Seeking employment is one of the most stressful endeavours a person can undertake. This is true whether one is looking for one’s first job or one’s dream job.
Of course, there numerous resources available to job seekers, but this can actually be part of the problem – finding the right job-search guides (not to mention reading them) can seem like a job in itself! Fortunately, not all job guides are created equal, so job hunters can streamline the process by seeking out only those books that have been proven to offer helpful advice.
Here are five tried-and-true career guides to consider:
What Color Is Your Parachute?
Called the “gold standard of career guides” by Fortune magazine, this is the best-selling and perhaps the best-known career book of all time. It has long been a popular gift for college and university graduates because it is especially good for job hunters who aren’t sure which direction they want to go.
Previously, this book has been criticized for its lack of resume and cover letter help, but the newest edition (published in 2009) corrects this somewhat. Coverage could be greater, but at least these important job-hunting elements are now addressed.
Job hunters will definitely find the skills evaluations and job-hunting strategies in the appendices worthwhile, and the dos and don’ts of the job search process include some uncommon suggestions.
What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers was written by Richard Nelson Bolles and published by Ten Speed Press. It is updated annually.
Do What You Are
This book was one of the first to offer “personalized” job-hunting advice by combining career counselling with personality testing. Readers are first asked to answer questions and complete introspective exercises to determine their personality type according to the Myers-Briggs classification. The Myers-Briggs personality typing system assigns each individual a four-letter type based on certain preferences.
Once readers have found their individual types, Do What You Are offers a chapter full of career guidance specifically geared to that type in the hopes of helping readers find their perfect fit in the work world.
Do What You Are was written by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger and published by Little, Brown and Company. The most recent edition, which includes information on e-careers, was published in 2007.
Career Match
Like Do What You Are, Career Match is dedicated to helping individuals fit their careers to their personalities. Using a modification of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator system, the book has readers conduct a ten-minute self-assessment called the Color Q. Once readers have found their color, they can read a chapter dedicated to analyzing their personality traits and finding a career in which those traits will help them excel—and, of course, be happy.
Career Match was written by Shoya Zichy, with contributions from Ann Bidou. It was published by Amacom in 2007.
What Next?
With plenty of exercises, What Next? is perhaps the most hands-on career guide a job hunter can find. Like those guides based on personality type, What Next? invites readers to engage in self-assessments and a good deal of introspection. However, unlike such guides, What Next? does not assign readers to a single type. Instead, readers identify their key motivators and core values in order to determine which work sectors they are best suited to work in.
What Next? also stands apart from other career guides for its discussion of different types of work (part-time, telecommuting, etc.), as well as its focus on long-term career happiness, as evidenced by sections on overcoming career malaise and achieving work-life balance.
What Next? The complete guide to taking control of your working life was written by Barbara Moses, Ph.D., and published by DK Publishing. A revised and updated edition was released in 2009.
Knock ’em Dead
The subtitle for this book is “The Ultimate Job Search Guide” and that’s exactly what it is. With chapters focused on practical job-hunting skills such as preparing a resume, networking, interviewing, and negotiating job offers, this is the career guide for job seekers who know what they want to do.
Of course, that’s not to say that this book is full of common-sense advice. Knock ’em Dead goes beyond the run-of-the-mill tips job seekers have heard a million times before and offers in-depth, professional advice that’s guaranteed to make readers better prepared, more confident job hunters.
Knock ’Em Dead: The Ultimate Job Search Guide was written by Martin Yate and published by Adams Media. The most recent edition was published in 2009.
There are many, many resources available for job seekers, and these five are not the only good ones, but they are the best places for job seekers to start.
Emily Jones - Emily Jones began her writing career by practising the alphabet on her mother's newly papered kitchen walls. She was promptly given a ...
