Mindy Kaling shares her one piece of career advice & it’s mind-blowing

Mindy Kaling is one of the most inspiring women of this time. Not only is she killing it career-wise, having worked on hit shows like The Office, she’s also been a big part of creating shows like The Mindy Project and Never Have I Ever.

As well as being an acclaimed actress, comedian and screen-writer, Mindy is also a single mum to her two wonderful children. Opening up about her work, Mindy said that having her daughter and becoming a working-mom changed her career forever.

“My daughter was born when I was 37 and I was in the last season of doing my show, The Mindy Project, and it forever changed my career and my job particularly since I'm a single parent. It really changed the face of my career forever,” Mindy explained in a recent interview with E! News.

Continuing, Mindy explained, "As much as I love my career and I really value and take pride in my work ethic and I'm constantly talking about it, I had to reprioritize the way that I worked and honestly start sacrificing things professionally so that I could be a good mom, which is something I was not used to at all."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling)

Talking about the one piece of advice she would give young women of colour starting out in the workforce, Monday said that it’s important to remember that the idea that there can only be one person of colour in the room is thankfully disappearing. 

“As an employer and as someone who sees a lot of employer practices, from the corporate level almost everyone is wanting rooms to be truly diverse, wanting productions to be really diverse, and so I would say please don't worry about that.”

More importantly, Mindy outlined how important it is for women to advocate for themselves. When it comes to getting raises Mindy explained the stark differences between men and women, touching on her experience as an employer.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling)

“I really got an interesting window into that when I became an employer when I was hiring writers for my shows. And I always noticed, and I thought this was so interesting, how the male writers and the male crew that I would have, their representation would always be asking whether their contract was up or not, for a raise, for concessions, for perks.”

“And the women who I worked for, they never had their reps—like if it wasn't a year where their contract was up or anything, they wouldn't ask for anything. They were very much by the books, by the word of the contract and they never felt that they should have any extra perks. And you just notice that.”

“You notice like, ‘Oh, their reps aren't advocating for them’. I think asking for a raise, being someone who is ambitious, but works hard and then would like to be shown it—it doesn't always occur to people who are employers to do that…Being your own advocate in those ways—that's my biggest piece of advice for women,” Mindy exclaimed.

So ladies, the next time you find yourself wondering if you should ask about that raise, or promotion or extra perk — just go for it! Your male co-workers probably already have.

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