Alana Karen book draws on 80 real-life stories from women in tech

THE ADVENTURES OF WOMEN IN TECH – PRESS RELEASE
SAN FRANCISCO – Google’s Alana Karen Debuts Action-forward, Daring Book on “The ‘Adventures of Women in Tech”

A twenty-year tech leader, Alana Karen brilliantly and systematically replaces what we think we know about women in tech with more than eighty women’s stories of what it’s honestly like to join, lead, leave and thrive in today’s top technology companies.

What is it actually like for women in tech? Are diversity efforts even working? Should women avoid working for technology companies altogether? How do you navigate becoming a leader, motherhood, bad bosses, becoming a boss and everything in between?

These are some questions Alana Karen helps to answer with her
new book: The Adventures of Women in Tech: How We Got Here and
Why We Stay, released in September from Wise Ink.

“For years, I witnessed headline after headline miss the mark about
my experience in tech,” Karen explains. “In fact, if you’re a recent
college grad or mid-career and entering the tech industry for the
first time, you’ve likely heard little to nothing about how to build a
meaningful career as a woman in this industry.”

The Adventures of Women in Tech is a must-read for all who dream of building fulfilling careers in tech or who are asking themselves if they belong. Spoiler alert: you do. Alana Karen can help you get there with bold, action-forward insights from a 20-year career at Google and wisdom distilled from the best of the best leaders in the industry. Learn more at
alanakaren.com.

Alana shares her professional journey along with the stories of over
80 diverse women who have built successful careers in all niches of
the industry. From women pursuing challenging roles in product
and engineering to those who are forging innovative roles in
traditional spaces like HR, sales, legal and finance, Alana Karen
forges a broader definition of what we think of as tech careers.

“Even as we work to build better diversity, we weren’t being
inclusive in the stories we tell of working in tech. From the
awesome experiences to challenging ones, we need to see real
stories to break down the barriers that keep women from entering,
succeeding, and staying in this field:’

From tackling the concept of “likability” and breaking the cycle of
women not helping other women, to sharing the top five tools that
women must have for navigating their careers, The Adventures of Women in
Tech is a must-read for all who dream of building fulfilling careers
in tech or who are asking themselves if they belong. Spoiler alert:
you do. Alana Karen can help you get there with bold, action-forward insights from a 20-year career at Google and wisdom distilled
from the best of the best leaders in the industry. Learn more at
alanakaren.com.

Excerpt:

As I speak with women, it’s common that we wish our younger
selves knew to question themselves less, to embrace our talents
more, to not let anyone push us into a corner, to ask for what we
want and take it. I can only imagine what the world would be like if
we knew this earlier-if at twenty, we realized we could own the
room instead of at thirty. If at twenty-five, we thought we could
lead a team versus thirty-five.

“The stories cover the gamut of where women are on this
journey, what they’ve learned about themselves and what they still
need to learn. I wish for all of them, and for all of you, I could wave
a magic wand and box up the feeling of being awesome and give it
to you. That’s a tall order, though, so you’re going to have to read
the stories below and then think about times when you’ve felt a
similar way, where you’ve come to the same realization, or where
you’ve wanted more. And then, starting tomorrow, try to remember
each day that you are awesome, and you don’t need anyone else to
say it for you to believe it.”