Women and Internships. Stop the madness.

This blog has nothing to do with women taking part in their own internships. Rather, it is about the dozens of women I have known and worked with who take on the nurturing relationships in their firms (running the internship program) without any benefit.

Stop it.

Stop doing things that yield no additional pay, no mention on your performance review (other than a sentence that is NEVER tied to your salary increase or promotion potential).

I work with clients who want to be on top. They want to be the #1 in their company. Guess what? You need to be a little selfish for that position.

I advise them to become a little selfish- for ONE year- and NOT take on their pet projects in the office that don't DIRECTLY relate to their placement on the totem pole.

Focus on you. Focus on your performance in the role you've been hired for and the role/s you WANT.

Ladies, don't become the nurturer, helper, sitter, g0-to for non-essentials, etc.... Unless it is your primary role and the way that you make money. Its a thankless position (most of the time). Its not a top-performer role. It won't get you to #1 in the company.

Stop taking on the internship program because you are a good person- and "somebody has to". Let that somebody be somebody else.