It all started when Hammer found herself suddenly a single mom with two young girls to raise on an assistant professor's salary. After much inner struggle, Hammer did what more and more of us are apt to do in today's volatile marketplace: She decided to reinvent herself professionally.

Workplace Warrior tells the intriguing tale of how this determined woman retooled her skills, advanced quickly in the software business, fought countless rounds to get new ideas accepted, failed famously ... and finally won. Along the way, Hammer learned some lessons about herself and about how to survive the corporate minefield. She organizes her insights into what she calls the three stages of professional growth -- The Apprentice, The Warrior, The Adventurer -- and she challenges readers to examine their own progress.

Combining raw personal honesty with meticulous analysis of the "way things work" in corporate America, Workplace Warrior is that rare book that's both personally compelling and professionally enlightening.