When I finally graduated from college and landed my dream job, I was surprised to find myself as the only woman in my office. The first few days sucked. Despite my male colleagues being extremely helpful and welcoming, I felt lonely.
Sure, it can be motivating to be the first/only lady in the office but that doesn’t come without its own set of challenges. Many times, I was mistaken for a front-end developer. Nothing wrong about being a front-end developer, but the idea front-end is feminine and the back-end is too “tough” is what annoyed me.
The biggest challenge most women face in male-dominated careers is the lack of female mentors. Without mentors, we often try to push ourselves to perform better than our male colleagues. And that’s okay, but we shouldn’t forget how and why we got there in the first place.
Here are my top 6 tips to survive and succeed in a male-dominated career environment:
Be Yourself
Always. Don’t apologize for who you are. Understand your strengths and your weaknesses and act on them. Be confident. Remember you are worthy and just as good as everybody else, don’t be afraid to be you.
Find a mentor and mentees
It’s necessary to find someone “who’s been there” to be your mentor. Someone that understands the challenges you face. Here’s an article that can guide you on finding a female mentor. Most importantly, find young girls you can mentor, we need more women in these careers.
Don’t hold back
Don’t be afraid to air out your opinions. Learn to communicate your ideas clearly. When an opportunity comes to lead or demo your skills, don’t, for heaven’s sake, hold back. Take your place on the freaking table.
Become literally indispensable
Work hard, not to compete but to become irreplaceable. Put in more hours and extra effort to get things done. Always get into the details when working on something. And get things done!
Don’t be the office messenger (please!)
Don’t ever allow yourself to be the office coffee-getter or messenger. Well unless you don’t mind being an unpaid assistant/secretary. Do what you’re paid to do.
Do not tolerate disrespect/mistreatment
Finally, if you’re in an environment that you don’t feel respected, you are at liberty to leave and find a place that will offer you better treatment. Never tolerate any mistreatment just because you’re female, stand up for yourself or walk out.
Personally, I try to follow the above tips every day to succeed in my career. I’d love to hear back from anyone who might have any comments related to this topic.
