Anat Rapoport kicks everything into high-gear from page one, keeping things no-nonsense, straightforward, and sensible. With the release of her new book, Woman Up!: Your Guide to Success in Engineering and Tech, she keeps the tone upbeat and motivational. While highlighting the challenges, Rapoport does all of her readers the best service by instantly providing bell-clear articulations for solutions. Seeing books like this reminds me as a male reader of how far we’re coming, despite having a long way to go. “In 2015, I was one of three engineering managers up for a promotion to director.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/anat.rapoport/
Over the previous two years, I had worked hard to show myself capable. I had made personal changes that turned me into a better manager. My people were happy. My projects were succeeding. I was meeting deadlines,” Rapoport writes, in aforementioned vein. “Still, I felt like the VP held the power to dictate the next step in my career: if he allowed me to move up, great, otherwise it seemed like I would be stuck in a dead-end job without options. I told a friend about the promotion and my concerns, and in response she said, ‘You have what it takes to be a senior manager, if not in this place, then somewhere else.’”
For Rapoport, this proved a transformational moment. It also proved to be the inception for a corporate roadmap with highs and lows, and some considerable bumps as Rapoport navigated bias, gender discriminatory attitudes, marriage and family life, and ultimately her own navigational skills in the corporate workplace echelons to achieve what she felt was rightfully hers. The fact that the data, statistics, and corporate psychology she promotes comes both from professional expertise and personal experience is particularly powerful.
There’s a sense you’re not just being lectured to, you’re being led. It’s a welcome relief to many self-help and business general story narration: show, don’t tell the reader. Immersion is dependent on the reader’s own, provided cues to participate. Rapoport succeeds in this venue in spades, knowing when to pull back and cite outside statistics. The result is something that speaks to the reader intellectually and viscerally, simultaneous on an objective platform, and the reader’s subjective experience with the book.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Up-Guide-Success-Engineering/dp/1544542992
“I am a huge believer in women and their ability to rise up and succeed. I believe women have what it takes to be amazing managers. I can’t promise that you won’t fail on this journey. This book isn’t a magic pill that will automatically guarantee you a senior position. But I can promise you will have the tools to get up and try again,” Rapoport writes. “We’ll start by looking at the challenges women experience in tech fields at all levels.” She also states, “If you want to “woman up” and climb the high-tech ladder, especially if you want to do it quickly, you need to take chances. You need to work on those inner challenges that are holding you back, whether it’s lack of confidence or imposter syndrome. You need to be brave.”
Garth Thomas