Career Forward
Strategies from Women Who've Made It
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
*USA TODAY Bestseller*
“A compass for those navigating their professional journeys” (Forbes) that “reveals often surprising work advice” (New York Post), this empowering guide, from former PepsiCo COO Grace Puma and former Nike President of Consumer Direct Christiana Smith Shi, shows how to prioritize a career path, build professional value, and enjoy a full life both in and out of the workplace.
At a time when many long-held workplace structures and beliefs are changing, Career Forward is a beacon for women aspiring to achieve success and satisfaction in rewarding careers. Drawing on decades of experience reaching the top of Fortune 500 companies, Grace Puma and Christiana Smith Shi show women how to maximize their career journeys, get paid what they’re worth, navigate the shifts that occur in any company, build a leadership identity, and have a full life in and out of work.
The authors challenge negative stereotypes about female ambition, and urge women to be bold, follow their dreams, and seize the chance to lead “big” lives. The secret is to focus on career first, job second. Instead of chasing a better job title or a salary bump, the goal should be a long-range career path that leads to success. “Career forward” means keeping a focus on the future and recognizing that being good at your job is often not enough—that you should take every opportunity to boost your connections, take on “difficult” assignments, and work actively to broaden your skills.
Packed with personal anecdotes and wisdom from women who’ve been there, and featuring quizzes and checklists for self-evaluation, Career Forward provides a wealth of valuable lessons, including the advice to think of yourself as a “growth stock” and, instead of chasing the elusive work-life balance, living a well-rounded 360-degree life that fully embraces both. Offering a refreshing response to anyone who wonders whether working hard is really worth it, Puma and Smith Shi’s emphatic answer is “yes,” because by correctly following the blueprint in Career Forward, the rewards will far outweigh the effort.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this energizing debut manual, Puma, former COO of PepsiCo, and Shi, former president of Nike's consumer-direct division, advise women professionals to further their careers by focusing on long-term goals. The authors illustrate their guidance with personal anecdotes, as when Shi stresses the importance of boosting one's future employability by seeking on-the-job opportunities to acquire new skills and tells how during her tenure as a management consultant she specialized in retail clients and pursued related research projects so she could one day take a leadership position at a retail company. Lamenting that "the average woman worker loses more than $530,000 because of the gender wage gap" over her lifetime, the authors encourage readers to negotiate for higher salaries by making a highball initial ask and backing up the request with "tangible examples that show why you deserve the compensation." Elsewhere, the authors address adjusting to a new boss, the importance of networking, and "when and how to turn down a job that doesn't support your career goals." The combination of helpful anecdotes and rousing encouragement ("Own your ambition and be bold about it") makes for a sensible program on how women can achieve their professional goals. Readers will feel inspired.
