Sample survey comments:
“Earlier in my career, my motivation would have been financial and level specific. At this time, my motivation is to have a balanced life, find positions that challenge me and are enjoyable. The leaders that I work with play a role in the positions that I accept. I am slightly more “me” driven when choosing the position. Unfortunately, I forget that aspect once in a position.”
“New opportunities were presented to me. Sometimes I would leave a job where I still had more to learn Other times I was seeking a new challenge. But I always jumped on the opportunity.”
“I want higher levels of leadership and more money, but I won’t take a job just for these factors.”
Job hopping is usually a sign that the person has no career plan. Even if the woman chose her career step, it was generally made on fulfilling an emotion instead of moving toward a particular destination. However, by her mid-thirties, many of the women regretted not being more deliberate about her choices, that she could at least be more financially secure if she had created a plan earlier in her life.
Sample interview responses:
(AS) “I was never taught that you actually make a plan. We’re not taught in school. People ask you what you want to do when you grow up, and you usually give the answer that elicits the greatest smile from the grown ups. That’s pretty much it. My parents too, just said to get an education. That was the theme. You’re smart, you get an education…even now I only know what I like to do but I’m not sure where, or how to focus.”
(JE) “We have to have a place to put our energy. The generation before us maybe had a clearer purpose. We run around with raw energy and no defined place to put it.”
(MR) “I regret not having more of a plan, or at least knowing what I wanted to be or to have accomplished in the end. It would have helped me make better choices.”
