A Woman’s Framework for a Successful Career and Life

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 1-4

3. What Women Need to Build in Order to Have a Successful Career

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 5-5

      PDF

   2. Build Your … Board

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 7-25

   3. Build Your … Brand

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 27-43

   4. Build Your … Communication Skills

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 45-64

   5. Build Your … Negotiation Skills

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 65-85

4. What Women Need to Consider throughout a Successful Career

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

      PDF

   2. Consider … Ambition

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 89-101

   3. Consider … Leadership

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 103-123

   4. Consider … Work-Life Fit

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 125-140

   5. Consider … Career-Path Navigation

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 141-156

   6. Consider … Working in a Global Environment

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 157-174

   7. Do … Put It All Together

      • James Hamerstone, Lindsay Musser Hough

      Pages 175-178

5. Back Matter

   Pages 179-205

   PDF

Successfully Navigating a Profession is a comprehensive resource for young women trying to figure out how to build a successful career in today's world. Unfortunately, young women navigating the current workforce are faced with career metaphors that can make achieving a successful career tantamount to sending a text message from a rotary phone. While building a satisfying career in today's economy isn't quite as easy as laying on your couch and texting in your American Idol votes, it doesn't have to seem impossible either. This book explains how. Its 2010 women routinely serve on the President's cabinet (President Obama's has five), lead large corporations such as Pepsi and Xerox, and comprise 60 percent of college graduates. The ingredients to the 'secret sauce' of a woman's career aren't so secret anymore. However, few books provide those ingredients in a straightforward, organized way. In this timely work, the authors lay out, one by one, the building blocks for a successful, lifelong career focusing on skills (such as leadership and communication), mentoring, work-life fit, and personal branding. Is this book a cookbook for success of a modern women's career? Probably not; even the most accomplished women don't claim to have followed a formulaic path to success. What Hamerstone and Musser Hough do is help a young woman think about what her satisfying career might really look like and provide a unifying framework for how to get there. Appropriate for a young woman just entering the workforce up through a woman in mid-career (who doesn't have time to read a dozen different books on various narrow career topics), Successfully Navigating a Profession lays out the key elements of a successful career in a concise and logical manner. Those elements include core skills - Leadership, Communication, Negotiation as well as Networking, Mentoring, Career Path Navigation, Work-Life Fit, and Personal Brand. Each topic includes a summary of key research and leading thought on these issues and is infused with examples and commentary from successful women gathered through interviews the authors conducted with women of all ages in corporate, government, and non-for-profit organizations. Most importantly, each chapter answers the 'So What Does this Mean for Me?' question by offering realistic, concrete suggestions for how women can Successfully Navigate a Profession. The authors offer a unique blend of practical and academic experiences that provides the reader with a framework to successfully navigate her career in today's economy.

• communication
• leadership
• women

"Although the work is targeted toward college women, others in this age group and beyond can benefit from its guidelines. Hamerstone (an academic) and Hough (a consultant) design the work so that it is structured enough to use in a career development class yet practical enough for personal use. . . . The book's strength is in its breadth and practicality." - Recommended in CHOICE

"Hamerstone and Hough's practical tips on building your personal brand and board will resonate with women as they navigate their early career. The book's roadmap for career success and advancement provides meaningful scenarios with clear steps to avoid the common pitfalls of professional life. Young women early in their career will glean advice and insight for their own career, but men and women of all career stages should read this book to understand their role and impact in building the next generation of leaders." - Elissa Sangster, Executive Director, Forté Foundation

'The approaches outlined in A Women's Framework for A Successful Career and Life offer women an early path to sustained career advancement. The authors provide practical, useful tips that can be put to use from day one of a woman's career. If more women read and follow their advice, we will be well on our way to closing the leadership gap that persists today in the ranks of executive women.' - Kathryn Heath, Partner, Flynn Heath Holt Leadership, and co-author, Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking That Block Women's Paths to Power

Author James Hamerstone: James E. Hamerstone is a visiting assistant professor in the Management Department at Gettysburg College. Author Lindsay Musser Hough: Lindsay Musser Hough is a consultant at Deloitte Consultancy in Harrisburg, PA.

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