Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have a job that you truly love?
Whether you are seeking a new job or a promotion in an existing job, reading career books is an excellent way to confidently maneuver the job market.
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These books aren’t your typical, snooze-inducing “how-to” guides, but rather the secret weapons that’ll catapult your professional development into the stratosphere – all while making the journey as interesting as that last page-turning thriller you read.
What Makes an Excellent Career Book?
The best career books are authored by professionals who have made a career switch for the better. These books are backed by research that links skills, personality, and goals to certain career fields. These selected career books are meant to help you bolster your career search. Work through these books with passion and achieve your dream job.
And here’s what you stand to gain:
Get tips from experts who’ve already ‘been there, done that.
Learn to play different roles in your career.
Discover paths not visible from your current vantage point.
Receive enlightenment about the multiplier effect of skill-building.
Grow into your potential, step by step.
15 Best Career Books
In this comprehensive exploration of career development and growth, we delve into indispensable career books that offer valuable insights, strategies, and guidance to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of professional success.
- Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
- Act on your career with the design thinking process.
- Tailor life for personal fulfillment.
- Continual self-improvement
- What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles
- Craft attention-grabbing resumes.
- Prepare for job interviews.
- Work on the components for your career search.
- So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport
- "Follow your passion" requires a work ethic.
- Skill development precedes career satisfaction.
- Excellence in work matters more than the job itself.
- Do What You Are by Paul D. Tieger, Barbara Barron, and Kelly Tieger
- Leverage your personality type in career searches.
- Improve the clarity of your long-term goals.
- Discover career opportunities that match your personality.
- You Turn by Ashley Stahl
- Discover and utilize your core skillset.
- Take the step-by-step roadmap.
- Overcome mental blocks and do what is necessary.
- The Everything Career Tests Book by A. Bronwyn Bronwyn Llewellyn
- Tests designed in ten key job metrics.
- Receive in-depth analysis.
- Useful alongside other career guides.
- The Career Design Map by Dan Freehling
- Map out career opportunities.
- The Career Design Map replaces the traditional career ladder.
- Combat common career pitfalls.
- How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith
- Understand your obstacles.
- Overcome self-limiting habits.
- Learn which habits are useful to career success.
- The Unspoken Truths for Career Success by Tessa White
- Decode office politics.
- Manage work-life balance.
- Navigate pay, promotions, and power balance effectively.
- Own Your Career Own Your Life by Andy Storch
- Redefine personal and professional dreams.
- Develop purpose-driven habits.
- Build a resilient and actionable life plan.
- Give and Take by Adam Grant
- "Give and Take" emphasizes collaborative success.
- Challenges self-centered success.
- Acknowledged by Financial Times and bestseller lists.
- Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
- Build success through meaningful connections.
- Embrace generosity in networking.
- Utilize social media for productive relationships.
- Find Your Why by Simon Sinek
- "Find Your Why" guides career alignment through intrinsic purpose.
- Gain individual and team clarity of purpose.
- Foster long-term success and fulfillment in work.
- Career Development For New College Students by Mike Sun
- Transitioning from college to career can be seamless with strategic planning.
- Discover your strengths and interests for a fulfilling career.
- Learn to create a roadmap to your ideal job with confidence.
Products go through a process called “design thinking” which takes the products from the drafting stage through to the final production. This ingenious book shows how design thinking can be applied to a career search.
Why we love this career book: Design thinking offers an ingenious way to work towards a dream career. The authors do a great job of explaining the process and how to apply it to your job search.
Key Takeaways:
A world-renowned career guide that covers all the major bases of career searches and job preparation. It covers all the important details of resume building, interview preparation, networking, elevator pitches, and goal setting. These components are transformative for your career, making this a must-read book for timeless career advice.
Why we love this career book: Craft your resume and prepare for other necessary job components.
Key Takeaways:
If you want to develop a passion into a career, take from the extensively researched book, “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport, who has harnessed what it takes to be great. From his instruction, you will learn to harness fleeting passions into excellent work. This book approaches the work that you love doing in a way that makes others take notice of you. Cal Newport offers a compelling way to achieve a fulfilling career.
Why we love this career book: Constructively act on your passion-driven goals with the help of Cal’s roadmap.
Key Takeaways:
What does career success look like to you? “Do What You Are” addresses this question by giving you the Myers-Briggs personality test, a worthwhile test that is a popular HR tool for bringing teams together across the world. The results of your Myers Briggs are interpreted to lead you towards a range of professional development opportunities.
Why we love this career book: We are excited that the Myers Briggs test is available as a career guide resource. You get to keep the results of this useful test and receive many resources for job hunting.
Key Takeaways:
Find your bliss and improve your career. If you have been dreaming about change without seeing results, then you’ll know the premise of Ashley Stahl’s career guide. It offers an action plan that follows through on your bliss with an 11-step roadmap. Become your career coach and pursue your interests.
Why we love this career book: Ashley Stahl’s roadmap is based on moving forward with an individual’s innate qualities, passions, and hobbies, so they align with your career goals.
