If you are currently dissatisfied with your job and your company, you are more than likely looking for another position with a new organization. Perhaps you are unhappy because you were passed over for a well deserved promotion. Maybe you just don’t see any potential for you to advance your career. You finally realize that the culture doesn’t support women’s advancement or you have come to the conclusion that you’re in a dead end job.
How do you avoid jumping from the frying pan into the fire? In other words, what is the best way to assess if another company will offer you the resources, and support for future career opportunities?
Here are 7 questions you should answer before accepting a job at a new company:
1. Are there women in senior executive roles?
One of the first things to look at is the organizational chart to determine if there currently are women in leadership roles. If there is some representation of women at a high level, where did these women come from? Were they promoted from within or recruited from the outside?
The answer to this question is important in order to determine if the company is invested in building a pipeline of women and committed to nurturing that pipeline to leadership roles.
2. Do senior women have P&L responsibility?
Many companies will boast that they have promoted women to assume leadership roles, but when you take a good look at the organizational chart you may discover that these positions do not come with any fiscal responsibility. In other words, the company may have gendered roles even at the senior level. A lack of female role models has been noted to be an obstacle for high achieving women.
3. Do women have power and influence?
What role do women play in the overall operations and strategy of the company? Do they have any involvement in setting the direction of the company? Are there women on the Board of Directors? Do women at all levels sit on committees that have a voice with senior management?
4. Does the company invest in developing women leaders?
Is there a women’s network? If so, is it supported by senior management? Does the initiative have a reasonable budget? The budget is a big clue! Many of these programs lack any financial support which most likely indicates the company is paying lip service to supporting the advancement of women. Very little can be accomplished without money or executive sponsorship.
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