Career Forward: Strategies from Women Who’ve Made It

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. Agent: Lynn Johnston, Lynn Johnston Literary. (Feb.)