Women in Business

I’ve prayed and prayed about some clarity about my career path and what I should be doing with my life. As I’ve posted about long ago, my gripe with my current position is that it requires long hours, which prohibits me from doing pretty much anything else with my evenings….seriously. And the more I progress here, the more hours are expected of me. I’m actually headed in a direction that I like, more of a client services and consulting focused position, so it’s hard for my judgment not to get clouded by visions of success.

The industry I work in is private equity. In short, it’s a very wealthy investment asset class focused on the private markets. And today, one of the publications I receive at work had a very interesting article, titled “Private equity is a man's world... seriously”…

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/08/private-equity-is-a-mans-world-seriously/

Let me remind you that one of the days I look forward to the most is the day I am a mother……and if our lives and health permit, I dream of having four children. It doesn’t bother me that this article is basically arguing that as a woman you basically either choose your career or your family. But that’s a conversation to be had another day (regarding feminism and where I stand on it). As I head in a challenging and upwards direction in my career, I’ve questioned myself for the first time in a long time, regarding if I really should be seeking other opportunities. Then, like a wonderful answer to my prayers occurred a series of three events:

1- I worked until 7:15 last night at which point my boss called me into his office to help him with a spreadsheet before I was free to go.
2- This article was published.
3- A trusted source of information felt the need to tell me today not to get my hopes up too high regarding the organizational changes that have been promised at my firm….not for me specifically, but things that gave me hope for the firm as a whole.

SO, there you have it.