The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention: Essential Survival Skills for Any Economy

by Pamela Mitchell

Book Overview

Today, career reinvention is the new-and only-form of job security. Until recently, most people expected to have one career with maybe two or three job changes in a lifetime. Now, experts advise us to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735204535
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Press
• Length: 269 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A gem full of wisdom and wit

I picked up this book expecting to scan it for a few helpful ideas, but I found the writing to be quite compelling and ended up reading the book carefully in full. The writer has a wide variety of experiences which have given her fresh perspectives on what it takes to be satisfied with, and therefore successful in, a career. She asks us to look at who we are, what we want, and why we want it, and challenges us to question certain assumptions about ourselves. She also gives the reader very useful tools to help assess abilities and develop strategies. Throughout it all, she makes the book real by sharing her own ups and downs in her careers and reinventions. This is a well-written, carefully organized book. I think that it would be helpful not only to those thinking of career reinvention, but also to young people who are choosing majors, selecting graduate schools, or in other ways making early career decisions.

Sharing thoughts of this book

I usually don't do reviews often, mainly because I'm not a writer, or maybe it's because I have nothing to write. However, this book is the one of the best books I read in a while. I give it 2 thumbs up for the Arther, she is great. I would recommend this book to everyone, especially if you trying to re-invent your thought process and changing careers.

The career book we've been waiting for

So far I've found two career books to recommend: Working Identity (Herminia Ibarra) and Finding Your Own North Star (Martha Beck). Now I'm adding this one to the list. Beck focuses mostly on choosing what you want; Ibarra talks about the search process. This book is somewhere in between. Beck has more exercises for choosing a career and Ibarra goes into the process differently. I'd work with all three. The title is unwieldy and the book takes a serious, no-nonsense approach. Mitchell focuses on exploring options. Much of her advice seems based on taking a sales approach; she even refers to "career reinvention materials." Mitchell doesn't have a lot of soul-searching exercises, like "What should be on my tombstone." She invites readers to heed their intuition. Like Martha Beck, she believes the body knows more than the mind: if you find yourself feeling ill when you contemplate a type of work, it's time for a move. Nor does she spend a lot of time on the trappings of a career search, such as resumes. In fact, if you need to write a resume, she invites you to download samples from her company's website. Some useful points: Career reinvention takes chronological time. She points out that many career-changers think "six weeks" when they should be thinking "six months." I would agree more with Ibarra in Working Identity, who says three years is not unusual. Besides chronological time, you need time during your week. One of my own clients said she could talk to me on Sunday evenings at 6 PM Eastern. Her weekdays were completely taken. She was too busy to change careers; she needed to take an interim job that would free up her hours. Functional fear versus dysfunctional fear. Functional fear is based on realistic situations that you have to deal with. Real qualifications versus negotiable qualifications. To be a doctor, you need an MD. For other careers, you may be able to substitute experience for academics. My only quibble is that Mitchell can be a little too strong on some points. The term "laws" in the title sets the tone. For instance, on page 27, Mitchell suggests that "Patty" who dislikes a marketing job will not find happiness by moving to Google, which is after all an online advertising company. Yet in fact the culture of a high-tech company will be so different that a job with the same title might be transformed. I've seen people change their whole attitude to a career when they switched companies or even moved to a new geographic location. It's not always easy to pinpoint the source of discomfort. Similarly, researchers find that serendipity plays a key role in both career change and career success. By staying active and following the steps Mitchell lays out, you are more likely to experience the kind of serendipity that propels you forward. But I've met few people who logically chose a career and then took a linear path to get a job in that field. Mitchell undoubtedly understands the zig-zag pattern of career change, but

Self Career Coaching at its BEST

I found Pamela's book to be an excellent read and highly recommend it to anyone who is in the process of career reinvention. It has the ability to allow one self to look to reconnect with that part of one's self that has been lost, forgotten, or put on a back shelf due to the daily grind of life and use these new found gifts to design and create a strategy to reinvent oneself in a way that honors one's values, aspirations, and life purpose. The companion workbook included a series of exercises which put each Chapter's content into practice by allowing one to discover an awareness of their inner-most values, innate gifts and life purpose and integrating this new awareness into current career goals.

Reinvent your career now

If you're unhappy with your career or you feel like you're not being challenged, then read this book. The stories are powerful, the lessons are timeless and the workbook exercises will help you realize the possibilities. Pamela, someone who has gone through career reinvention herself, will help guide you to a fulfilling life.