Solid guidance from a woman who has made her mark in a technical role.
In her debut business book, Tedrick shares her experiences as a woman of color working in technology and offers guidance for others looking to pursue similar career paths.
Tedrick describes the variety of work and workplaces that fall under the heading of “technology,” making it clear that careers in technology extend well beyond writing code at Google and Facebook. She details the variety of jobs available—including data science, computer networking, cybersecurity, and technical sales, among many others—and lists the education and certification readers will likely need for each type of job. The guide provides copious links to industry organizations, training resources, and further reading and covers standard job hunting and career development aspects like writing a resume, building a LinkedIn profile, networking, and negotiating salaries. The author recounts particular challenges that women and people of color face in the workplace and in technology roles—offering stories of how she has dealt with microaggressions, hostility, and dismissiveness. She helpfully outlines how she moved past the setbacks to pursue success and includes advice from other women of color. The book is most valuable in its close focus on the realities of the tech world, providing detailed information in a well-organized format about the many options that go far beyond coding, like project management and user experience design. Tedrick’s writing is clear and readable (“Much of a UX designer’s time is spent making sure that they understand the needs of both the business and the end user of the product or service they’re working on”), making this a solid resource for readers without specialized knowledge of the industry. While these lessons are valuable for anyone exploring a tech career, addressing the needs of women of color gives Tedrick a unique hook and sets the book apart from the rest of the career development pack.
Solid guidance from a woman who has made her mark in a technical role.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-119-63348-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Wiley
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.
Want to get ahead in business? Consult a dictionary.
By Wharton School professor Berger’s account, much of the art of persuasion lies in the art of choosing the right word. Want to jump ahead of others waiting in line to use a photocopy machine, even if they’re grizzled New Yorkers? Throw a because into the equation (“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”), and you’re likely to get your way. Want someone to do your copying for you? Then change your verbs to nouns: not “Can you help me?” but “Can you be a helper?” As Berger notes, there’s a subtle psychological shift at play when a person becomes not a mere instrument in helping but instead acquires an identity as a helper. It’s the little things, one supposes, and the author offers some interesting strategies that eager readers will want to try out. Instead of alienating a listener with the omniscient should, as in “You should do this,” try could instead: “Well, you could…” induces all concerned “to recognize that there might be other possibilities.” Berger’s counsel that one should use abstractions contradicts his admonition to use concrete language, and it doesn’t help matters to say that each is appropriate to a particular situation, while grammarians will wince at his suggestion that a nerve-calming exercise to “try talking to yourself in the third person (‘You can do it!’)” in fact invokes the second person. Still, there are plenty of useful insights, particularly for students of advertising and public speaking. It’s intriguing to note that appeals to God are less effective in securing a loan than a simple affirmative such as “I pay all bills…on time”), and it’s helpful to keep in mind that “the right words used at the right time can have immense power.”
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780063204935
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper Business
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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