Managing Your Career

With this guide in hand, you can finally take charge and manage your career. Discover your key career objectives and personal goals and then navigate the job market to land the right job. Ken Lawson will show you how to develop options, make choices and maximize your strengths through identifying your values, skills and personal qualities. Ken Lawson is a counselor, coach and educator who works with individuals and groups in a variety of career management roles. He discusses how you can manage your career, find out what you are really good at, move from one job to another, develop a career action plan, take charge of a job search, present yourself in the best light and how to network for career vitality. Throughout the book you will find little extras. These are fun boxes of trivia, a definition of an term, a Web site address or a fun character pointing out a very important point, a complete no-no, a technical detail or whispering the inside scoop to you. If you want success and satisfaction from your career, Ken advises you to put yourself in command of your life. He empowers you by helping you to paint your own career canvas. When you go to a party, are you proud of your answer to: "So, what do you do?" Are you more interested in objects, information, concepts or people? This question can lead you into a job which consists of arranging items (perhaps this could be a secretary who is organizing files) or coaching (where you are helping people on a more personal level to improve their lives through your own life skills). They are quite different types of jobs and your interests will show you how you will fit into one of the four basic categories of interest. Once you have taken inventory of your interests and skills, you can then determine your own personal style. Are you dependable, detail-minded, frank, fair-minded? Are you an extrovert or an introvert? You can actually determine your personality type as well. Once you know who you are and what you want to do, Ken takes you to the next step. Gearing up for your job search. The all important resume is discussed in detail. What do you put in a resume? What should you NEVER put in a resume? If you still want to do more research (this book is comprehensive), you can look for some of the books in the resource section. There is also a list of Web sites you can visit that look very helpful. A simple glossary and index, make your life easier and help you save time. Perhaps if more people would read this book before making a career choice they would have a great map for their future. ~The Rebecca Review

Spare yourself the ordeal of researching the hundreds of books out there on career guidance. Ken Lawson's KISS GUIDE TO MANAGING YOUR CAREER is the most comprehensive, beautifully written and visually appealing work on the subject you'll ever need (and I speak with authority: I'm a 40-something professional with over 20 years of experience in changing jobs and reading books about it). Lawson helps you think seriously about yourself ("What moves you?"), how to take charge of your career, plan and implement your job search, and how to keep networking ("the most important career management activity you can pursue") for continued career vitality. He's also provided excellent Appendices, including "Good Books" that go into greater depth about resumes, interviewing, recruiters, freelancing and consulting, networking, on-line job sites, negotiating, starting a business, office politics and more. In short, the KISS GUIDE TO MANAGING YOUR CAREER is simply terrific.