3 Pieces of Bad Career Advice Women Should Ignore
Young women entering the workforce are typically inundated by a wide range of career tips to help them succeed. Unfortunately, many of these suggestions are more likely to perpetuate than reduce gender bias, by legitimizing the status quo and focusing on “fixing” women rather than the broken system.
Here are three pieces of bad advice you can probably just ignore:
1) Be more confident. Don’t let someone tell you that you’re doing something wrong in moments when you don’t “feel” confident. The standard you’re being compared to is most likely overconfidence — something too many people in positions of power tend to feel. Self-awareness will always be a stronger asset than self-belief. The right amount of confidence is that which aligns with your actual competence. If you are equally realistic about your talents as you are about your limitations, then you will be able to close the gap between how good you are and how good you want to be — and this is true for everyone.
2) Change the way you speak. Women are constantly told to change their vocabulary — to make it less apologetic and more assertive. But the world would be a much better place, and the workplace a great deal happier, if more people had the humility, bravery, and emotional intelligence to say “sorry” when appropriate. A better piece of advice for women? Speak freely and speak how you like.
3) Fake it till you make it. Don’t fake anything. Instead, do yourself justice. This simply means talking up your accomplishments, your intention, and your vision in a way that gets you recognized. These are mere statements of fact. All you have to do is start saying them aloud.
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Adapted from “7 Pieces of Bad Career Advice Women Should Ignore,” by Cindy Gallop and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.
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