Career advice for girls

Last night, Cathy and I went to her school to attend a humanities career evening -- the school's first such event on this particular subject. The main talk was given by Sarah Hogg, who told us about her own career. She spoke with self-deprecating humour about how, in her first job as a journalist on the Economist magazine, there was no such benefit as maternity leave or separate taxation for married women. When she had her first child, she ended up working for 17 p of each pound she earned. In those days, only about 12 per cent of women has children and worked (at the same time), and no wonder, as she said.

Things have changed a lot nowadays, of course, but the world is uncertain. Sarah Hogg has had two or three changes of career in her life, from journalist to policy adviser to the Prime Minister to chairman of companies. Currently, she is chairman of the 3i group, which makes the company the only FTS100 company with a woman chairman (ever, I think she said).

This modest yet determined woman spoke with a soft voice. She spoke of how the world is uncertain today, that there are few "jobs for life" with final-salary pension schemes; that large,apparently secure companies can collapse (Enron) or be sold/split up (P&O), and that new, small companies can mushroom (Google) or be sold for vast sums of money overnight (YouTube). Journalism in the mainstream media faces an uncertain future.

Yet she spoke of all the marvellous opportunities offered to people (girls, actually, as she was speaking to an audience of female students) who study subjects at school and university that they love, who have broad educational interests, who are interested in travelling the world, and who aren't scared of an abrupt change of direction. She said that she sits on the boards of many diverse companies, academic institutions (LSE, for example) and organisations (art galleries), and makes many high-level appointments. Overall, the most interesting candidates, and the ones that often got the job, were people who had had a spectacular failure somewhere in their lives, but who had picked themselves up and carried on, often in a new direction. We can learn from our failures, she told the audience, and can grow from them into new strengths.

Well, I am now a huge fan of Sarah Hogg. Here is her Wikipedia entry (after reading it I now know why she made several jokes aimed at herself about her squeaky voice, which sounded just great to me):

Sarah Elizabeth Mary Hogg, Viscountess Hailsham and Baroness Hogg (born 14 May 1946) is an English economist and a journalist.

Born Sarah Boyd-Carpenter, she is the daughter of the former Chief Secretary of the Treasury and Paymaster-General Lord Boyd-Carpenter. She attended the foremost Roman Catholic convent school in England, St. Mary's, South Ascot. Following her schooling there, she was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

She was an economics editor for The Independent newspaper and was the head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit for Sir John Major. Other roles include former Deputy Governor of the BBC, Chairman of 3i Group and current/former board memberships of various companies including P&O, P&O Princess and Banco Santander.

Through her 1968 marriage to Douglas Hogg, 3rd Viscount Hailsham, she is Viscountess Hailsham. However, following the granting of a life peerage, she sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Hogg, of Kettlethorpe in the County of Lincolnshire.

She was an early presenter of Channel 4 News, but her voice, with its uncertainty of pitch, was felt by many viewers to be a distraction.

Sarah Hogg Wikipedia entry.

Comments

[Clare]

Yes, I think 'go for what you love' is the best advice in the world...and also keep going and never give up.

[Lee]

And I love the example of the spectacular failure - something our schools seem to overlook.

[Sian]

Sounds like an excellent speaker and great role model. So good for young girls to meet women like this, so that they can see what can be achieved. Hope Cathy enjoyed it as much as you seem to have done!

[confucious trevaskis]

That's all very well and I'm sure she was lovely - but with her priviliged background, that can hardly have been a balanced view that would be applicable to women in general.

In the real world, a spectacular failure, is usually seen as just that. Isn't it?

[Maxine]

Well, Confucious, I am sure SH could equally well have used her priveleged background to do absolutely nothing useful with her life, or indeed used it to become useless (eg become a drug addict). I agree some of us start out with more advantages than others, but it is not a given that becuase you start out with money and connections, you are necessarily successful or that it is even easier to be successful. (And the other way round.)

[Maxine]

PS to Confucious: my admiration of SH also does not bear any relation to her political sympathies!

[Marie]

I think it's wonderful that there are so many opportunities for girls these days. It really has changed so much for the better since I was at school (back in the early 1980s).

[Maxine]

Did they at least let you play cricket, Marie? I was at school, er ...let's just say before you ...and my worst thing was that girls weren't allowed to play cricket or soccer.
I suppose I found out more worse things later on, but that seemed pretty bad at the time.

[Marie]

I don't think we played cricket, Maxine. It wouldn't have bothered me because I hated doing any sport anyway! I remember playing hockey. That was awful.