Key Takeaways:
Uncover your work habits, affinities, and interests with a skills test that provides results. Take a test around ten major skill groups: values, skills, interests, personality, work environment, location, work/life balance, entrepreneurial ability, executive ability, and emotional intelligence. Uncover your aptitudes with in-depth analysis and career guidance.
Why we love this career book: The results are comprehensive in relevant metrics of job happiness. Furthermore, the results serve as great personal insight that can be used alongside other career books.
Key Takeaways:
A career map makes your actions intentional because it identifies the places you want to go and marks the pitfalls you want to avoid. This book will show you how to create a career map based on your ambitions and talents. See the career field you want to enter and account for the changing career landscape.
Why we love this career book: Act purposely rather than let the market guide your career path. This is a good book for making a personalized career map and being guided to your career destination.
Key Takeaways:
Thousands of successful people have overcome career roadblocks with the help of Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith. In their careers that have spanned decades, they have identified workplace habits that used to work and new habits that should be attained. Transition away from outdated habits to better reach your goals.
Why we love this career book: It delivers effective strategies to handle hurdles in your professional life, not only pinpointing common setbacks but also offering real-world solutions.
Key Takeaways:
Reevaluate the career misconceptions of the pay raise, promotion, loyalty, and work/life balance. In the modern age where remote work and work/life balance are job aspects that contribute to career happiness, there are also new truths about careers that have emerged. Tessa White's witty style makes this book easy to read about the important subjects of navigating pay, promotions, and politics in today’s culture.
Why we love this career book: Continue to the next level of your career by learning the truths about navigating pay, promotions, and politics.
Key Takeaways:
Andy Storch went from being stuck in the wrong career to living with intention and pursuing his unique purpose. Then, he became a professional consultant for others who sought the same goals. This guidebook offers valuable insights and is loaded with actionable steps to create your career plan. Develop a way to find the work you love and create new habits, goals, and connections.
Why we love this career book: It shows you that building a supportive community is necessary to build a resilient plan and encompasses personal development, goal achievement, and daily habits as part of being successful.
Key Takeaways:
Adam Grant's "Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success," speaks on how successful careers often rely on teamwork, work ethic, and productivity. Initially published in 2014, the book quickly climbed The New York Times bestseller list and achieved Wall Street Journal bestseller status. Today, readers get a fresh perspective on achieving success through collaboration, deeper discussions, and a growth mindset.
Why we love this career book: Adam Grant shows the profound impact of collaboration and productive interactions with others on our career goals. It catalyzes understanding of the dynamics of success.
Key Takeaways:
Keith Ferrazzi has connected with thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates, and he is an expert at networking and building positive relationships. In "Never Eat Alone," he teaches how to connect with others in ways that go beyond the traditional. Ferrazzi is an advocate for generosity and for lending a helping hand. His principles include not keeping score, consistently reaching out to contacts, and using social media to maintain connections.
Why we love this career book: It is practical to be generous and helpful. By helping others achieve success, you’ll be helped in return.
Key Takeaways:
Simon Sinek is one of the world’s leading career coaches who teaches using one's "WHY" is a powerful ability to find one’s true inspiration and fulfillment. This method is useful in both personal and professional aspects of life. So with this hands-on guide, you will uncover your “WHY”.
Why we love this career book: "Find Your Why" illustrates that the answer to this powerful question can reshape your career.
Key Takeaways:
Are you worried about your professional future? You're not alone, since deciding what you want to do with your life is a complex subject. You’ll encounter countless career pathways and have the freedom to pursue any of them, so make the career exploration a rewarding task. In "Career Development for New College Students," you'll find actionable steps to narrow down career options, build self-understanding, discover key traits for your chosen field, test your career interests through internships, and create an action plan for your goals. The guide equips you with practical strategies for making a good impression, including resume writing, cover letters, and video resumes, along with resources to explore career opportunities.
Why we love this career book: This book is a compass for those navigating the labyrinth of career choices, offering practical and actionable steps to illuminate the path forward. It turns the challenging career development process into an enjoyable and fulfilling journey.
Key Takeaways:
People Also Ask These Questions about Career Books
Q: Do career books help when choosing the right career path?
- A: Without a doubt, career books provide insights into different industries. They are updated with advice that applies to modern career trends.
Q: What type of career books should I read?
- A: Ideally, read a career book that aligns with your professional goals. Furthermore, read a variety to broaden your perspective on the entire field.
Q: Can career books help me succeed professionally?
- A: Quite right, they can! Career books offer relevant guidance, market strategies, and wisdom from others who have found career success.
Q: How are career books different from self-help books?
- A: Career books differ from self-help books because they are more job-specific, with advice focused on professional growth, while self-help books focus on personal development.
Q: Are there any career books for high school or college students?
- A: Absolutely! We suggest reading “The Ultimate Guide to Planning Your Future” by DK and “Career Planning for Teens” by Seth Hicks.
The post 🎯 15 Career Books to Help Ambitious Professionals Level Up at Work in 2023 appeared first on SnackNation.
