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15 Indispensable Career and Job-Search Books

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by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

 

What if you were limited to just over a dozen books about career and job search to guide you? Which ones are the most crucial? This limitation really exists for lots of people. Books aren't cheap, and they take up space. Even in an age when reading and book-buying habits are changing drastically with the availability of downloadable ebooks and Kindle/Nook versions, it's worthwhile to consider which career and job-search books should form your core library. Whether you buy hard copies, check them out from the library, or read them on a Kindle-like device, you may want to zero in on the 15 books that we determined to be the must-haves for job search and career.

 

A word on how we chose these books ... We asked for nominations from career experts, primarily from the group Career Thought Leaders, and received a staggering 90+ nominations. We then requested from publishers review copies of most of those books so we could vet them for ourselves. Generally, we excluded books that are out of print or very old, books that are too new to have established a track record, and books self-nominated by their authors. A book could not be among the top 15 if its publisher did not supply a review copy, but we did include most of these unvetted books in our "Best of the Rest" list based on expert nominations of them. We then developed 15 categories, chose a "winner" in each category, along with runners-up. Some experts recommended the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which we didn't include since it's available online.

 

Here are Quintessential Careers' picks for the 15 most indispensable career and job-search books:

 

  1. In a class by itself: What Color is Your Parachute What Color Is Your Parachute? 2012: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard N. Bolles. This classic is the bestselling career book in the world, with 10 million copies sold, and has been listed on TIME magazine's All-TIME 100 Nonfiction Books. One of the most distinctive features of Parachute is that it is updated annually; the 2012 edition marks its 40th anniversary. The indispensable book covers the job-search process and devotes a significant chunk to helping readers figure out what they want to do in their careers. Bolles adapts the book to recessionary times by including material on survival skills and having the right attitude. Bolles is one of our Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds.

    2.  

  2. Comprehensive job search: Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0: How to Stand Out from the Crowd and Tap Into the Hidden Job Market using Social Media and 999 other Tactics Today by Jay Conrad Levinson and David E. Perry. We've always been a bit skeptical about books that purport to cover the entire job search; every aspect of the hunt -- resumes, cover letters, interviewing, networking, and so on -- is such a big subject in itself that it's hard to imagine that a single book can do justice to the entirety of job search. But Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0 does. This oft-nominated volume is a comprehensive job-search guide on steroids. The authors offer cutting-edge ideas (example: reverse-engineering the kind of Boolean searches recruiters conduct for candidates) that leave many other comprehensive job-search books in the dust. The book, which gets periodically updated, includes extras like QR codes that enable readers to access additional content using their cell phones and an eLearning Library of online goodies. Overall, Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0 spells out exactly what all job-seekers should be doing right now to succeed, with information they won't find elsewhere.

     

    Runner-up:

    3.  

  3. Career choice: The books of Barbara Sher, including Refuse to Choose!: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love, Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want (co-authored with Annie Gottleib), and I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It (co-authored with Barbara Smith). Sher's books were, by far, the most popular nominees in the career-choice category. Nominator opinions, along with appreciative comments from readers on the bulletin boards at Sher's Website, affirm the site's description of her books' content as offering "a down-to-earth, nuts-and-bolts method for uncovering natural talent, pinpointing goals and turning dreams into reality."

     

    Runners-up:

    4.  

  4. Personal/career branding: Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson. Several experts nominated Career Distinction, a step-by-step guide to career and personal brand management that advises readers on how to brand themselves for career success, determine how others perceive them, develop a unique value proposition, define a target audience, tell a brand story, express themselves clearly and consistently, build and manage an online identity, stay consistently on-message and on-brand, and increase "career karma."

    5.  

    Runner-up:

     

  5. Networking: Make Your Contacts Count: Networking Know-how for Business and Career Success by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon. This volume is a comprehensive guide to networking. Though not specifically focused on job search, the book is rich with advice and tips on how to network effectively, including instructions on drafting a networking plan, as well as information on cultivating current contacts, making the most of memberships, effectively exchanging business cards, avoiding the top 10 networking turn-offs, sharing anecdotes that convey character and competence, and transforming one's career with a networking makeover.

     

    Runners-up:

    6.  

  6. Resumes and cover letters: best resume books: Resume Magic Resume Magic: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer by Susan Britton Whitcomb. At 608 pages, Whitcomb's behemoth of a book is the definitive guide to crafting a resume. Resume Magic is a complete compendium that covers every resume (and cover-letter) contingency. Full of user-friendly samples and tips, the book is truly the gold standard for resume books. Whitcomb is one of our Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds.

     

     

    Runners-up:

    7.  

  7. Interviewing: Interview Magic: Job Interview Secrets from America's Career and Life Coach by Susan Britton Whitcomb. Like Resume Magic, Whitcomb's interviewing compendium is a rich guide on its topic. A few highlights of the 500-page book include instructions on creating "SMART stories" about accomplishments for use in interviews, advice on integrating one's personal brand into the interview, tips on maintaining the right mindset for interviewing, a complete directory of types of interviews, extensive material on preparing for specific interview questions, and much more. Whitcomb is one of our Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds.

