March 26, 2008
Businesswomen Encouraged To 'Roll With It'
By Matthew L. Brown
In a recent talk, Bose Corp. executive Terri Curran urged women to take risks to get ahead in business.
Curran spoke Tuesday at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel during a luncheon meeting of the relatively new MetroWest Chamber of Commerce Women's Initiative. The focus of the meeting was “Overcoming Barriers in the Workplace.” The Women’s Initiative is a leadership program aimed at helping businesswomen take on leadership roles.
Curran, the Framingham company's director of information security, was asked to speak because for years she was one of very few women in the almost entirely male-dominated field of IT.
In 1974, she ended up in the IT field after being placed in Boston University's computer room by an employment firm.
That placement was fortuitous, she said.
“Sometimes it’s ok not to have a plan because we don’t always know what life holds in store for us,” Curran said. “Roll with it. When those opportunities present themselves you can take advantage of them.” If she hadn’t been open to the BU computer room job, she said, she might have missed entering a career she loves.
Curran also encouraged flexibility. Many times women in the workplace take a very “rules-based” attitude toward meetings and meeting deadlines, she said, but there has to be perspective about the work that can be accomplished within a given time period. “We absolutely do have to get work done, but maybe not all the work can get done today. Don’t live by checklists.”
Mentors are also important because “you need someone who will yell at you when you’re being foolish. People who are not willing to criticize aren’t helpful,” she said. Traveling, whether for work or pleasure, broadens your horizons, as does finding business counterparts overseas to communicate with.
Curran took questions from the audience, including one on how she dealt as a young woman in such a male-dominated field.
Her answer: “I came from a big Irish family in Dorchester. Growing up there, I didn’t take lip from anyone and I still don’t. I’ve always been outspoken and brash.”
Curran spoke Tuesday at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel during a luncheon meeting of the relatively new MetroWest Chamber of Commerce Women's Initiative. The focus of the meeting was “Overcoming Barriers in the Workplace.” The Women’s Initiative is a leadership program aimed at helping businesswomen take on leadership roles.
Curran, the Framingham company's director of information security, was asked to speak because for years she was one of very few women in the almost entirely male-dominated field of IT.
In 1974, she ended up in the IT field after being placed in Boston University's computer room by an employment firm.
That placement was fortuitous, she said.
“Sometimes it’s ok not to have a plan because we don’t always know what life holds in store for us,” Curran said. “Roll with it. When those opportunities present themselves you can take advantage of them.” If she hadn’t been open to the BU computer room job, she said, she might have missed entering a career she loves.
Curran also encouraged flexibility. Many times women in the workplace take a very “rules-based” attitude toward meetings and meeting deadlines, she said, but there has to be perspective about the work that can be accomplished within a given time period. “We absolutely do have to get work done, but maybe not all the work can get done today. Don’t live by checklists.”
Mentors are also important because “you need someone who will yell at you when you’re being foolish. People who are not willing to criticize aren’t helpful,” she said. Traveling, whether for work or pleasure, broadens your horizons, as does finding business counterparts overseas to communicate with.
Curran took questions from the audience, including one on how she dealt as a young woman in such a male-dominated field.
Her answer: “I came from a big Irish family in Dorchester. Growing up there, I didn’t take lip from anyone and I still don’t. I’ve always been outspoken and brash.”
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