A thorough, useful resource for job seekers.
This all-in-one job-search manual provides a candidate’s point of view.
Typically, books offering advice about job searches are written by recruiters or human resources professionals. In contrast, this debut is the work of someone who, over the course of 15 years, “attended more than thirty-five interviews” with little success. Mapleton learned what he did wrong and eventually found a good position. Now he has turned his experience into a handy guide to help other job seekers. The book begins by covering some basic information about types of jobs and the hunt for a position while employed versus unemployed. Next are two perspectives on the job search through the eyes of a recruiter and a hiring manager, each of whom offers valuable advice. One of the strongest sections of the manual, “Body Language Basics,” supplies an instructive overview accompanied by uncredited color photographs of various facial, hand, and body positions. The remainder of the work is divided into three “phases”: “Preparation,” “Moving Forward,” and “Foot in the Door.” Mapleton addresses job descriptions, resumes, cover letters, the oft-overlooked thank-you notes, and “the elevator pitch” in Phase 1; job boards, LinkedIn, recruiters, fairs, and networking in Phase 2; and interviews in Phase 3. The interviewing phase, likely the most crucial, is especially rich in detail. It covers in-person, video, and telephone interviews; delivers worthy suggestions for how to answer numerous queries, and includes typical “trick questions.” In combination, these three phases constitute a comprehensive approach to searching for a job from start to finish. While much of this information could probably be found elsewhere, it is beneficial to have it consolidated in one book. The content is logically organized; examples are liberally sprinkled throughout; and the author’s writing style is clear and conversational. In addition, Mapleton includes some very helpful tips presented from the job seeker’s point of view, such as describing specific “microexpressions” (facial expressions that represent each emotion) and noting a particular “selling method” that can enhance a candidate’s desirability to a hiring manager.
A thorough, useful resource for job seekers.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5255-7711-6
Page Count: 132
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.
A basketball legend reflects on his life in the game and a life lived in the “nightmare of endlessly repetitive and constant pain, agony, and guilt.”
Walton (Nothing but Net, 1994, etc.) begins this memoir on the floor—literally: “I have been living on the floor for most of the last two and a half years, unable to move.” In 2008, he suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse. “My spine will no longer hold me,” he writes. Thirty-seven orthopedic injuries, stemming from the fact that he had malformed feet, led to an endless string of stress fractures. As he notes, Walton is “the most injured athlete in the history of sports.” Over the years, he had ground his lower extremities “down to dust.” Walton’s memoir is two interwoven stories. The first is about his lifelong love of basketball, the second, his lifelong battle with injuries and pain. He had his first operation when he was 14, for a knee hurt in a basketball game. As he chronicles his distinguished career in the game, from high school to college to the NBA, he punctuates that story with a parallel one that chronicles at each juncture the injuries he suffered and overcame until he could no longer play, eventually turning to a successful broadcasting career (which helped his stuttering problem). Thanks to successful experimental spinal fusion surgery, he’s now pain-free. And then there’s the music he loves, especially the Grateful Dead’s; it accompanies both stories like a soundtrack playing off in the distance. Walton tends to get long-winded at times, but that won’t be news to anyone who watches his broadcasts, and those who have been afflicted with lifelong injuries will find the book uplifting and inspirational. Basketball fans will relish Walton’s acumen and insights into the game as well as his stories about players, coaches (especially John Wooden), and games, all told in Walton’s fervent, witty style.
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1686-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A vigorous and highly readable plan for building the finances of a new business.
A program of cash-management techniques for aspiring entrepreneurs, aimed at a minority readership.
At the beginning of this business book, Mariga reflects on the birth of her daughter, Florence, and on the depressing prospect of returning to her corporate job and missing some of her baby’s early moments. She realized that she “wanted to show Florence…that I could, that she could, that anyone could be anything they wanted to be in this world.” To that end, she wanted to start her own business, and she “wanted to help entrepreneurs build successful businesses that provide opportunities for others.” In a sentiment reflected by others she’s interviewed, she says that she wanted to strengthen her family legacy, so she founded her own accounting firm. She paints a vivid picture of the hardscrabble early days of other minority business owners like herself, the child of an African American mother and a Chinese father who also had a family accounting business. She and others were “all hustling to acquire clients and build our businesses…and most of us had absolutely nothing to show for it.” She was inspired by Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First money management system, and the bulk of her book is devoted to an explanation of how to make this system work for minority business enterprises. (Michalowicz provides a foreword to the book.) One of the primary goals of Profit First is to build “a self-sustaining, debt-free company,” so a large part of Mariga’s work deals with the details of managing finances, building and abiding by budgets, and handling the swings of emotion that occur every step of the way. As sharply focused as these insights are, the author’s recollections of her own experiences are more rewarding, as when she tells readers of her brief time as a cut-rate accountant and learning that it was a mistake to try to compete on price. These stories, as well as financing specifics and clear encouragements (“Small changes and adjustments accumulate. Over time, they will lead you to your goal”), will make this book invaluable to entrepreneurs of all kinds.
A vigorous and highly readable plan for building the finances of a new business.Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7357759-0-6
Page Count: 230
Publisher: The Avant-Garde Project, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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