Hill knows her stuff, and her book is likely to be useful and uplifting for anyone struggling to find a job.
This debut guide by career coach and recruiter Hill provides a strategy for finding that perfect job despite high unemployment and an uncertain economy.
Hill begins by offering a few thoughts on why people might want to consider moving to a new position and why those who have been laid off might see it as a blessing, despite the difficulties of the “jobless recovery.” She then lays out a path for job seekers, starting with a plan for determining the elements of an ideal job. She describes how to use networking, including social media, to expand the job search, and she discusses the pros and cons of using recruiters. From there, her book moves on to the basic aspects of job hunting, such as designing a powerful resume, acing the interview process, and how and when to negotiate a job offer. She veers away from standard job-hunting advice by stressing the importance of mind over matter, and by explaining how the right (or wrong) attitude can make a huge difference to potential employers: “Your perspective and attitude are just as important as how strong your resume is or what you do or do not say in an interview.” The book is spiced with amusing anecdotes from Hill’s experiences as a recruiter, including one about a candidate who had explained in a job interview that she left her last job at a law office because she’d slept with all the attorneys. Much of what Hill teaches is common sense, but as she points out, a remarkable number of people seem to suffer from a lack of common sense when they’re in the midst of a frenzied job search. She also provides useful tips for specific challenges, including sample answers to difficult interview questions and ways to put a positive spin on unfortunate episodes from previous jobs. Hill’s optimistic tone is a relief; she admits there are immense challenges to finding a job, but she’s confident they can be overcome.
Hill knows her stuff, and her book is likely to be useful and uplifting for anyone struggling to find a job.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0986041600
Page Count: 150
Publisher: J. Hill Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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