My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for ARC August reading challenge, it is #2 on list from my sign up post. I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. Non-fiction isn’t usually my favorite genre but I agreed to review the book because 1) it did sound interesting and 2) I am a working woman in a traditionally male-dominated field so I thought maybe I could pick up a few tips and tricks along the way. And I definitely learned something from reading this book, there is a plethora of good advice in this book and I am extremely glad that I read it. There were a lot of good points and I know I will be trying to keep them in mind in the months/years to come as I steer my career upwards (hopefully). I especially loved the author’s idea of having a set packing list for different work trips (domestic short trip, foreign long trip, trip with child, etc.) that you can use for multiple occasions. I have started doing something similar to this lately and it is just such a helpful idea and saves so much time when you’re not running around last minute trying to figure out what you forgot to pack.
I didn’t agree with absolutely all of the authors points, mostly I think because of generational differences which is fine. In one part she mentions that you shouldn’t use “pink pens, water bottles, or anything else that would have been at home on the set of the movie Legally Blonde” (ha that’s funny) but I think a pink water bottle on its own would be ok, like one of those Camelbak bottles everyone uses. I don’t think that would be detrimental, though to be honest there’s also nothing wrong with just buying a blue one. I absolutely 100% agree with her many points about forcing yourself to step outside of your comfort zone; it really is one of the best ways to grow professionally. As a woman professional you need to be comfortable doing any task assigned to you, and if you’re a weak public speaker or don’t feel that comfortable doing it, that is going to hold you back from being able to advance in any company. I also really liked her point that not everything is about you. I know as a woman I tend to take things very personally, even in the work place. If I get a lot of review comments I sometimes see that as failing and get very defensive. But without these comments I won’t be able to grow as a professional since in essence they are really a training tool. No matter how much you may think something is personal, its more than likely “Not about you”!
So as you probably could already figure out, I thought this was a helpful, informative, and well-written book. Most non-fiction books I have trouble staying interested but I had no issues on that with this book as there are story examples included throughout and honestly the points and suggestions were just so helpful it wasn’t hard to stay interested. To any women just starting out in the professional world and even women who have been in it for awhile (I have been a working woman for 5 years now) this is definitely a must-read!

Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page