How to Get Any Job: Life Launch and Re-Launch for Everyone Under 30 (or How to Avoid Living in Your Parents' Basement), 2nd Edition

This is an excellent book with much wisdom, knowledge and advice about how to find just the right job for you. The book details a plan to help you discover your interests and talents. Implementing this plan will take time and thought on the part of the student/young person but will save you from many mistakes and from landing in a dead end job that doesn’t fit you.Part 1 will teach you to examine your employment interests and develop a plan for your life.Part 2 takes this further in helping you explore your interests in “the real world.”Part 3 will teach you how to get a job.Throughout the book there are case studies that flesh out the issues being taught. These are very helpful. Any student who is uncertain about his/her career direction should study this book and follow every suggestion in order to discover the type of career that will best suit you. Do the homework first and you will be able to find what you want and will be ready to do well in job interviews.In the last chapter on the Job Interview Asher explains much about the hidden job market – how many jobs are filled from within or from a friend of a friend. And many jobs are filled with a persistent job searcher who doesn’t take no for answer.To whet your appetite a bit here are some interesting thoughts from the book:Prior generations needed to find 9 jobs between college and retirement. Asher believes the current generation will need to find 20-30 jobs! Pg440-60% of CEOs are liberal arts majors. pg 7Don’t compound a poor choice of major with a poor career choice. Pg 8You will be fired through no fault of your own. Pg 14A little failure is part of every successful life. Walt Disney’s first cartoon production company went bankrupt. Elvis Presley got a C in high school music, and his teacher told him he couldn’t sing. Edgar Allen Poe was expelled from college. Einstein dropped out of school without finishing his degree.” Pg 133I highly recommend this book.

Subtitled Life Launch and Re-Launch for Everyone Under 30, and sub-subtitled Or How to Avoid Living in Your Parents' Basement, this entertaining and quite comprehensive book is directed primarily to new graduates, although there is much to be gleaned for any job seeker. I have seen Mr. Asher "in person," and much of his whimsy and many of his practical examples are recounted in this book.Starting with what he describes will be a rather intense and comprehensive approach to Life Planning, not merely career development, he provides resources and exercises to assist the reader in some Vision Engineering, then moves on to investigating how these interests can translate into the real world, closing with very specific, pragmatic advice on the steps to take to find that job. Much real-world advice is offered around researching, networking, using technology, attending job fairs, planning the search campaign, even negotiating the offer. Mr. Asher provides numerous stories of successes and failures, recounting some searches that were very unusual (One student handed out resumes with his cell number to everyone entering the building of his company of interest, noting that he would be in the parking lot waiting for a call. He got the interview, by the way).Topics include internships, summer jobs, use of career centers, high risk occupations, considering advanced degrees, troubleshooting the job search, and much more. Asher even includes some scripts for communication as well as pointed advice on actions to take to work around the traditional job market, a market that is almost guaranteed to provide candidates who have better qualifications than you!I consider this book a Must Read for any new graduate, and a very useful guide for anyone whose job search has stalled or is on life support.

This book was mostly geared toward young undergraduate students. The content is good: it mostly discussed "exploring your interests" (AKA "finding yourself"), personality tests, volunteering, internships, and options besides traditional employment (military, grad school, etc). Theres's also a section about networking and interviewing. If you're a young student preparing to graduate from college or a young recent college grad, it might be helpful to read this book as you prepare to hit the job market, particularly the networking section.If you're like me (under 30 and have been out of school for a while), I recommend a different book by the same author "Cracking the Hidden Job Market."  Cracking The Hidden Job Market: How to Find Opportunity in Any Economy The networking methods in both books are pretty much identical. However, "How to Get Any Job" goes into much more detail about networking to find jobs and talks less about "finding yourself."