IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com has hosted the fourth interview in my Heroines of Personal Finance and Entrepreneurship series. Julie Jansen is a motivational speaker, career coach, and author. She has a great deal of experience helping everyone from CEOs to managers to entrepreneurs find gratifying work and she has some great thoughts on gender and business. Here are a few excerpts from my discussion with her:

Julie, in your book I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This, you strive to help readers make satisfying career choices. In your experience, what are the core differences between men and women when it comes to making career decisions?

Women tend to talk to a larger number of people and be more open about discussing what their issues and problems are regarding their careers. They also seek out more opinions while men are more reticent to ask for advice from people. Men typically internalize much more until they are at the end of their rope about how to move forward. They simply aren’t as comfortable with asking for help. At the same time, people are people and my experience in my coaching practice shows that most people never think deeply or strategically about their careers or realize the importance of doing so until they are faced with a reason to do so. Even then, they are reactive and sporadic in their efforts rather then planful or anticipatory. People will plan weddings and vacations or financing their kid’s college education but rarely their careers. The elements are the same…What do you want? What do you need? What are your resources? What’s your ultimate desired outcome?

What are a few of your favorite resources for helping women succeed in business and discover the career that’s best suited for them?

I usually don’t recommend specific resources primarily because everyone finds one unique resource that just resonates for them. For example, my friend Gilda hated her job in corporate America and just decided to move to Europe for a year to learn French, Spanish and Italian in language immersion school. Her inspiration was the book Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Keep watching reality TV, visit your local bookstore regularly, ask people who changed careers recently what their inspiration was, check out websites, etc. You never know what will hit you at the right time!

Continue reading at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com: Heroines of Personal Finance and Entreprenuership #4: Julie Jansen. Make sure to visit Julie at JulieJansen.net and get a copy of her most recent book, You Want Me to Work With Who? to learn more.