Self-Esteem and the Working Women

My job has its positive and negative aspects. Seeing clients succeed gives me great job
satisfaction. But a source of
disappointment is encountering clients that are simply not motivated. As a counselor, and a woman with 30 plus
years of experience, I have tried to be sensitive to any gender-based issues
that would influence my counseling strategy.

In my experience, which includes ongoing communication with
employment consultants, HR professionals, recruiters and clients, over the
decades a convergence has occurred.
Regarding careers, career planning and the impediments to progress in a
career, gender-based differences have narrowed significantly.

I attribute this to three factors: The success of women in all types of career, the attitude of
hiring managers today, which is largely gender neutral, and a better balance
between home and work within the male population.

This is not to suggest the problem does not exist. For some women, especially older women where
home-based male dominance and/or preferential treatment for male siblings
existed, this remains a problem. There
may also be cultural and geographic influences. As a counselor in New England, gender differences regarding
self-esteem are relatively comparable.
However, regardless of gender, the symptoms and the cure is much the
same.

The truth is nothing puts self-esteem on the line than a job
search. High self-esteem is the most
critical precursor to successful self-esteem.
Hiring managers want cheerful, positive people. They have enough of the other kind
in-house. Consequently, if the
candidate is not motivated and that lack of self-esteem is visible, one ounce
of self-doubt can lose money and opportunity.

One of the first clues to poor self-esteem is
procrastination. It would be wrong to
assume that doing something a little later is OK, as long as it is done and
done right. Unfortunately, there is a
trap here. For many, procrastination
can easily lead to a type of