Hot Careers for Women
By Louise Laque
Louise Lague, a journalist, author, and speaker, is president of The Wisdom Group, a consulting firm in Greenwich CT which specializes in midlife issues in the workplace. Via individual consulting and seminars, the Group counsels both individuals and corporations to uncover their own wisdom in accomplishing job satisfaction, staff retention, and necessary change.
Where are the hot jobs for women? In a nutshell, the top industries to explore for the future are:
* Computer Services (because technology has become so crucial)
* Health Services (because of the combination of new treatments and older bodies)
* Management and Public Relations (because the great explosion of entrepreneurial firms need people who can organize the creatives and the techies and promote the company in the growing blitz of information out there.)
* Entertainment and Travel (because midlifers bear a heavy share of both duty and trauma, and are eager to compensate with planned fun.)
But you don't have to be a techie or a heavy-duty exec to find a niche in the work world of the future. While women can do any job, (possible exception: pro hockey player, but who wants to do that? ) there are gender differences that make us better-suited than men for certain kinds of work. Studies tell us that we women are cooperative rather than competitive, which makes us perfect for the new style of empathetic management, lawyers, and dispute mediators. We can multitask better than men and make endless arrangements without cracking, which is useful in marketing, personnel services, and public relations. We are more adept at relationships and more emotionally durable over the long haul, which makes us good candidates for the coming upsurge in professional counseling and to fill the 100,000 new jobs that will open up in the ministry and in religious education.
Even women who have never worked outside the home - and used to panic at their lack of resume - will be comforted to note that jobs in transportation services and residential care rank among the top five fastest growing industries.
But in the years to come, having a hot job won't be as important as having a warm job. A warm job is one where your employer's values match your own, where your work adapts to your preferred lifestyle instead of vice versa, and where you feel you are fulfilling your dharma -the life mission that is unique to you alone. If you have all that, you'll never again need a hot job. We women have spent the last 30 years proving that we can do any kind of job at all. Now it's time to figure out what we really want to do.
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