I'd leave if that were the case. There isn't much of a social culture, but this is kind of nice compared to other places I've worked where you know everyones personal business.

>What advice would you give to girls interested in your career path?
- Practice makes perfect so give yourself hypothetical projects to work on as much as possible.

- Read as much as you can and research. Listen to others. You know your thing, but they know theres.

- You can learn a lot from copying (I don't mean plagiarising), it will often teach you something new, see things from another perspective, and help you master new techniques.

- Networking makes a hell of a difference in your career path, you can't just rely on talent alone. University often provides that opportunity by introducing you to people from the industry. You should impress those people, your lecturers and mentors, they might help you get your foot in the door at the right place to start your career.

- Regardless, university isn't a necessity whatsoever. If you have talent and a good portfolio, you should try get a job at an agency that has big clients. There are very talented designers working at shitty no name businesses who just haven't applied to work at the right place. It's no good being a lone designer when you just start out - try get a job at an agency for the connections alone, as well as the mentoring you'll receive.

- If you're at an intermediate level, make sure you portfolio is demonstrative of your research and the steps you took to come up with the finished product. A portfolio is much more than just showing off your aesthetic sensibilities, it needs to show how you work and what your process is. Substance over style.

- Don't go freelance too early when you haven't learned the ropes or got the connections. You will struggle otherwise.

- You should always try to impress not just other people, but yourself with your work and ideas, don't ever settle for mediocrity or something that just gets the job done.

- Challenge yourself to think more laterally and question why you've done something this or that way. You should try to always be able to back up a decision you've made with a logical and well reasoned argument. If you don't have a good reason for a decision, then it's probably a weak judgement on your part.

- You cannot afford to be precious about your work. You should be willing to have it get torn apart because that's how you improve.

- The tech industry is booming and is a prime place to be a woman (and a designer). There are plenty of options outside of being a coder/developer that require different and diverse skillsets that have amazing career paths. There's business analysts, testers, content strategists (kind of like copywriters, but with a focus on user experience, psychology), data analysts, product managers, UX researchers, UI/UX designers, illustrators even, and the list goes on. You can go far.

>>107439

>- What is life like for you?
Pretty good, honestly. I have a good income and I am not married, nor do I have any children. I'm able to save up quite a bit.
>- What are some hurdles you've had to overcome?
All I can think of is that I have been depressed since I can remember, but Wellbutrin takes care of that.
>- What is your perception on how social media is influencing womens' values and path to success?
If you're really that influenced by social media, you don't deserve professional success. Think independently.
>- What's your office culture like?
Everyone is friendly, helpful, and respectful. I have fulfilling conversations with my coworkers on a wide range of topics (not just small talk). There are a lot of senior members who have valuable experience I love hearing about.
>- What advice would you give to girls interested in your career path?
The same I would give to guys interested in my career path. Work hard, and know how to get people to like you. Some advice on that in particular:
>make them feel as though their input is valued
I ask coworkers for their advice on decisions I make that have to do with a shared project. Truthfully, I don't believe most of the advice I get is valid, but people like sharing their opinion.
>see how someone wants to be seen
Arrogant people are the easiest to win over, because you can just ask them for advice or feed their ego pretty transparently and they won't notice. Humbler/quieter people need some more time to be warmed up to.
>remember small details of their personal life
If they say they're going on a hike over the weekend, ask them about it on Monday. Pretty simple stuff.
>ensure that you are ever so slightly underestimated
In a field in which egos tend to be highly inflated, you should pretend to know or understand less than you actually do. This makes people feel secure.

Being a woman, it's easier to get people to like you, since women are generally underestimated anyway. Men love advising women on things.

I'm in software engineering, and "people skills" are few and far between. People generally are not interested in moving up in the chain of responsibility. It's very easy to establish yourself within a company in this way.

>>108955
Anon, I copy-pasted this into a text doc so I can keep it. This is the advice I needed…

One question— how would you go about networking without having university resources? This has been my biggest hurdle.

>>108973
There's often a lot of meet up groups that you can go to. Some will have themes each week with presenters talking about different topics, some might involve team challenges, or it might just be a regular social gathering. If you go semi-regularly, you're bound to make some friends and meet people who will give you good advice and maybe help you get a job. Just google for groups in your city and hopefully you'll find something.

