Time for a promotion? A career change? Returning to work? Our seven-step blueprint will tell you everything you need to know to land a job you’ll really love. (Hint: splurging on a piece of power clothing is a must.)
Two years ago, Marijane Funess, mom of three, was freelancing public relations projects from her Pelham, NY, home when she had a bit of a meltdown. “Out of nowhere, I panicked, thinking, Will I ever be employable again? Not just to get any job, but one I really want?”
Armed with a now-or-never attitude and a strong sense of what she wanted (something fulfilling) and what she didn’t (a long suburb-to-city commute), she answered an ad on Craigslist for a position at a local marketing firm and then chiseled away at her insecurities. “I felt fossil-like. Technology had changed so much since I’d been in a professional environment. I was Wilma Flintstone. But I decided to fake it a bit on the tech front and put myself out there.”
Her bold move earned a big reward. Today, Marijane heads her company’s public relations department—a job she calls fulfilling beyond her wildest dreams. “I know so many women who think they won’t be able to get a job, much less one that they’re passionate about,” she says. “But if your professional skills are solid, it doesn’t matter if you’ve had drool on your shoulder for the past five years.”
Whether you’re a middle manager eyeing the C-suite, a frustrated accountant longing to run an art gallery, or a mom who’s been out of the workforce for a while, the time to make a run at the position you’ve been pining for is now. The labor market is getting tight, forcing businesses to rethink long-term recruiting strategies. “Working moms have huge opportunities they didn’t have in the past,” says Lucy Rosen, president of the Business Development Group, a Garden City, NY-based marketing and business development firm. “More and more, employers are becoming sensitive to the fact that there are smart, talented women out there who can write their own tickets.”
Though just ten of the CEOs among the Fortune 500 companies were women in 2006, IMD, an international executive search network, predicts this number will grow rapidly as the baby-boomer generation retires, creating a huge shortage of talent. National experts also project that women will begin to fill out executive positions and radically change the current statistics at all levels of business.
Now is the time to get out there and put this newfound leverage to good use. High demand for talented female professionals, Rosen says, means companies are increasingly offering tempting work/life options such as flextime, part-time work and job-sharing in order to attract and retain star employees. “They’d be foolish not to,” she says. So don’t be afraid to aim for a job you may fear is beyond your reach.
