I’ve read a ton of books on job hunting as part of my work these past years and I forced myself to pick the three top ones you should have to optimize your job hunt.  You can take a look at the set of books I’ve already reviewed at Career Jockey’s Book Review topic but the ones I’ve listed below are the ones you need on your bookshelf.
Book #1 – What Color Is Your Parachute? 2010: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard Nelson Bolles
I wrote my What Color Is Your Parachute …

Last summer I wrote a review on Tory Johnson’s womenforhire.com  website.  It’s a good resource.  Around the same time, I commented on a story she aired on her Good Morning, America Job Hunt Club. (Click here for that one.)  It provided great advice for older job hunters.  I definitely recommended it for helping job hunters get through the struggle.
Unfortunately, I CANNOT say the same for her Fired to Hired: Bouncing Back from Job Loss to Get to Work Right Now.  Is it a horrible book? No way.  Is it great resource every job hunter should make sure and read?  Not exactly.  It’s …

Leading a team of people on any project can be a bear.  Running a small business with differing skills, personalities, backgrounds, genders and competing interests can be just plain difficult.  It seems like piling any group of people together in hopes of getting a job done is a hopeless cause. But if you:

develop a keen understanding of how individuals behave within a team and
dearn to motivate individuals towards a common goal

you’ll develop a reputation for being a team leading genius that delivers the results your company badly needs.
To  hone these …

The one thing job hunters have that the working population doesn’t have is time.  I remember how much of it I had when I was job hunting and how much I wasted waiting for emails that I only wished would come right away.  (You can learn about my job search in the Career Jockey About page.)
Here’s a suggestion you might consider to resolve this. I’m an avid reader. I enjoy reading and wish I had more time for it.  In order to squeeze in more reading time, I’ve …

A college friend recommended “Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant” by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.  She’s in real estate and the book helped her promote her business differently.
With traditional marketing strategy, companies strive to build a better solution at a better price.  The idea is to outsmart and outdo the competition.  It’s an exercise in one-up-man-ship that frequently leads to each competitor releasing marginally better solutions over their competitors.  The authors describe that approach as a red ocean strategy.  Firms behave …

(This article continues where OERamz’s third article “You’re Fired! Part 3 – What’s All This Web 2 Point Oh My God?” left off.)
I recently read someone’s touching reflection of an influential person in his life – his Boy Scout leader. He shared how this man had played an important role in his life, how he had learned from this coach to be the man, father, employer and all around person he had become… a testament to those who have guided us and served as incredible role models. This chapter …

I enjoy learning and growing in my understanding of the things around me. I want to know myself better and grow in intimacy with the supernatural. It’s the way I’m wired. I have to explore. And this drives me to do a lot of reading.

I started Career Jockey in order to share all the job hunt and personal/professional development resources I had accumulated helping others in their job hunts. These are resources I acquired interacting with career coaches, recruiters and other HR types. …

A week back I published Kevin Donlin’s article “Three Simple Job Search Ideas from Stuff Going on Right Around You.” I started looking around his blog and found a FREE downloadable e-book called “The Simple Job Search Manifesto.” I figured if I’m publishing his story I might as well learn a little bit more about what the guy does.

I’m really glad I did. This 65 page e-book contains a well organized plan for getting yourself back to work. It covers choosing your ideal job, finding the …

We all want happiness and, unfortunately, during my job searches (there were more than one) happiness escaped me. Fear, anxiety and worry took its place. It was so overwhelming.

