When's Happy Hour?: A Review
Betches Media has been around for a while putting funny content on the internet. When’s Happy Hour isn’t their first book. They have written others, among producing several podcasts. So there are lots of ways to get more Betches here, if you’d like!
I have followed Betches Media in different avenues for a few months before they launched their book When’s Happy Hour? I was gifted the book by my fiance before I made the transition out of my full-time 9-5 job and into my new real estate and blogging career. I wanted it because the tagline made me think it would be a book for me. I would describe myself as young, fun-loving, loyal, dedicated, honest, and unconventional.
When I began reading the book I immediately recognized the strong voices in their writing. They touched on the history of feminism early in the book. I found this to be a summary of what I already knew but thought it was a fine addition to lay groundwork for deeper, more nuanced discussion throughout the book. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much more depth throughout, although they did circle back to many feminist issues and elaborate the effect on a potential job seeker, it wasn’t elaboration for the sake of depth or thought. It was useful advice, but advice that is widely known and discussed already, so it wasn’t groundbreaking for me.
The authors clearly have a public persona that they keep up and write in. This is fine in smaller doses but a whole book’s worth of this voice became tiering. This voice is materialistic, youthful, and shallow. They made lots of implied judgements and snooty statements. Not to say they lack humility, because they do seem to know their own place in the landscape of women in the workplace, but it didn’t seem that they went beyond their generalized views of many other professions in the book. They barely touched on caring professions, like nursing and teaching, which is a shame because there is a lot of noted burnout in these professions and marketing the book like they did very well could have hit home with professionals in these fields, but they were largely ignored throughout the book.
I do have a college degree, as I imagine most of the target audience for the book does, but the content is not super useful for someone who may have had a professional experience through college, or has held/ currently holds a professional career position. The advice on resumes and interviews is shallow. The advice for bosses and coworkers is relevant enough, but mostly used for comedy and relatability. ANYone with an advanced degree beyond a bachelor's would get no advice from this book.
I would not recommend this book. It has a few laughable moments but I think the target audience and the content is mismatched, overall, in addition to the potentially annoying voice throughout.
Interested in buying this book anyway? I found it on Amazon.
