Читать книгу Winning the War for Talent in Emerging Markets - Sylvia Ann Hewlett - Страница 10

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Unprecedented Advantages

When Maria Pronina graduated from Nizhni Novgorod Linguistic University in 1995, she expected to follow the conventional career track and become an English language teacher. Disappointed with the low salary, however, she switched jobs and started to work as an interpreter, first for the regional government and then for a local company. She acquired a management degree and became a supervisor, and then she moved to a multinational technology company.

Pronina still remembers the moment when she realized that her career horizons had no limits. “I really did not believe that coming from a very low level I had a real chance to make it rapidly. But at my first annual performance assessment, I suddenly understood I could be recognized and could do well. That was the turning point for me.”

Today, Pronina oversees fourteen direct reports and four hundred contractors as facilities and services team manager for Russia/CIS at Intel. Her ambition is to stay with her employer—and do even more. “My employer is doing a lot for my development and provides almost everything I would like to have. I would like to stay at this company but be responsible not only for Russia and CIS but also Europe.”

Talented women in emerging markets are ahead of the curve in unexpected ways. Like Pronina, they see work not as a stopgap measure to fill the time between marriage and motherhood but as an opportunity to realize their ambitions.

This chapter explores the remarkable combination of advantages that talented women in emerging markets bring to the workplace: impressive qualifications, ambitious career visions, and great passion and commitment to their work.