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On the Way: A Working Woman's Field Guide
You may have read Lean In and other inspirational books on women in the workplace. Now how do you turn your goals into reality? Start putting ideas into practice today. This essential guide offers practical steps on how to build and grow a successful and satisfying career. It is the first tactical handbook for professional women with detailed nuts-and-bolts tips on all aspects of day-to-day working life. On the Way is well-organized reference guide relevant to any woman seeking to enter or navigate the professional world. The book pinpoints best practices by category, peppered with personal observations. Get modern guidance on topics including choosing a career path, job searching, office behavior, having a family while working, and stress management. The book focuses on smart, realistic strategies for all stages of career whether one is enjoying success or tackling tough times. On the Way is a key companion resource to complement other popular books on women and business. Keep it in your library to pull out over and over as a starting point for next steps in any working world situation.
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2015
19 people are currently reading
254 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 2, 2017
Honest, practical, direct field advice about working in the professional world as a woman. Less of a sit down read, more of a quick reference guide.
February 29, 2016
Practical, honest advice on how to navigate the business world, in a dense, somewhat unpolished package.
Pro: honest advice. The author’s choice to use a pseudonym (with the assumption being that she wanted to be frank without it haunting her) allowed her to be rather brutally honest, which is definitely a plus for this book. Her advice comes from a pretty conservative viewpoint, but I don’t think this is a drawback. The author’s point is often that you may not think that the actions she’s suggesting are not “fair” or “right”, but you have to acknowledge that others (often 40–70 year old men) will judge you not on YOUR values, but on THEIRS. For example, the author states that you shouldn’t make idle “girly” chit-chat at the office where others can hear you, shouldn’t bring in your baby, should think very carefully before filing personnel complaints, etc. The idea is that to others (fairly or unfairly), such things may harm your professional image. The assumption is that yes, sexism is alive and well, and it’s best to avoid triggering it whenever possible. This is somewhat saddening but honest advice. This isn’t to say that the author’s advice is not to be feminine. It’s just pointing out that if you do things differently from your male colleagues, then you will be perceived differently from them. Sad, but true.
Pro: Varied practical tips. The book has practical tips on many (perhaps too many) subjects, from how to build a business wardrobe to how to deal with high-travel careers to how to choose your career path. The variety of topics is both a strength and a weakness. There’s a lot of info, but it does feel a bit catch-all, as if the author was noting down every possible bit of advice she ever gave anyone. Also, some areas aren’t covered very thoroughly, leaving me feeling that the author had cast such a wide net that she felt the need to cover that topic but didn’t have much experience with it to share other than “investigate your options”, which wasn’t terribly helpful.
Con: Dense, stream-of-consciousness style and demanding tone. I felt the book’s tone and style suffered from a lack of polish. The advice comes across as lists inside lists, dense and stream-of-consciousness but not terribly good at connecting to the reader. It uses a lot (and I mean A LOT) of imperative sentences with very few transitions for paragraphs and paragraphs, making it feel choppy and demanding. I found myself wishing for more “restful” examples/stories to be sprinkled within. (Oddly, the author put a section at the back that described some successful women at varying parts of their careers: but just…described them. I think the idea was so that you could see how there was no one “path to success”, but it would have been more interesting if those women’s experiences had been sprinkled throughout the book to break up all the direct advice.) Also, some advice was presented in multiple places as if for the first time, which added to the stream-of-consciousness impression and took away from the cohesiveness of the book.
Pro: honest advice. The author’s choice to use a pseudonym (with the assumption being that she wanted to be frank without it haunting her) allowed her to be rather brutally honest, which is definitely a plus for this book. Her advice comes from a pretty conservative viewpoint, but I don’t think this is a drawback. The author’s point is often that you may not think that the actions she’s suggesting are not “fair” or “right”, but you have to acknowledge that others (often 40–70 year old men) will judge you not on YOUR values, but on THEIRS. For example, the author states that you shouldn’t make idle “girly” chit-chat at the office where others can hear you, shouldn’t bring in your baby, should think very carefully before filing personnel complaints, etc. The idea is that to others (fairly or unfairly), such things may harm your professional image. The assumption is that yes, sexism is alive and well, and it’s best to avoid triggering it whenever possible. This is somewhat saddening but honest advice. This isn’t to say that the author’s advice is not to be feminine. It’s just pointing out that if you do things differently from your male colleagues, then you will be perceived differently from them. Sad, but true.
