Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/30

 the first step in a business career is the girl who is business-like from the very beginning.

First, she makes sure of her trade, stenography, before she applies for a position. Then she selects her position with judgment. She does not accept the first offer of work unthinkingly, unquestioningly.

If she desires to advance rapidly she seeks a position with a small concern, where she will not lose her individuality, and where she will come in direct contact with her employers. The employer is always looking for good people to advance; but often where there are chiefs and various assistants between stenographer and employer, the latter does not know that good timber is going to waste in his forest of office clerks.

If she is interested in a certain line of business or a certain profession, she seeks her position where the work will be congenial. If she has the commercial instinct, she will advance more rapidly with a wholesale cloth, shoe or lace house than with a publishing house. If she thinks she would make a good saleswoman, let her enter a real-estate office and study land values, rental problems, commissions, etc., while she handles the firm's correspondence. The stenographer has the very best opportunities for grasping the firm's method and details of