An age-specific job manual featuring compelling stories and authoritative counsel.
Inspiration and advice for job-seeking members of Generation Z.
In the first two books of her My Job series, Skees, a baby boomer, traveled the world to interview people of varying ages who worked in a wide variety of careers. In this entry, she follows a similar path, focusing on “Gen Z”—people born between 1995 and 2015—but she wisely collaborates with Yusuf, herself a Gen Zer. Together, they share stories about other Gen Zers from 22 countries and 31 states, and the text is consistently punchy and engaging. A passionate preface by 19-year-old Yusuf, for instance, sets the tone and connects with the target audience (“We might be just scooping ice cream, bussing tables or babysitting. But we have aspirations, hopes, dreams and desires”), and the prologue by Skees cites generational statistics, offers an overview of career options, and speaks to Gen Z’s consumer power. The book includes Covid-19 pandemic-related resources as well as a section on racial justice, because, as Skees notes, “Gen Z reports that the BLM [Black Lives Matter] movement is one of the most impactful events on their worldview.” The foundational first chapter offers useful factoids about the title demographic as well as snippets of conversations with Gen Zers about how they view the workplace, adapt to changing technology, set career goals, and embrace entrepreneurialism. Chapters 2 and 3, in which the authors profile scores of Gen Zers, comprise the heart of the book; the latter chapter draws on numerous other sources to highlight Gen Z “dream-job attainers.” It features some remarkable stories, including those of Kiowa Kavovit, a 7-year-old who appeared on the TV show Shark Tank and obtained a $100,000 investment for her eco-friendly adhesive bandage, and Malala Yousafzai, the famed 15-year-old educational activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize and wrote a bestselling book. Chapter 4 is chock-full of job-search advice and resources tailored to Gen Zers, including helpful tips on internships, cover letters, resumes, interviewing, and more.
An age-specific job manual featuring compelling stories and authoritative counsel.Pub Date: March 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66-290426-4
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Skees Family Foundation
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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