HR Advice

[burbuja0512]

Yikes.  Ok I wasn't going to bring it up because I know it's not the case with my boss, who hired me.   But I do suspect some sexism on a larger scale.    In my group, there are female directors and senior directors, but it does seem to be a bit of a boy's club since only the guys have a VP title, even for the same type of position.

However, I try not to focus on this because I feel like I could be overly sensitive about it if I let myself.    I'm going way off topic, but years ago there was a very large organization that didn't hire me for a Sales VP job and the headhunter told me confidentially that the all male executive team didn't feel like I was a "cultural fit."  (meaning they wanted a man)   She was frustrated and had to start the search over again, even though I was the perfect fit.   I took the high road and decided to move on.   But this experience did affect me pretty significantly.   

I have a few other stories like the company where I was working as a "Team Lead" managing 15 people and 20+ million dollars worth of revenue while the male directors managed 3-4 people and under 5 million.   No explanation.  I just couldn't move up.  Well.. there was the part where I wouldn't sleep with the VP, and I guess that might have hurt my chances.   I just had to find a new job to move up, though I tried to do it on merit alone.  

Sales is gross and dirty and based on our extensive travel, many guys feel like being away from home makes it play time.   International sales makes domestic sales look like nuns in a convent.   I get propositioned pretty regularly and have found ways to deal with it.   In the case of my old VP, there wasn't a way around it.   I got on the sh*t list.       


But back to the issue at hand -and I only shared some of my experience to demonstrate that yes, I do see a ton of crap and I see it all the time.   But, women in international sales are at a huge advantage when it comes to closing a deal in every part of the world - including the Middle East, at least from my experience.   I've negotiated 6 and 7 figure deals with men in positions of power who wanted to work with me simply because they'd never met an American woman with blonde hair or because they feel more comfortable ceding their negotiation position with a woman because they look courteous, not weak.   Yes it sounds shallow, but I'll take the advantages.    It's a way to balance out the very clear disadvantages I have with my male peers.  I let my numbers talk.   It doesn't always work, but it's a step.

Anyway, I now have a great boss who is not sexist at all.  The good ones are slowly replacing the sleazeballs in this field, I hope.   I'm handling a lot of work and so far doing a great job.   I do have the external title in writing and I've put reminders on the calendar in the future to follow-up.   I don't know if this is the solution, but I think it's a good start.  



Also, on one other side topic, I was talking to a friend about the title issue.  It turns out that at her company EVERYONE except the C-suite has internal and external titles.    The internal titles are broken down to just a few levels, contributor, manager, etc and the external titles are chosen by the department to what best suits their needs.   I thought this was weird and I would hate it, but the purpose is to be agile if someone's responsibilities change suddenly.  I wonder how they handle that sort of thing when job hunting.  My friend wasn't sure since she's been there for 14 years.