Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead_. But Gutsy Girls Do - Kate White [104]
7. A Gutsy Girl Faces Trouble Head-On
As I said in Chapter 9, it took me a long time to realize that everyone at work is a potential sabatoeur. It took me even longer to realize that the same holds true when you're going after a position in a new area or company.
You are far less likely to suspect these saboteurs because you hardly know them. Often, they end up sandbagging you not because they have anything against you personally, but because they are simply unreliable or ignorant—or maybe they're just busybodies. Some of these hidden-saboteur situations may be:
• The human resources person whom you've talked to about wanting to explore options in another department tells your boss what you're up to.
• Someone at the outside company you're applying to mentions to several people in the industry that you're interviewing there.
• One of the references you've given offers a mediocre evaluation of you.
• A headhunter who doesn't appreciate your value blocks you from becoming a candidate.
• An acquaintance at the company you're interviewing with hurts your candidacy with “inside” information. (i.e., “She's thinking of starting a family.”)
• After you leave a company, people at your old job rewrite history and paint you as weak in several areas, and their remarks work their way back to your new boss.
What can you do about these kinds of sabotage? Because they're likely to happen out of your range of view, your best course of action is prevention:
• Tell as few people as possible about your plans—and never tell a peer who might consider herself a rival.
• Never call someone and simply warn her that you're using her as a reference. Ask if she feels comfortable with the idea. If she seems at all hesitant, don't use her.
• Keep in mind that though there are many discreet people in human resources, anything you say could be used against you.
8. A Gutsy Girl Trusts Her Instincts
A golden gut is an essential tool when you're making a career move. With such an overload of factors influencing your decision, you need something to act as your compass. And yet if you're a good girl, you can count on the fact that your gut will experience interference from the usual circuit jammers: a need for consensus, worrying over what other people will think, a reluctance to see the negative.
You need to do your homework and then feel your way. When I was offered the job as senior editor of Family Weekly, I had a strong inkling that though the magazine was just a newspaper supplement, two notches up from those freestanding inserts with coupons for Tide and double fudge brownies, it would be terrific experience for me. I'd be editing stones on politics, national affairs, and celebrities, an experience I'd never had at Glamour. And yet when I told several people about the job offer, they looked horrified. “Why would you want to work there?” they asked. I started worrying that once I got there, it would be impossible to use it as a stepping-stone to a position at a classy magazine.
So I did some homework. What I learned when checking around about Family Weekly was that someone who'd held the position I was being offered had gone on to a terrific job at another magazine. That was at least one indicator that I wouldn't be trapped in Sunday supplement hell. When you're researehing, take heed of anything you find yourself rationalizing or dismissing—for instance, the interviewer is a little fuzzy about how you fit into the chain of command, and you hear yourself mentally saying. I'm sure it'll get sorted out once I get there.
Then let your gut take over. When I met the editor-in-chief of Family Weekly, I found him to be extraordinarily smart and charismatic, and I had this sense that not only would it be great fun to work for him, but that his classiness would compensate for any that the magazine lacked. And it did.
And one more thing. Just as people have body language that's essential