     

    Runners-up:

    8.  

  8. Salary negotiation: Negotiating Your Salary: How To Make $1000 a Minute by Jack Chapman. Chapman's slim, regularly updated volume (now in its seventh edition) has sold more than 250,000 copies because it is the guide to salary negotiation, offering "tried and true techniques give job-seekers a completely fair advantage over the employer, a way to increase your salary by thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars in cash and/or benefits." Chapman is one of our Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds.

    9.  

  9. Social-media job search: Find a Job Through Social Networking: Use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and More to Advance Your Career by Diane Crompton and Ellen Sauter. This is a tricky category in which being the most up-to-date means everything -- because change happens so rapidly on the Internet. Find a Job Through Social Networking is comparable to one of our runners-up, Social Networking for Career Success. Both were published in the same year, but we gave the edge to Find a Job Through Social Networking because it is in its second edition and therefore has established more of a track record. The book covers use of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other forms of social media to propel one's career. It also delves into identity-management sites, discussion groups, and online publishing/public speaking.

     

    Runners-up:

    10.  

  10. Recessionary job search: 101 Best Ways to Land a Job in Troubled Times by Jay A. Block. This frequently nominated guide addresses the emotional fallout of job loss and unemployment while also suggesting dozens of action steps, some of them quite innovative. Each chapter ending summarizes a subset of the 100 best ways to which the title refers.

     

    Runners-up:

    11.  

  11. Career change: The Career Coward's Guide to Changing Careers: Sensible Strategies for Overcoming Job Search Fears By Katy Piotrowski. This book covers the basic steps of transitioning from a current career to a new one by showing readers how to identify great-fit career options; make a confident choice about the best career; create a fun, doable career-change plan; and transition into a new career smoothly and successfully.

     

    Runner-up:

    12.  

  12. Executive job search: For Executives Only: Applying Business Techniques to Your Job Search by Bill Belknap and Helene Seiler. One of several books from the Five o'Clock Club nominated by experts, For Executives Only offers strategies you'll find nowhere else -- and strategies that work for a wide range of job-seekers, not just executives. It features case histories so readers can learn from others' successes as well as the pitfalls experienced by those who tried to tackle the job-search process on their own. The book covers every aspect of executive job search, as well as advice on managing a job-search campaign, staying organized, and dealing with the emotional roller coaster of the search.

    13.  

  13. Entry-level job search: Getting from College to Career: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World by Lindsey Pollak. With a new edition releasing Jan. 31, 2012, Getting from College to Career offers both a track record and timeliness. The book equips new grads and other entry-level job-seekers to build the experience, skills, and confidence they need to start a major job search. Pollak is one of our Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds.

     

    Runner-up:

    14.  

  14. On the job/career sustainability and advancement: The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results by George B. Bradt, Jayme A. Check, and Jorge E. Pedraza. This book is jam-packed with value-added downloadable tools that "leaders at every level" can use make the best of their first few months on the job. Readers will learn to assess the business context and internal political culture they'll be facing, understand team members' Behaviors, Relationships, Attitudes, Values, and Environment (the "BRAVE" approach to motivating teams), advise the boss for success, and use social media and other communication tools to reach and motivate stakeholders.

     

    Runners-up:

    15.  

  15. Self-employment: Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love by Barbara Winter. This innovative book is all about how you can make a living by working when, where, and how you want. Highlights include instruction on how to find opportunity in a chaotic economy, why smart, "small and spunky" is the 21st Century business model, how to use the Internet to open the door to fresh opportunities, how to find the best resources to help create and grow a business, and how to leave "employee thinking" behind and build an "entrepreneur's mindset."

     

    Runner-up:

 

Best of the rest: We were not able to vet the career and job-search books on the list below; however, they were nominated as indispensable by career experts, coaches, and authors:

 

Comprehensive job search Career choice Personal/career branding Networking Resumes and cover letters Interviewing Recessionary job search Career change Entry-level job search On the job/career sustainability and advancement Uncategorized

 

Final Thoughts on the Top Career and Job-Search Books for Job-Seekers

While it's nice to think of a library of 15 outstanding books that cover job search and career from soup to nuts, careerists are fortunate to have a list of 96 books recommended to them by top career experts.

 


 

Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.

 

Katharine Hansen, PhD, QuintCareers.com Creative Director Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author, and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers, edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling in the job search at A Storied Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press), as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her personal Website or reach her by e-mail at kathy(at)quintcareers.com.

 


Maximize your career and job-search knowledge and skills! Take advantage of The Quintessential Careers Content Index, which enables site visitors to locate articles, tutorials, quizzes, and worksheets in 35 career, college, job-search topic areas.

 


 

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