I attended a South Florida Interactive Media Association seminar last week and the lead speaker was Julian Smith co-author of New York Times best seller “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.” He shared with us an interesting fact. He said for people making over $50K a year, happiness is unrelated to …

For this article, I went through the dozens of books I’ve reviewed in Career Jockey’s Book Review topic and forced myself to pick only three books.  I had to make some tough calls, but these are the ones that together contain the meat of what every job seeker needs to know.
Book #1 – What Color Is Your Parachute? 2010: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard Nelson Bolles
I wrote my What Color Is Your Parachute book review within three weeks of launching CareerJockey.org. I’ve recommended it to almost …

Earlier in the week I commented on Miriam Salpeter’s Keppie Career blog and her review of Karen Burn’s book “The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use.” I love that title.   That led to Karen, the author herself, commenting on my site.  (We bloggers really like that.)  Then I started following her on Twitter (maybe she’ll following me back ). I’ve since discovered she has as super blog with articles that have been picked up by U.S. News.  Not bad!
Anyway, the point I’m actually trying …

When I was out of work, clutter camped out in my head. I worried about how I would pay my bills. I fretted over what I could have done to avoid the lay off. I rehearsed the worse case scenarios (that would likely never happen) repeatedly over and over again. This unhealthy, obsessive mental regurgitation drove me crazy. Worse yet, it added confusion when what I needed was clarity so I could be at my best for my job search.

Eckhart Tolle’s book “The Power of …

Harry Backwith’s Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing was required reading at the system integration firm where I worked. All directors were given a copy and expected to finish them. I wasn’t sure what point our CEO was making when he assigned it to us, but I sure did when I was done with it. Selling the Invisible helped me better understand the customer’s perception when buying complex services like the technology work we delivered. It also explains how buyers evaluate the quality of …

Years ago I worked as a contractor at a large bank. I’d hear people say,
• “We got to the get the right people on the bus.”
• “That guy’s sitting in the wrong seat on the bus.”
• “Can we kick that guy off the bus?”
• “Let’s get this bus going in the right direction.”
“What on earth were they talking about?” I thought. I finally asked and someone pointed me at the Jim Collins’ “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t” book. Collins’ delivers on something I haven’t seen …

Can you make use of Weight Watchers and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) peer support features to help run your job hunt, career or life in general? Keith Ferrazzi author of best seller “Never Eat Alone” says, “Yes!”

I first heard about his book “Who’s Got Your Back” when my wife saw a Ferrazzi’s interview on “Good Morning America.” The same day a business contact mentioned the interview as well. Then my boss forwarded me a link to his interview on Larry King. Something’s up so I figured …

In “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey describes seven principles, that if established as habits, are key to leading an effective professional and personal life. In his book “The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness Covey takes the idea a step further. Becoming effective is surely something to be desired, but what would it take to achieve greatness?

The first seven habits are focused on how to run your life effectively, how to manage your relationships with others effectively and how to keep learning so you …

Several winters back, I had hired a strong group of performers. I worked hard at bringing out the best these folks had to offer both as individuals and as a team. I received a very positive review from my boss. He recognized my accomplishment as going beyond the call of duty when I had been taking for granted that I have a knack for running software projects on time and under budget.

At the time, I was also speaking monthly for a groups tending to the …

A few years back when I was running a 12 person IT department, I inherited what “Now, Discover Your Strengths” can bring to a team. My predecessor had purchased a copy of the book for each team member and had them take the online assessment that comes with the book. (Note: You need a new copy of the book. If you get a used copy, the key provided in the book will NOT enable you to take the online assessment.)

The book describes 34 possible strengths areas …

Ferrazzi’s author of “Whose Got Your Back” appeared on “Good Morning, America” promoting his his book this morning. You can listen to the GMA story at this link. In this new book, the author of “Never Eat Alone” is saying that we all need “lifeline relationships” that can help launch us towards our goals. Friends very often aren’t willing to be completely honest with us. Sometimes even our spouses are hesitant to be completely sincere.
Ferrazzi is promoting this grouping of individuals, and GMA created a test group …

I read “Five Dysfunctions of a Team” the first time several years back when I was researching leadership and team dynamics. I’ve always enjoyed building teams and understanding why some work and some don’t. This book explores the topic and describes a simple formula for identifying what works, what doesn’t work, and what to do about it.
The book subtitle is “A Leadership Fable.” It’s two hundred or so pages are written in large print so you can get through the whole thing in a few hours. …