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Mary Barra Urges Women to Stick With It

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We cover a lot of car stories here at The News Wheel, and many times that includes information about who’s getting promoted to the big chairs at the tables of American automakers. One thing we’ve noticed is that while CEOs are occasionally stolen from competitors, most of the big leaders in the industry have been with their employers for a long time. According to Mary Barra, that’s not an accident.


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During an interview with Quartz’s Leah Fessler, Mary Barra was asked what was one change women could make at work to advance themselves. Instead of offering common advice like sticking up for yourself or taking advantage of continuing education opportunities, Barra instead told women to stick with their jobs as much as possible. The exact piece of advice was “I’d urge women not to cut off their career branches too early. Don’t step away from your career based on what ‘might’ happen.”

You might scoff at the idea of sticking with one company through thick and thin, but Mary Barra made it to the top of the mountain as the first female CEO of the Big Three American carmakers by spending her entire career at GM. She was first hired by the Detroit brand at age 18 as a Pontiac hood inspector to raise money for college and worked her way up the ranks. GM is not unique in favoring internal candidates, as we saw when Ford promoted Joy Falotico to be its head of Lincoln and Marketing recently. Falotico has been with Ford for more than 29 years. Her starting position? A call center employee at Ford Credit.


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Of course, you have to make the right decisions for you when it comes to your career. If you really want to make it to the top, make the best of the career you have and commit to moving forward.

News Source: Quartz