The best career advice for women is to encourage them to seek employment in an area they love.

This is the view of Piya Khanna, executive coach at Change to Succeed, who said females should "figure out what they love to do and then see how they can monetise it".

"Many women are not entirely aware of their passions and what they love doing and therefore 'settle' for what they (or others around them) think they 'should' do," she explained.

"Often they may enjoy something but then think they cannot make money from their passion so they get a 'real' job and end up frustrated and unhappy with their work and angry at themselves for not following their dreams."

But doing this can often lead to depression, resentment and a deep sense of dissatisfaction with life, particularly if a woman is stuck in a job she does not enjoy for a long period of time.

By looking around for other opportunities, females could find themselves looking forward to going to work and relishing the challenges of a new career.

However, those who are seeking jobs in the City and in the financial services could have a fight on their hands as work opportunities in this field are becoming ever more competitive.

Andrew Pullman, managing director of People Risk Solutions, said this is "definitely the case" because the City is currently going through another round of job cuts.

"A number of firms are cutting back significant numbers of their people and obviously there is going to be much more competition for the few jobs that are available," he explained.

But prospective employees who believe their future lies in the financial services industry should be persistent and think of their job hunt as "a campaign" while managing their expectations.

"People need to be sensible in this type of environment. You need to be prepared to possibly do something slightly different and not be too fixed on one particular job in one particular place," Mr Pullman added.