A guide to some of the best Canadian books and websites
GARY WILL is a consultant and speaker who works with individuals and organizations to help them attract employers, employees and customers by adopting a marketing attitude.
The Worst of Interview Horrors!
Go to the Archeus WORKSEARCH homepage
Writing a Persuasive Cover Letter
Sample chapters:
1. Selling Yourself in an Employment Interview
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Canadian career-related booksReviewed below:
Many books have been published over the last year showing how to use the Internet in a worksearch campaign. Most will guide you to the author's pick of the best sites to post your resume or look for job postings, and provide tips on writing an "electronic resume." In other words, these books have largely focused on using the Internet in a traditional, passive approach to looking for work -- writing resumes and responding to ads. Thankfully, the emphasis in this book by Mark Swartz is quite different. Instead of just helping you to find and respond to ads, Swartz maps out all stages of the career counselling process -- self-evaluation, career exploration, creating marketing materials, and finding work -- and then provides a guide to online resources for each stage. Most resources are Internet websites, but there are references to CD-ROMs and other related software packages. Swartz does not try to present the net as a job hunter's Shangri-La. "You're probably thinking that online job hunting is the quick, easy solution we all crave so dearly," he writes. "I'm here to show you how to do it, while telling you simultaneously not to get your hopes up too high." The view presented here is much more realistic -- and helpful, since it steers readers in the direction that is most likely to improve their search for work. Throughout the book, Swartz provides useful advice on each step of the process and guides you to appropriate websites for further information and guidance. This isn't just a list of links, although there are plenty of URLs provided. Swartz helps you integrate computer resources into an active worksearch campaign, one that is grounded in research and self-knowledge. Of the hundreds of URLs in the book, most link to Canadian sources, with several others based in the U.S. or elsewhere with information that applies to Canadians. The long list of sites mentioned is both a selling point for the book, and a potential trap for the reader. Several are of marginal value, and Swartz usually leaves it to the reader to visit the site and come to their own conclusion. Sitting around surfing career-related sites can easily give you the illusion that you're actively working towards finding work when you're actually accomplishing very little. More space could have been usefully devoted to showing readers how to use search engines to research organizations. Knowing the different engines and how to use them effectively is invaluable in finding information on particular companies or industries. E-mail could have been discussed more thoroughly in the chapter on networking. There are a few errors with computer and Internet terminology, but they don't affect the reader's ability to use the resources Swartz discusses. This is one of the best guides to online worksearch resources that has been published anywhere -- and it's been written and published by Canadians, for Canadians. For people who want to get going on their search, I'd recommend starting at Chapter Three: Planning Your Career Online.
For many years, Janis Foord Kirk's weekly column in the Saturday Toronto Star (by far the most widely circulated newspaper in the country) has consistently been one of the best sources of Canadian career-related guidance and information. Not only has the column presented numerous personal stories from readers sharing their struggles through changes in the workplace, it has also introduced a wide Canadian audience to the ideas of people with something to say about careers and work. People such as William Bridges, Nuala Beck, Colin Campbell, Charles Handy, and hundreds of others (including Mark Swartz, and even me). Many of the themes in Survivability will be familiar to readers of the column, but this isn't just a "best-of" compilation. Regular readers and people from outside of the Star's distribution area will both find this to be a very useful resource, both in understanding what's happening in the workplace and in developing strategies and skills needed to succeed. Part One, "What's Going On" sets out the challenges faced by people trying to cope with the "new world of work." The largest section of the book is Part Two, "Take Action, Take Control" -- a thorough exercise in self-marketing analysis. Foord Kirk guides you through various skills and traits that nearly every employer would like to get from anyone they hire in any position or function:
For people in a worksearch campaign, the most immediately useful part of the book will be the employability skills profile and exercises in this section. Most of the third part, "What Lies Ahead?" discusses selecting growth industries and identifying trends so you don't get left behind in the future. Foord Kirk finishes the book with her own viewpoint in "Toward Consensus," a mix of social and political commentary that promotes a cooperative "culture of learning" and that criticizes short-term management philosophies, unimaginative government policies, and out of touch union leaders. Survivability offers a well-balanced and organized mix of new ideas, practical advice, social commentary, tales of personal struggles and successes, and observations of business trends. The attitude promoted throughout the book is that most of us have what it takes to succeed in the new workplace -- as long as we take responsibility for our own careers and personal development. Foord Kirk is able to communicate that message in a way that is easy to understand without being superficial.
As horrible as the process of searching for work can be, many people find that life doesn't get a whole lot better once they're on the job. There is a regular paycheque at least, although rarely as much as you feel you deserve. And in return, you often receive no security, little respect, incessant pressures to "do more with less and faster" -- constantly having to sell yourself, but not having the time to do as good a job as you know you could. And all this while senior managers talk about employees as their "most valuable resource." No wonder that so many people are left asking themselves "what am I doing here?" and wondering how things went so wrong with their lives. One of the central themes of this book by career consultant Barbara Moses is that you're far from alone in feeling this way. If you're feeling distressed about your career, you'll probably find yourself described with uncanny accuracy within these pages. But it's easy to get your hopes up too high when you see your symptoms described in such detail. As Moses repeatedly reminds us, "there are no easy answers." When it comes to providing steps towards a solution, Moses's advice is all very good, even if little of it will be a revelation to the reader. "See yourself as the owner of a unique set of talents, skills, competencies, and experiences that you can use in a wide range of settings," Moses suggests, along with the now-common advice to take responsibility for planning and managing your career, to think of yourself as an "independent agent," and to recognize that today's careers are more temporary, project-based, and upredicatable tan in the past. "I like to liken the new career to a date, the old career to a marriage," Moses writes. The chapter that is sure to attract the most interest from people struggling to cope and find a place in the new workplace is Moses's "Twelve Rules for Career Success." They are:
And that's unfortunate, because it's vital that managers welcome and consider the message here. Sustainable, long-term improvement in the workplace is only possible when managers see that earning profits and providing enriching work experiences are not at odds. I'd recommend that you buy the book and encourage every manager in your organization to make the time to read this section. |
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![[WORKsearch]](http://www.garywill.com/worksearch/images/worksearch.gif){kind=small}