There's also Slack channels that you could join which often have good discussion or job postings, so google for those too. Slack is basically a chat/messenger program if you're unsure of what it is.

>>108981
Great advice, thanks again anon.

This thread is tiny right now but this is what female empowerment feels like to me. I truly want more of it. Imagine this thread becomes populated over time because farmers grow up to be boss bitches. I’d hang posters of you in my sheltered clueless ass bedroom.

I'm at the end of my PhD and hope to be a professor soon after my defense. That will involve a certain amount of managerial and administrative skill.

Hurdles for me:
- overcoming the cultural expectation that women are nice and should volunteer to do things for no/little credit

- ignoring the stuff that my male colleagues get given while I have to work hard to be taken seriously. Yes, this is still a problem. My friend has gotten 3 (small) jobs without even applying for them, and he's not even that great. (No offense to him, honestly.) He's just charismatic.

- getting past the depression and apathy that goes with it. For too long I've been told to be nice and not competitive. But that crippled me. I need to be competitive again.

I'm very lucky to have a kickass mentor, but she also has extremely high expectations with no mercy. It's probably good for me despite how scared I am of fucking up.

Leaving this here for now, may post more later.

epilogue:
You can do it, anons. People have flaws but they can be corrected. Don't be perfectionistic & you'll get a lot further than people who are focused on insignificant details.

I'm a web developer in my 30s and this is just my personal experience. Apologies in advance for the wall of text!

>What is life like for you?
I have an extensive amount of freedom and money now. I have full health benefits, a retirement account, life insurance, etc. I do answer to a couple people at work, but outside of that I get to do pretty much whatever I want all of the time. I spend M-F 9-5 in a job I truly enjoy and my evenings I cook, vidya, crafts/crochet, play on my tablet, and chill in front of the TV with my cats/bf! Weekends in spring/summer sometimes mini vacations and I get PTO for longer domestic/international vacations.

>What are some hurdles you've had to overcome?
It took me awhile to get here, though. I had several hiccups in my 20s - dropping out of college at 21 (finished in my late twenties), long periods of unemployment and crappy retail jobs, mental health issues, drug/alcohol issues, and a few failed relationships including a divorce (been with my current partner about 4 years now) .. I believe all of these things made me into who I am. My mistakes, while incredibly painful when experiencing them, have all taught me very valueable lessons.

>What is your perception on how social media is influencing womens' values and path to success?
I suppose this depends on your definition of success and in which field you're working. Personally, I think most social media has a destructive influence on our self esteem and productivity. I deleted my FB (and snapchat, instagram) in 2016 and haven't looked back, but there was a time when I spent hours on these platforms. I understand that for some jobs, perhaps in marketing or some kind of public-facing position, you may be expected to have an online presence but this was not the case for my job (web developer) and I suspect you wouldn't need it for many professional jobs. The oversharing culture, or the compulsion to share (or else it didn't happen, right?) I think in a way cheapens our life experiences. I just don't want to participate in it and as I got older it became more and more ridiculous.

>What's your office culture like?
It's awesome. Everyone is super chill and laid back, and we all support each other for the "greater good" - our client (a very big name in technology) .. we have regular outings, potlucks, snacks, two kitchens, and awesome equipment.

>What advice would you give to girls interested in your career path?
You have to be proactive and serious. Go to networking/meet-up events. Take classes. Get a portfolio/github together and take on personal projects/clients. If you don't have a FT employer, work as an independent contractor. Emphasize your actual work rather than your skills on paper. Be positive and well, agreeable. A good 'culture fit' is someone who plays well with others, even in mostly solitary work.

>>109371
Oh anon, your hurdles gives me more hope. I'm going to be 28 this year and I've had the same issues you've shared that has caused some major setbacks in my professional life. I had to start from square 1 in 2016 at a shitty restaurant job because everything in my life fell apart. Since then I've got a comfy office job with benefits and PTO, got a house, got married and just started back to school part time for chemistry.

