A word to the wise: job hunting is not the same as it was in 1986. So don't trust a book about job hunting from that era. That's one of the lessons I learned while perusing the career changing and job hunting books at our local library.
Have you ever heard of Indeed.com? It is widely considered one of the best job hunting resource, and Time Magazine called it the 10th best website in 2007. It didn't exist until 2004. Then there's there's the issue of YouTube (which went public in 2005) and Facebook (2006).
And there's also The Great Recession. The world economy was still riding high until somewhere in 2008. Job searching is MUCH different with 17% unemployment! Would you take the advice of someone who'd never heard of Facebook and who thought investing in real estate was a great idea? Then be wary of any book published before 2009. That's not to say that you can't learn from these books; just that you must realize that the information will be dated.
So how do you know what is good advice and what's bad advice? First off, anything that deals with technology that is more than 5 years old is bad advice. Period. Other things may take longer to go out of date (writing resumes, for example). But when in doubt, there's a magical world called the Internet that can give you plenty of other opinions. So why not skip the books entirely and only learn from the net? Anyone can put up a website (even me); people who write books generally have some credibility. I would recommend a healthy mix of online and offline content. Try it and see what you think.
But if the models on the cover of the book have 80s hair, try something else.
That's what cell phones looked like on my mission. Good for setting up appointments and warding off dogs.
ReplyDeleteGreat picture Paco. It's dizzying how fast technology changes. I will certainly check the publishing dates on the books, now that you have pointed it out.
ReplyDeleteStrangely, the best book written on war strategy is still Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." The best book on practical politics is still Machiavelli's "The Prince." These things are as old as the hills, but contain timeless advice. Is there a similar book in the job hunting field? or is job-hunting too new a phenomenon?
ReplyDelete@Stephen
ReplyDeleteI think you hit on a complexity that I glossed over in my article. Job hunting is as old as capitalism, and I don't know of any book that teaches the underlying principles. The problem comes from the specifics of the modern job hunt.
Sun Tzu's "Art of War" may discuss the underlying principles and strategies of winning a war, but it doesn't go into detail about winning a battle that includes Predator drones and improvised explosive devices while traveling in a Hum-V. Machiavelli's "Prince" deals with the principles of politics and how to remain in power over the long term, but we still have to figure out how to apply it to immigration reform or the Tea Party movement.
I think most people don't care about the underlying principles of the job hunt; they want specific strategies to help them right now, and once they have a job, they want to forget about what it took to get them there.
Is there a book? I don't know. But I would find it fascinating!