enough education. Instead of being interviewed for the job I'd actually applied for, every interview resulted in "the man we hire will need a good secretary."
I learned the hard way that having worked my way through school as a secretary meant I was (pardon
the pun) typecast. I was hired as a secretary but never promoted. The men I was working with had
gotten too used to having an intelligent secretary who could do their work for them, and didn't want
to go back to doing their own work by giving me the job I'd been doing successfully. However, I continued to work on myself, studying management books, and saved money wherever I could. When a medical crisis caused me to lose my secretarial job, I was ready. If I couldn't go to work, the work would come to me. I opened my own business. I work from home. I network online. I stopped spending money on advertising years ago because I now get all the clients I need by personal referral based on my reputation.
Now that people are noticing my skills in management and offering me jobs based on my current title
instead of "once a secretary, always a secretary", I'm no longer interested in working for someone
else. And that is the best revenge.
Author Bio:
Karen M. Campbell is a writer and editor with International Proofreading Consortium,
www.IntlProofingConsortium.com.