The only thing I'm worried about is school. I can only do 2 classes at a time because of the cost and how much I can take on while working full time. I also had to drop out of college years ago with 2 semesters of straight Fs. I hope I don't take too much time getting my bachelor's at least and then getting my masters later. I also worry about how much those Fs will cost me.

I plan on talking to all the colleges in the area this summer to weigh all my options and be informed before I transfer for advanced classes.

>>107445
In which country did you move, anon? Also, where did you start to be skilled in your job?

>>109359
This thread is so underrated. I check this thing every day, because the ladies here have inspired me so much. I can’t wait to have an update story to post here someday.

>>109371
This felt good to read. I dropped out too, but I have not gone back yet.

>What is life like for you?
I have a salaried, all benefits paid job at a small consulting/lobbying firm. I have my own office, get to go to cool events, and get to rub elbows with politicians and business people alike.
>What are some hurdles you've had to overcome?
I struggled a lot in my teenage years. I started drinking very heavily in college and dropped out after my first year. Heavy drinking led to me being put on bunch of anti-depressants, and I went through about 2 years of in-patient stays, "suicide attempts", and became severely anorexic. It was the first time in my life where I could not imagine a future, and I really did want to die.

I still struggle with self-image and doubt myself a lot. In this industry, "looking the part" is critical, and sometimes I compare myself too much to those around me. Also, imposter syndrome…
>What is your perception on how social media is influencing womens' values and path to success?
I think social media gives girls the wrong idea of how a "strong woman" should act. The loudest voice in the room is always heard, but seldom listened to. The loud women only make it so far, just like the loud men.
- What's your office culture like?
Because it is a small office, we are pretty laid back here and have fun. Attire is business professional. If I need a day off, sick day, vacation, etc… I just ask, there's no formal process.
>What advice would you give to girls interested in your career path?
There is this idea of women not being taken seriously in the workplace. However, some of the most respected and prominent figures I have encountered ARE women. They got where they are because they broke down the common issues that affect professional women and overcame them. Learn how to dress. Speak less and listen more. No, not in a "submissive" way. Too many women make themselves an open book and overshare… When you walk into a room, introduce yourself to everyone you see. I know it's uncomfortable but this is really important, and something I have had to force myself to do. Lastly, do not compare yourself to anyone else. Use others as a tool in your belt– you can learn from them, but do not let other people occupy your mind for longer than necessary.

When you fucked up like I did, knowing that what you're currently doing would make your old self proud is a really good feeling. I hope that if you are struggling too, you find solace in knowing that no matter how deep in the hole you may feel, there is always a ladder waiting to be found.

>>109431
>When you fucked up like I did, knowing that what you're currently doing would make your old self proud is a really good feeling. I hope that if you are struggling too, you find solace in knowing that no matter how deep in the hole you may feel, there is always a ladder waiting to be found.

Thank you so much for these words, sister. My gpa is shit rn and this is so inspiring, I’ll def remember them when I get sad about it.

Hi ladies, maybe you all can give me some tips for my current situation… sorry if not the best thread, and sorry if it's a bit wordy haha

Currently I'm a senior in college and an intern in a professional office environment. I feel like my (female) supervisor is being overly friendly with me and I am used to/prefer more professional relationships with my coworkers. She seems to think we are friends because she's not that much older than me and I'm the first intern she has had, I think. Today we rode together to a meeting across town and she insisted on getting lunch after. I agreed bc she was driving, she's my superior, etc. She just talked to me the whole time like we were friends, about what she did last weekend and her plans this weekend and talked about drinking, complained about dating culture, etc. Typing this out it sounds like she's trying to flirt or something, but I definitely don't think she is (I've experienced that from male coworkers in the past and am now very conscious of it haha).

Any tips on how to distance myself/let her know I'm not comfortable having a close relationship with my boss? Should I just deal with it?I feel like there's a push at a lot of companies for everyone to be closer/team based and have a more relaxed environment, which could be part of this. Honestly i'm not really a fan of that and prefer more rigid structure (team building exercises, gag)

I don't want to be rude or even say anything directly bc this internship could be instrumental in landing a good full time job after I graduate. Any advice is appreciated anons

I blew an interview today, yet for some reason I felt good? Seems like deep down I didn't want to work there even thought it was a very, very good opportunity. What is wrong with me?(necro)