Tips: Best Books for Jobseekers
By Frances Chaves
You can learn just about anything from a book — whether it is in print or digital format. Job seeking is no exception. However, there are millions of job searc books out there. Searching online or at a book store can be daunting. Here are some of the most highly recommended titles to help you find the book that is best for your search.
The book that is on everyone’s list is, of course: What Color is Your Parachute. Richard Nelson Bolles wrote the first edition 30 years ago when he was himself in transition. An ordained Episcopal priest, Bolles was employed as canon pastor of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral when he lost his job because of budget cuts. As a stop-gap measure, Bolles took a job as an administrator with the Episcopal Church. Through his work, he met many ministers around the country who were facing job loss but had no job search skills. So Bolles wrote a 168-page guide to help campus ministers find jobs. He self-published it in 1970 and never looked back. His guide became What Color is Your Parachute:
• 288 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list
• 6 million copies in print
• 15,000 t0 20,000 copies sold every month
While Parachute is a “must-read”, there are other, important books that can help you refine your job search and beef up your job seeking skills. Here are some of the most highly recommended.
The following titles are on the top of Forbes’ list:
• 100 Conversations for Career Success: Learn to Network, Cold Call, and Tweet Your Way to Your Dream Job! by Laura M. Labovich and Miriam Salpeter, contains scripts, templates and outlines.
• The 2-Hour Job Search: Using Technology to Get the Right Job Faster, by Steve Dalton tells you how to leverage electronic tools to make your job search more effective.
About.com recommends a number of books from the Dummies series, published by John Wiley, including Cover Letters for Dummies and Job Interviews for Dummies. Other titles About.com recommends include:
• 100 Tips from Fortune 500 Recruiters, a free eBook from EMC.
• Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0
• Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, Dan Schawbel.
Monsterworking.com has these books on its list:
• How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships, Leil Lowndes
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain
Post a comment and tell us which job search books you recommend, and why.