Lexington, KY - Roughly 15 million people in the United States actively seeking jobs are without work. For 6 million of them, the search has extended longer than 27 months. Recent statistics show that laid-off workers over 62 years of age have an 18 percent chance of landing a job in one year.
Further, job dissatisfaction among workers is the highest in decades, with the result that many who are working are also eyeing the job market.
A number of business writers have taken this search for jobs as a challenge, producing excellent books that can empower and coach readers through this difficult process. Among the best are:
What Color is Your Parachute? 2012: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career Changers
by Richard N. Bolles
This is the 40th anniversary edition of this book, with over 10 million copies in print. Its success lies in part with the author's expertise in updating to make it timely. This latest edition, released in August 2011, precisely targets today's job market.
The introduction includes two chapters that expertly set the tone for the remainder of the book. The first, "How to Find Hope," offers strategies that can help empower any job seeker, even long-term ones. More than any other tool, Bolles says, job seekers "desperately, desperately, desperately need hope."
To keep generating hope, the author suggests not putting all your eggs in one basket. Job seekers should always have alternatives: not just one way to describe yourself and your work history, not one type of company to search, not one way to hunt for a job, etc. In total, Chapter 1 provides 18 ways to find a new job.
Chapter 2, "Survival Skills You Need Most in Today's World," should be required reading for every worker in America. Bolles emphasizes "life/work designing" in order to prepare for an unpredictable world. This process involves examining a pyramid of issues, including effectiveness, meaning or mission, survival and what's happening. It also highlights the reality that your job-hunting skills are now outdated in these hard times.
By setting the stage with this opening, the author goes on to detail the skills needed for survival in the work world. These include: attitudes necessary for survival; advanced job-finding techniques; advanced job-creation techniques; inventory of what you have to offer the world; and "each one teach one," also known as teaching job hunting to others.
A series of dialogues at the end of each chapter highlights the application of the ideas discussed. The book also includes a series of appendices, including Finding Your Mission in Life, A Guide to Dealing with Unemployment Depression and A Guide to Choosing a Career Coach, among others.
This insightful, timely update proves that What Color is Your Parachute? is an excellent choice no matter your personal situation or the economy.
The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here
by Lynda Gratton
According to this London Business School professor and international business consultant, "what we are witnessing now is a break with the past as significant as that ... of the industrial revolution." The world is undergoing a fundamental transformation, she writes, with an unclear outcome.
The pace of change is so great that workers will have to develop a new expertise every few years if they want to work in well-paying positions. This process of "serial mastery" must be self-motivated, as current educational systems do a poor job with long-term learning. Online learning will be more innovative and better utilized in the future, she predicts.
Every individual will also need to develop their "social capital," which the author divides into three elements. First, each worker needs to develop a "posse," a group of up to 15 people who are close confidantes with developed lines of trust and working communication. Next, they need a "big-ideas crowd" to keep them challenged. Third, is a "regenerative community" of family and friends to help them maintain their emotional capital.
The author's central challenge is that individuals must take responsibility for their own future. The days of the corporation as a "parent" who will take care of the future of its workers are numbered. To begin, you must develop your own viewpoint as to what the future may be and then undertake creating your own work-life.
Gratton, who is ranked as one of the top 20 business thinkers in the world today, presents her ideas both from a personal perspective, in wondering what her children's work lives may be like, and based on extensive business research. The result is an intriguing, insightful look into the future that anyone planning a future work-life and career should read.
Find Your Perfect Job: The Inside Guide For Young Professionals
by Scott Smith
If you're a recent grad or contemplating going back to school, Scott Smith's book on finding a perfect job may provide the kind of intense but not overly serious self-examination you need. This book is equal parts Smith's personal story and how to develop a systematic, organized process to job pursuit. Smith's sense of humor in relating his own job quest makes the book stand out from the cut-and-dry standbys on job search.
To find the perfect job, you first must define what you mean by perfect. The book takes you through a process of creating a job profile, then, proceeds to the how-to of landing the exact job you've spelled out as perfect for you. If you're new to the job market or contemplating a job change, reviewing your strengths and priorities in this process can be enlightening in planning your future. In addition, the section on preparing for the job interview could prove particularly helpful.
This book has a youthful exuberance, from its brevity to the energy of oft-used exclamation points. Smith, who holds both business and law degrees, comes off as a good-natured guy-next-door who genuinely wants to help others through the same process he has successfully completed. This is a fast read that provides an insightful framework for finding a job.