Women at work and their tips, challenges, advice, complaints, and experiences

Hi Melonie:

What an interesting concept! I do wonder why there isn't a certification for men-owned businesses, or co-ed businesses. This seems like a scam to take women's money.

I knew a person who took a certification course on networking. Networking with people, not networking in computer systems. The marketers of the course claimed that the course was chock full of tips and advice in how to network properly (in my belief, the only improper way to do it, is to only network for selfish purposes - such as selling without truly seeing a prospect's needs). It costs almost $1000!! Some networking groups really bought that concept - as if it's a benefit to members who were already networking, and paying membership to the organizations (ranging from $60 to $500 per year).

Noelle

PS: this is the url of the organization I mentioned in the previous comment -

http://www.certifiednetworker.com/

Perhaps others will find the course helpful.

Noelle

You bring up an excellent point, Noelle. I wonder what sort of certification is required by these corporations and governmental agencies when it comes to men-owned companies. Might have to check into that a bit. Thanks for the link, too. I'm sure it will be of assistance to our visitors!

Matthew W, Grant here...a new, fellow author on Know More Media. My blog is PurchaseRealm and I have been in the Purchasing field for 8 years.

I'll add another perspective into this discussion for you. Please note that these comments have nothing to do with the propriety or societal ethics of whether we should certify women or minority owned businesses. (I'll save that debate for a future post on my blog.) This is about the reality of what happens in corporate purchasing departments.

Over the last say, 10 years or so, Supplier Diversity as in "women owned" or "minority owned" businesses has become a hot Public Relations topic. Most large corporations have specific programs in place to award a certain percentage of purchases to businesses meeting these certifications which are obtained through the state in which the businesses are located or through national organizations.

Some government contracts (Example: State Pension Fund) require that their vendors (Example: Mega Corp) purchase a certain percentage of their own purchasing budget from women and minority certified businesses. Otherwise, Mega Corp doesn't qualify to do business with State Pension Fund.

I'll definitely go into more detail on my blog in the future, but suffice it to say, this is a very real phenomenon and some businesses have positioned themselves well by taking advantage of these certifications.

Matthew

Great info to know, Matthew...thanks! (And welcome, too!) It will be interesting to read the rest of the "debate" over on your blog!