Pro: Varied practical tips. The book has practical tips on many (perhaps too many) subjects, from how to build a business wardrobe to how to deal with high-travel careers to how to choose your career path. The variety of topics is both a strength and a weakness. There’s a lot of info, but it does feel a bit catch-all, as if the author was noting down every possible bit of advice she ever gave anyone. Also, some areas aren’t covered very thoroughly, leaving me feeling that the author had cast such a wide net that she felt the need to cover that topic but didn’t have much experience with it to share other than “investigate your options”, which wasn’t terribly helpful.
Con: Dense, stream-of-consciousness style and demanding tone. I felt the book’s tone and style suffered from a lack of polish. The advice comes across as lists inside lists, dense and stream-of-consciousness but not terribly good at connecting to the reader. It uses a lot (and I mean A LOT) of imperative sentences with very few transitions for paragraphs and paragraphs, making it feel choppy and demanding. I found myself wishing for more “restful” examples/stories to be sprinkled within. (Oddly, the author put a section at the back that described some successful women at varying parts of their careers: but just…described them. I think the idea was so that you could see how there was no one “path to success”, but it would have been more interesting if those women’s experiences had been sprinkled throughout the book to break up all the direct advice.) Also, some advice was presented in multiple places as if for the first time, which added to the stream-of-consciousness impression and took away from the cohesiveness of the book.
July 27, 2016
This book is definitely a "Field Guide," as advertised. I think it would serve well as a reference guide and less as a sit-and-read, but it does have a lot of useful information. The format is really straightforward instruction, which I think works well, but you may or may not agree with all of the advice.
Most of it was pretty spot on, I thought. It's not always PC or popular advice, but I think it's fairly accurate. There were some gaps--as an adoptive mother, for instance, I thought the content on handling adoption in the workplace was definitely underdeveloped, especially with pages on breast feeding--but there were also sections that seemed more than necessary (such as the best bras to wear when traveling).
It had a train of consciousness feel to it, which was a little odd, but overall I think it is full of useful, practical information for women in the workplace at all stages of career.
Most of it was pretty spot on, I thought. It's not always PC or popular advice, but I think it's fairly accurate. There were some gaps--as an adoptive mother, for instance, I thought the content on handling adoption in the workplace was definitely underdeveloped, especially with pages on breast feeding--but there were also sections that seemed more than necessary (such as the best bras to wear when traveling).
It had a train of consciousness feel to it, which was a little odd, but overall I think it is full of useful, practical information for women in the workplace at all stages of career.
June 2, 2015
I found this book to be full of sage advice. I am not a woman, so many potential problems had never even occurred to me. Others I have seen women fall for, a shame they hadn't read this book.
Much of the content, such as degree choice, applies equally to men. Indeed, a little extra thought and most things discussed do have a male equivalent.
The delivery is direct and short. It is a reference manual (womanual?), not a sit-down read. I found myself using the contents feature on the Kindle version to dip into areas that interested me rather than reading cover to cover.
Much of the content, such as degree choice, applies equally to men. Indeed, a little extra thought and most things discussed do have a male equivalent.
The delivery is direct and short. It is a reference manual (womanual?), not a sit-down read. I found myself using the contents feature on the Kindle version to dip into areas that interested me rather than reading cover to cover.
January 9, 2016
This book is full of good, common-sense advice but is written very dryly, and is kind of a weird catchall for everything career related, including pets, childcare, relationships and gift giving. A lot of the advice is "don't." As in, don't speak too loudly, don't wear short skirts, don't be too full of yourself, don't question your manager, don't be a woman.To me, the tone is somewhat like a scolding elderly aunt: "Don't track mud on the carpet." I believe this book was free through Bookbub and I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. It could use a bit more focus, humor and warmth.
January 4, 2016
This book was very inspirational for me, as a young woman who is slowly but surely entering the workforce. After reading "On the Way" not only do I feel more confident in my abilities in the working world (i.e. with interviews) but also as an individual! The aspect of the book that I most connected with was that that said that your career is partly made up of your interests and talents. A career doesn't have to be just something to make money, but can also be a way to utilize the best things about you!
August 4, 2015
I thought this was a very helpful and informative book, it included a lot of great tips for working women. I would definitely recommend this book! See my full review here: One the Way: A Working Woman's Field Guide
April 24, 2017
I would give it a higher rating for majority of the information of the book, but about 1/4 of the way though she starts to look down on those in administrative and secretarial roles. I can understand that you do not wish to look like a secretary if you are wanting to be a VP or CEO, but there are a lot of working women out there who are in administrative/secretarial/HR roles, that are happy, successful and very proud of their status. I for one did not appreciate it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews