Books to Badass: Career Changes
I recently read an article that said 61% of women are looking to change their careers amid COVID-19. It’s not a surprising statistic, given the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the personal and professional lives of women.
But how to do it successfully? Check out these five books for ideas and inspiration!
With her popular website Career Contessa, Lauren McGoodwin built an audience of ambitious, professional, millennial women who thought they did everything right―they got the degree, the internship, and even the promotion―but still wondered why they felt stuck and unfulfilled. The first site of its kind to focus on the unique, complex aspects of women's careers, Career Contessa offers women the smart advice they deserve, in a voice that resonates.
Drawing on the insights and lessons developed from Career Contessa, Power Moves is the essential handbook that helps professional women truly feel understood so they can bypass perfection and planning and head straight to evolving.
Power Moves is filled with the information, guidance, advice, and essential tools, (including helpful graphics) that can help women take decisive, bold steps without self-doubt and fear, Power Moves shows women how to build a successful career on their own terms.
What's next? is a question we all must ask and answer more frequently in an economy where the average job tenure is only four years, roles change constantly even within that time, and smart, motivated people find themselves hitting professional plateaus. But how do you evaluate options and move forward without getting stuck?
Jenny Blake--a former training and career development specialist at Google who now runs her own company as a career and business consultant and speaker--has a solution: the pivot. Pivoting is a crucial strategy for Silicon Valley tech companies and startups but it can also be a successful strategy for individuals looking to make changes in their work lives. This book will introduce you to the Pivot Method and show you how to take small, smart steps to move in a new direction--now and throughout your entire career.
From the outside looking in, Sallie Holder seemed to have it all. A “Top Professional of the Year” before the age of thirty, she was living a six-figure, wildly “successful” lifestyle by society’s standards. But we all know looks can be deceiving.
While smiling and confident on the exterior, Sallie had a secret: she was actually miserable living the life she’d chosen. Only she knew that success felt like a role she was playing, and that on the inside she felt like an imposter who simply wanted to be doing anything other than what she was doing. How in the world would she make a change at this stage of life? And what in the world would she do? If she made a change, what would everyone think? How could she reject society’s conventional definition of “success?”
Sallie’s journey to answering these questions for herself and others became her mission. While the process included both pain and joy, it has ultimately resulted in her achieving her greatest potential. Now she shares everything she’s learned to help people who feel just as unsatisfied and suspect they too are on the wrong path.
In Hitting Rock Middle, Sallie has created a step-by-step plan to help you start creating the path to your greatest potential – a place that includes true fulfillment and success. Through the journey this book will take you on, you will pinpoint who you are, what you want to do with your life, and how to get out of Rock Middle and into the big, bold, successful career that was waiting for you all along.
Young women today face an uncertain job market, the pressure to ascend at all costs, and a fear of burning out. But the landscape is changing, and women are taking an assertive role in shaping our careers and lives, while investing more and more in our community of support.
Bossed Up teaches you how to break out of the "martyrdom mindset," and cultivate your Boss Identity by getting clear on what you really want for your career and life without apology. It also helps you hone the self-advocacy skills necessary for success, understanding the differences between being assertive (which is part of being a leader) and being aggressive (which is more like being a bully) - and how that clarity can transform your trajectory. Finally, it shares how to beat burnout by identifying how the warning signs may be showing up in your life and how to prioritize bringing more rest, purpose, agency, and community to your day-to-day life.
Drawing from timely research, and with personal stories and spotlights on a diverse group of women from the Bossed Up community, this book will show you how to craft a happy, healthy, and sustainable career path you'll love.
Are you where you want to be professionally? Whether you want to advance faster at your present company, change jobs, or make the jump to a new field entirely, Reinventing You, provides a step-by-step guide to help you assess your unique strengths, develop a compelling personal brand, and ensure that others recognize the powerful contribution you can make.
Branding expert Dorie Clark mixes personal stories with engaging interviews and examples from Mark Zuckerberg, Al Gore, Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin, and others to show you how to think big about your professional goals, take control of your career, and finally live the life you want.