The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People, Third Edition

by Carol Eikleberry and Carrie Pinsky

Book Overview

A practical career guide for creatively inclined job seekers of all ages, with tips and counsel on how to use their independent and innovative talents and passions to make money, express themselves,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580088414
• ISBN13: 9781580088411
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

the right book for some of us

Before you buy this book, I think you should read all the reviews posted here. There is a wide range of opinion (Eikleberry would use the word divergent), and there is merit in all. If you are motivated to earn big money, you won't find this book helpful. It doesn't have nuts and bolts - could have used some hints on resumes and interview strategies for the creative folks who have changed jobs more frequently than others. It seems a little restrictive in its use of creativity - I believe we all are creative, only it looks different depending upon personalities and occupations.This disclaimer notwithstanding, it's a great book. I'm a career counselor, with many clients who are or would be in the arts. I'm recommending this book to them. If you majored in music, theater, art, or even the liberal arts, you will be reassured by this book. If you wish you had majored in these things, it's not too late to get back to your first career aspirations in some employable form.I particularly like the section on the interim job (which may be for a few months or for a lifetime). This can be reassuring to read, so the artistic soul can stop the self-flagellation because he/she "sold out" and took a job.For the small cost of this book, you can become re-inspired and energized in your career quest.

Eikleberry has shown me I am not alone!

I bought this book for a friend, but I had no idea I needed it this much myself. Eikleberry's book lays out a psychological profile of creative and unconventional people and shows us there are many more like ourselves out there. She maps out the skills and interests of creative people and shows you how they point to different career paths. There are even self-tests along the way to help you assess your skills-and the results may surprise you.This book shows you that just because you're an "artistic" person doesn't mean you have to choose between being a starving artist or having a "normal" job. She explores the wide variety of jobs available for creative people, but is also realistic in stating that these jobs are not as plentiful as more conventional jobs.If you're frustrated, and generally feel lost in your career choices, this book can give you hope and help point you in the right direction. She doesn't give you the answers, but she helps you know how to look for the answers within yourself.I highly recommend this book to college students and twenty-somethings in particular. But this book is appropriate for any creative and unconventional person who needs a new direction.

Insight into and Understanding of the Creative Job World

I highly recommend this book to any person who has even a sliver of creativity and feels that there must be something else out there besides the typical 9 to 5 drugery. Good news, there is! Carol Eikleberry's book is not a "Follow these 5 steps to obtain your perfect job" guidebook. What is does offer, however, is an overwhelming amount of promising insight, advice, and support for creative people uncertain of their career future. From an analysis of the creative personality in the workplace to real life examples of those who have made it, this book delivers hope to the weary and gives us the tools to begin on our career journey. It is The Career "Bible" for unconventional people!

The best career book I've read!

Dr. Eikleberry's book, "The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People" is simply a must buy book for career changers and those who have become unhappy with their current career status. Dr. Eikleberry provides the reader with some very practical, down to earth tips, on how to discover, channel and use your talents for positive personal and social outcomes. The author answers her e-mail and has a supplemental web site for this publication. You may have read other books and said to yourself, "Not another career book!" But give this book a try. You'll be glad you did. This book is five stars (plus)!

Excellent, insightful compendium of useful experiences/ideas

As an artist trapped in the skin of an accountant and an attorney I found Carol's book THE most insightful set of words on the motivations and frustrations a creative person experiences while trying to find their place in the world. No book will GET you a job and hers has no magical formulas but it does have a plethora of wisdom and insights into the creative mind and spirit. The quotes that she has unearthed I found so heartening and true to my own feelings that I thought she had some keen ability untapped by more prosaic authors. However, I now believe she really did her homework from the perspective of a brillant pyschologist and she really knows the creative mindset. As proof, as a result of having read this book and being led along a dark and winding road of introspection I am now constructing two websites to solicit business for my newly created art businesses that I would never have started without Carol and her book.