A wide-ranging manual that delivers valuable advice for job seekers.
In this debut guide, an employment recruitment specialist offers insider information for readers looking for better careers.
As a seasoned career coach, Nadon knows how job seekers can successfully market themselves, and she shares many professional tips in this well-organized handbook. In a friendly, conversational tone, she provides some refreshing perspectives; for example, she writes that even readers in their 60s can begin new career paths. One of the biggest mistakes people make, the author asserts, is waiting to upgrade their career advancement tools—like resumes, bios, or references—until things get bad at their current jobs. Investing time and/or money for professional development is also part of her common-sense, strategic advice. In order to get job seekers started, Nadon gently walks them through some simple professional assessments—such as determining whether their careers are entry level or midmanagement—and then she prompts them to write a career wish list. Presenting an unconventional twist, the author suggests brainstorming the wish list in an inspirational place, like a park or a temple, to leave stagnant thinking behind. Nadon’s prose is fluid, and her breezy chapters include “Mindset Alerts” or short, often lighthearted tips that urge the audience to think creatively. For example, when organizing a career wish list, she encourages readers to have fun: “If you always wanted to be the prime minister of Canada, write it down.” Chapters also feature “Killer App alerts” or insider tips, such as the importance of knowing when to call about a position; for example, a hiring manager may not want to be interrupted during an important industry conference. Though Nadon encourages job hunters to think outside the box, she delivers many practical ideas, such as what not to do in a first-round interview and how to negotiate salary.
A wide-ranging manual that delivers valuable advice for job seekers.Pub Date: March 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5255-4111-7
Page Count: 210
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author’s sincere sermon—at times analytical, at times hortatory—remains a hopeful one.
New York Times columnist Brooks (The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, 2011, etc.) returns with another volume that walks the thin line between self-help and cultural criticism.
Sandwiched between his introduction and conclusion are eight chapters that profile exemplars (Samuel Johnson and Michel de Montaigne are textual roommates) whose lives can, in Brooks’ view, show us the light. Given the author’s conservative bent in his column, readers may be surprised to discover that his cast includes some notable leftists, including Frances Perkins, Dorothy Day, and A. Philip Randolph. (Also included are Gens. Eisenhower and Marshall, Augustine, and George Eliot.) Throughout the book, Brooks’ pattern is fairly consistent: he sketches each individual’s life, highlighting struggles won and weaknesses overcome (or not), and extracts lessons for the rest of us. In general, he celebrates hard work, humility, self-effacement, and devotion to a true vocation. Early in his text, he adapts the “Adam I and Adam II” construction from the work of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, Adam I being the more external, career-driven human, Adam II the one who “wants to have a serene inner character.” At times, this veers near the Devil Bugs Bunny and Angel Bugs that sit on the cartoon character’s shoulders at critical moments. Brooks liberally seasons the narrative with many allusions to history, philosophy, and literature. Viktor Frankl, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Tillich, William and Henry James, Matthew Arnold, Virginia Woolf—these are but a few who pop up. Although Brooks goes after the selfie generation, he does so in a fairly nuanced way, noting that it was really the World War II Greatest Generation who started the ball rolling. He is careful to emphasize that no one—even those he profiles—is anywhere near flawless.
The author’s sincere sermon—at times analytical, at times hortatory—remains a hopeful one.Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9325-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A cleareyed call to reshape emotional responses to stress and disappointment.
A game plan to stop being your own worst enemy.
At the beginning of her nonfiction debut, Hardis draws on her personal story as the divorced mother of three to illustrate how people create their own obstacles to well-being. “The belief that you can do hard things is called self-efficacy,” she writes, “and mine, post-divorce, was less than zero.” In these pages, she details strategies for readers to treat themselves more compassionately. She urges them to rethink an all-or-nothing approach to success, hone compassion skills, stop focusing so single-mindedly on outcomes over processes, and so on. Hardis’ guide stresses the value of letting ideas or situations breathe and taking the time to observe how they develop. Practicing patience sometimes yields an answer, even if that answer is to ignore something unpleasant rather than change it. “When we encounter distress or discomfort, it’s intuitive to try to do something to either avoid it or eradicate it in some way,” she writes. “As you’ll learn, however, that only makes it stronger and more persistent.” Writing with clarity and empathy, she argues for the importance of being not so much emotionally available as emotionally “allowable,” better skilled at recognizing and handling “big feelings,” even when they’re negative. In encouraging but forceful prose, Hardis invites the reader to analyze their own reactions and behaviors, for example: When she’s worried about her kids, her behavior is to clean the house—and its function is to decrease worry. “Don’t overthink it, and don’t judge it; simply observe it.” There’s plenty of similarly sound advice in these pages for readers to ponder.
A cleareyed call to reshape emotional responses to stress and disappointment.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9798987361252
Page Count: 232
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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