Choosing and Changing Careers
Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger, Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career For You Through the Secrets of Personality Type (Little Brown, 1992)
From these MBTI experts comes a humorous, readable book that will tell you what “type” you are and suggest what to look for and what to avoid in your career choices.
Mark Albion, Making a Life, Making a Living. Reclaiming Your Purpose and Passion in Business and in Life (Warner Books 2000) Mark Albion has seen it all—from Harvard Business School professor to entrepreneur, and has concluded that the only way to long-term success is by believing passionately in what you do. You’ll love his 12 stories (including his own mother) of people who found a way to be successful choreographing their work dances their way.
Job Search
Craig Rice, The $100,000 Resume (McGraw Hill, 1998)
Don’t be put off by the title if you’re not at 6-figures yet. The advice Craig Rice gives is good for anybody in fast-track business mode. And it’s about a lot more than resumes: researching companies, networking, follow-up and interviews.
Yana Parker, Resume Catalog: 200 Damn Good Examples (Ten Speed Press, 1998) This is the resume book for career changers! Try to move from teaching to non-profit management or a marketing position with a chronological teachers’ resume and you’ll be in the circular file within 3 seconds. Show how all your experience relates to the new job with a customized “functional” resume, and you’re likely to get an interview. Let Yana Parker show you how to transform yourself on paper.
Rites of Passage at $100,000+, New... John Lucht, Rites of Passage at $100,000 +. The Insiders Lifetime Guide to Executive Job-Changing and Faster Career Progress (Viceroy, 1998)
Lucht has been all over the terrain of executive job search—spending more than 25 years as a successful headhunter. This book contains all the traditional tricks of the trade, plus a few radical ones.
James Kennedy, The Directory of Executive Recruiters (Kennedy Publications 2000) More than ever, executives and exec wannabes will be turning to headhunters. This volume, organized by field and location, is handy for navigating in this secretive world. It contains both retainer and contingency firms. (Retainer = one company has been retained to do the search, while Contingency = it’s an open job and a variety of firms are shooting at it.) Retainer firms are harder to reach than contingency firms.
Personal and Professional Growth
Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books, 1998) EQ (emotional awareness and interpersonal skills) is much more important to career success than IQ, says Goleman. In fact many experts say that it accounts for up to 90% of people’s workplace effectiveness. This book is “must” reading if your boss, co-workers or family have been hinting that you need to tune in to others more—not doing that will cost you dearly in terms of your career.
Dr. Alan S. Goldberg, Sports Slump Busting: 10 Steps to Mental Toughness and Peak Performance (Human Kinetics, 1998) So what’s a sports psychologist got to do with business success? Everything! Let internationally-known performance psychologist Goldberg show you how to take control of your own psyche to get the results you want!
Managing Effectively
Roger Fisher, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreements Without Giving In (Penguin 1991) In this crazy world, nothing is more important to managing well and working with others above and below you than effective negotiating skills. This is a short book with great examples. Don’t miss it.
Being a Free Agent
William Bridges, Creating You and Company: Learning to Think like the CEO of Your Own Career (HarperCollins, 1998) This book tells you how to make the most of the “new free agent economy” and take control of your own work life. The job description is practically an artifact—let Bridges show you how to figure out what you can do about it.
Terri Lonier, Working Solo (John Wiley and Sons, 1998)
Terrific resource for anybody considering starting a small business or doing at-home work. Information is both inspirational and practical.
Rebecca Matthias, Mothers Work: How a Young Mother Started a Business on a Shoestring and Built It Into a Multi-Million Doallar Company. (Currency 2000) You’ll love the story of Rebecca and her husband Dan, and will be able to learn from their mistakes and emulate their successes. Lots of good practical advice as well.
Elizabeth Lyon, Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write: How to Get a Contract and an Advance Before Writing Your Book and The Sell Your Novel Toolkit (Blue Heron Publishing) Sooner or later, a majority of people will think about writing a book of one kind or another. Lyon’s advice on how to make that happen (without wasting years wishing and spinning your wheels) is first-rate.
John Thompson and Catharine Henningsen, The Portable Executive: Building Your Own Job Security—From Corporate Dependence to Self-Direction (Simon and Schuster, 1995) This book is a hands-on guide to what you need to do to continually hone and market your skills, in order to find as much contract work as you want and need.
LINKS
Monster.com http://www.monster.com
This is the most comprehensive career management site on the web. Be sure to look not just at the 300,000 plus jobs and the Talent Market, but in-depth career advice on all aspects of careers (from intern to CEO), including resources for independents and free agents. You can find Barbara’s message board (“Ask the Career Coach”) there too.
Career Key http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/l/lkj
It’s amazing that this resource is still absolutely free, but it is. This self-assessment tool is good for people of all ages, just starting out, starting over, or trying to decide what kind of venture to begin in your retirement years. The fields the instrument will suggest can then be explored through links to the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
CareerPlanit.com http://www.careerplanit.com
Great information and links in the “Resource mining” section. Self-assessment tools are uneven (Career Key and Kiersey are good, others less substantive)
CEO Express http://www.ceo-express.com
For super-busy execs, access to everything you need to know about. (Written by a former senior exec)
The Riley Guide http://www.rileyguide.com
This is the “original” of career sites on the web. It offers terrific field, industry and organization research—particularly for folks interested in non-profits and the arts. The list of associations and trade organizations is hard to find elsewhere.
Working Solo.com http://www.workingsolo.com
Terri Lonier has been into the business of working with the SOHO (small office/ home office) crowd for almost 20 years. She is the true pioneer, offering resources, FAQ’s, links, and advice on all aspects of going solo. Register to get her newsletter.
Free Agent Nation.com http://www.freeagentnation.com
This site has more than 3,300 links for people eager to investigate (or get better at) doing their own thing. Here you’ll find help with group insurance, organizations, networking in your field, group buying power etc.
SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) http://www.score.org
Many folks have been helped by retirees with real hands-on experience when figuring out whether to launch or how to launch their own small business. Good resources on this site, and good counseling available.
Idea Café http://www.ideacafe.com
Great start-up ideas and support for people wanting to “break out” of jobs and work roles that don’t fit them anymore.
Smith College Career Office http://www.smith.edu/cdo
This site is constantly refreshed with new links that are helpful in exploring different Jobs and fields. Click on “Career Research” on the home page to find links to different careers.
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