THE ADVENTURES OF WOMEN IN TECH WORKBOOK

Five successful women present a multifaceted look at the prospects and strategies of women in technology-related careers.

Google executives Karen and Nika, along with their colleagues Hughley and Dealey and WarnerMedia director Rivers, combine their viewpoints and insights in this follow-up workbook. It acts as a companion piece to Karen’s The Adventures of Women in Tech (2020), which drew on interviews with more than 80 women in a range of technology fields. As Karen promoted this earlier work, she discovered that readers wanted more “action-oriented advice,” resulting in this guide, which is equal parts encouragement and practical manual. It features individual sections by each of the authors and presents five tools, first introduced in Karen’s 2020 book, that women starting or currently in tech careers can learn to use in order to enhance their experience, including “Resilience,” or “building the grit and the power to withstand adversity”; “Marketing 101,” regarding promoting one’s accomplishments; “Ask!” and “Find Support,” which both involve seeking out like-minded people and building networks for help and advice; and finally, “Own Your Awesome,” which involves “knowing you are enough and you are worthy.” The authors offer a series of exercises designed to help readers clarify their thoughts by getting them down on paper, as when the authors ask, “Think about a past failure. Have you accepted it fully? What about it do you have trouble accepting? Why?...What would you have done differently?” 

Over the course of this workbook, the authors address a great many aspects of advancement in the tech world, and, as they note, their insights can be helpfully applied in many other fields. For example, they address resisting the “tiara syndrome,” in which one expects acclaim to come automatically without having to work to promote one’s accomplishments, and the value of social media, including Instagram or TikTok, in online marketing. Throughout, the authors not only cover a wide array of challenges, but also provide a spirited call for women to face the job market with energy and creativity. Along the way, they explore each of the five aforementioned tools in satisfying detail, always striking upbeat notes and consistently reminding readers of their worth: “You’ve done a lot of homework, make sure you get credit for it,” they write in a section elaborating on “Ask!” for instance. “Step back and provide the broader context for why you are making this ask and why it is important to you.” They suggest plenty of tactics for situations small and large, from details regarding verbal and nonverbal communication to ways of dealing with senior and junior colleagues that preserve both the reader’s and their colleagues’ value: “Imagine a story, the narrative of your work, and imagine having different audiences,” the authors write. “How will you shape your narrative for the audience you have each time?” These are good questions and tips, and the book is full of others that are similarly useful.

A thorough and thought-provoking guide to helping women get the most out of their chosen fields.