Books for Job Seekers

As I am currently looking for employment, I borrowed some books from the library on job searching, changing careers, and determining what career path is right for you.

Career Match: Connecting Who You Are with What You’ll Love to Do

The first book I read, and my most favorite, is Career Match: Connecting Who You Are with What You’ll Love to Do by Shoya Zichy with Ann Bidou. This book uses the Color Q model to help you determine your primary and secondary personality-type. Once personality-type is determined, the book lists several strengths and weaknesses related to those personality-types in relation to job searchies and interviews as well as tips to compensate for those weaknesses. It also helps you gain a better understanding of the type of work environment and supervisory style people with your personality-type prefer and suggests jobs that people with your personality-type generally find meaningful.

My favorite chapter in the book is Chapter 27: A Road Map for Putting It All Together (don’t worry, you don’t have to read the entire book; you only read the sections that are pertinent to your personality-style). This chapter provides a “formula” to help you narrow down what jobs you think you would enjoy based on your work-related strengths, ideal work environment, ideal boss, and five jobs you think you would enjoy. It then provides suggestions on how to learn more about your top 5 jobs and determine how they relate to your strengths, ideal work environment, and ideal boss.

This is one book I would recommend for anyone who is searching for guidance on meaningful careers as well as high schoolers who are searching exploring future career possibilities.

Job Applications In a Week

Job Applications In a Week by Patricia Scudamore & Hilton Catt is an easy read. In addition to beneficial tips, it also provides an interesting perspective on how potential employers select candidates. This book is particularly good for people with limited interview and job-search experience. However, as someone who has experience searching for jobs and interviewing, I did find some valuable tips and encouragement in this book.

The Career Cowards Guide to Changing Careers by Katy Piotrowski, M.Ed.

As I consider myself a coward when it comes to changing careers, the title of this book alone was enough to spark my interest, and while I have not started reading this book, I definitely intend to.

After skimming it (like I always do with library books to determine if I will even read them), I liked how the first chapters in this book help you “Discover Your Natural Talents and Best Skills” (Chapter 1), “Visualize Your Ideal Carer” (Chapter 2), and “Pinpoint your Passion Zones” (Chapter 3). Obviously there are more chapters in the book, but those are the three that caught my eye.

10 Insider Secrets to a Winning Job Search by Todd Bermont

I’ve only read part of this book, but it offers some good advice thus far. It covers everything from believing in yourself to creating resumes and cover letters to interviewing to networking and much more. This book provides a good overview of the entire job search process.

These will definitely be added to my non-fiction “favorites” list.