Women Reworked

by Heather Resnick

2. Full- or part-time employment?

Once you have a good idea of your skills, aptitudes and attributes, you need to consider your financial needs as well as the amount of time you can commit to working. Ask yourself:

• Does your career choice offer full-time employment? Part-time? Both?
• Do you want to work full-time?
• Do you require more money? Part-time work may be insufficient to meet your financial needs.
• Do you have time constraints due to other responsibilities, i.e. caring for young children or elderly persons, volunteering, etc.?

3. Self-employment?

Only you and your family can determine whether this is a suitable career option for you. There are many things to consider about self-employment (there will be more covered on this topic in the 5th (last) part of this series). Examine your skills (based on your self-assessment) and see if you have what it takes to run your own business.

To help you verify if you are "entrepreneur able," do the following on-line quizzes:

• www.wd.gc.ca/tools/xindex_e.asp
• www.liraz.com/webquiz.htm

4. Do your needs and values fit into the particular work environment?

Reassessing your values and needs from your lists will help determine the kind of environment in which you want to work. For example, if you need to work in a small, nurturing environment with flexible hours, it may not be in your interest to join a large corporation with set work schedules.

However, job seeking also means being a visionary and the willingness to take risks. Before you reject something unfamiliar, weigh all the benefits against the disadvantages. Are you willing to stretch the limits of your expectations for personal growth and skills development? Unless there are concrete reasons why you cannot do this, it would be beneficial to keep an open mind and review all possibilities. Flexibility and adaptability are amongst the top 10 skills that employers look for.

5. Financial costs of going back to work?

Transportation:

• Bus fare
• Extra gas
• Wear and tear on the car equals more car repairs.
• If you have only one car in the family and your spouse or someone else requires it or if you do not own a car, you may need to purchase one if public transit is not available or convenient.

Clothing:

• New or more complete wardrobe
• Dry-cleaning costs

Food:

• Lunches out or socializing after work
• Convenience foods or restaurants when too late to cook

Office Pools:

• Putting in money for gifts, charity etc.
• Day care for children, animal care or home care for seniors
• Housecleaning
• Haircuts, manicures
• Upgrading your education

6. Will the time commitment be realistic?

• Are you willing to commute long distances?
• What if the job involves travel, moving?
• Are you prepared to stay late for meetings, appointments?
• Would you bring work home, work on weekends?
• What about time needed to go back to school or upgrade your skills?
• Will you be able to balance your personal needs and work?

7. Will there be a support system if you require it?

Statistically, women who do not have a support system will be less able to cope out in the workplace.

• Who will be there to help you deal with responsibilities you now look after like childcare, carpooling, cooking meals, housecleaning, pet care, senior care?
• When things get hectic, will you have the emotional support to keep you going?
• If you have a significant other, how will they feel about you switching gears? How will it affect your relationship?

8. What does success mean to you?

Assuming you worked out all of the above and you got the job of your dreams, how would you handle your success? Be careful what you wish for. If you got too caught up in a career you love, it could threaten to take over every aspect of your life.

Balance is the key to survival. Try and set a moral imperative for yourself such as how many hours a day you are prepared to work while recognizing the need to be flexible. If making lots of money is a goal, put it into proper perspective. Many people who have lots of money are not happy people - because they never have time to enjoy it or share it. A career should be something you love, not an obsession.

Reprinted with Permission from Women Can Do Anything Inc.
Our thanks to the publisher, Sandra Campbell

Next issue: Goal setting and Plan of Action.

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