Forget everything you think you know about the risk tolerance of women. A U.S. survey conducted by Citi and LinkedIn revealed that when it comes to professional risk, women surpass men by anticipating more career transitions and holding more jobs.
The average woman expects to have eight different jobs in the course of her lifetime and is more likely than a man to make several career transitions to meet her goals, according to the third Today's Professional Woman Report.
"The survey results illustrate how women are willing to take risks when it comes to their careers -- they're thinking creatively about their paths, their definitions of success, and are prepared to reinvent themselves in order to achieve their goals," said Linda Descano, the Head of Content and Social, North America Marketing at Citi, and President and CEO of Women & Co.
Of the 1,023 respondents of the study, 45 percent of the women are also doing work that is different from what they expected they would do after getting their college degree. This was considerably higher than the 36 percent of men who are in this situation.
Apparently, women don't feel that they have to begin and end their career with the same workplace or even the same field. The survey showed that 30 percent of women, compared to only 19 percent of the men, were more inclined to believe that in ten years, they will hold jobs in a different industry or company.
Despite these different career paths, a similar number of men (48 percent) and women (47 percent) believe that they have attained their professional career goals. The study also showed that the number of women who consider themselves successful has also risen 10 percent to 47 percent, since March 2013.
Intriguingly, when it comes to the definition of success, men and women's ideas begin to vary considerably. An overwhelming 79 percent of men believe that having it all is synonymous to having a strong, loving marriage. However, only 66 percent of women are of the same mind.
As far as children are concerned, 86 percent of men feel that kids should be included in their idea of success. Only 73 percent of women feel the same way. More women are also beginning to feel that they did not need to marry in order to be successful. The number of women who say their definition of success is not linked to marriage nearly doubled (from 5 per cent to 9 percent) since the survey was first conducted in July 2012.
There was one point in which men and women of various generations did agree upon. When asked to describe themselves, the most common phrase was: hard-working.
Written By Nicel Jane Avellana, contributor at r/ally, the mobile collaboration platform that lets you socialize your goals.
