Here are 50 books that Up Is Not the Only Way fans have personally recommended if you like
Up Is Not the Only Way.
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Estelle and I created the list of books based on our over 50 years of combined expertise in helping others to thrive in their careers. Our passion is facilitating the instruction, training, coaching, and professional development to help individuals reach their career goals. We wrote the book about thriving in careers and created a podcast about thriving in careers with over 30 episodes to help others reach their personal and career goals. At the same time, we want others to be their authentic self while thriving in their careers.
I really love this book because it changed the trajectory of my entire career. I was a business major in high school and continued as a business major while working on my bachelor’s degree. However, I did not feel that working only in business was my true passion.
The book explored not only job-hunting tools but also provided tools for reflection on deciding what you really want to do as a career. After reading this book, I earned a master’s and doctoral degree working with adult learners, which is my true passion. I love the book because its advice and guidance were relevant for being my authentic self and thriving in a career that best fits my skills and passion.
With timeless advice, up-to-the-minute insights, and more than ten million copies sold over fifty years, the world’s most popular and best-selling career guide is fully revised and expanded for 2022.
“One of the first job-hunting books on the market. It is still arguably the best. And it is indisputably the most popular.”—Fast Company
What Color Is Your Parachute? is the world’s most popular job-hunting guide. This completely updated edition features the latest resources, strategies, and perspectives on today’s job market, revealing surprising advice on what works—and what doesn’t—so you can focus your efforts on tactics that yield results.
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I am a strategist, human resources executive, and business consultant who is passionate about helping people reach their potential, find enjoyable work, and perform their best. Born in Chicago, I grew up in New England and call Connecticut home with my wife Kathryn. I love learning and have found books to be the gateway to exploring innovative ideas, gaining insights, and achieving success. I am an avid tennis and squash player, and reader. I am part of an international book club that meets several times per year to explore diverse topics.
Getting your dream job is only the first step. You want to start strong and deliver value to the organization as quickly as possible. That is where Michael Watkins’ book comes in handy. When I was the head of talent management for a Fortune 50 company, we gave a copy of this book to each newly hired executive.
This book outlines how to promote yourself and learn your new role faster. It helps you analyze your business situation and choose the right strategy to get things done. Finally, it shares how to build a winning team that delivers results. You want your boss, peers, and subordinates to feel good about you. This book helps you achieve early wins, energize your team, and build your credibility.
Named one of 100 Leadership & Success Books to Read in a Lifetime by Amazon Editors The world's most trusted guide for leaders in transition Transitions are a critical time for leaders. In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face. While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success. In this updated and expanded version…
I am a strategist, human resources executive, and business consultant who is passionate about helping people reach their potential, find enjoyable work, and perform their best. Born in Chicago, I grew up in New England and call Connecticut home with my wife Kathryn. I love learning and have found books to be the gateway to exploring innovative ideas, gaining insights, and achieving success. I am an avid tennis and squash player, and reader. I am part of an international book club that meets several times per year to explore diverse topics.
I am a huge fan of financial guru Dave Ramsey. Why mention finance in a list of career recommendations? Because an excellent job is the best wealth builder! I listen to one of Dave Ramsey’s podcasts weekly, and that is where I learned about Ken Coleman, his books and career show.
If What Color is Your Parachute helps you understand who you are and what type of work you want, Coleman’s The Proximity Principle offers a plan for landing that job. Coleman says the best jobs are at the intersection of your talents, passions, and mission. We become who we hang around. If we hang with readers, we will read. Coleman provides advice for getting around the right people and being in the right places to land your ideal job.
Right now, 70% of Americans aren’t passionate about their work and are desperately longing for meaning and purpose. They’re sick of “average” and know there’s something better out there, but they just don’t know how to reach it.
One basic principle―The Proximity Principle―can change everything you thought you knew about pursuing a career you love.
In his latest book, The Proximity Principle, national radio host and career expert Ken Coleman provides a simple plan of how positioning yourself near the right people and places can help you land the job you love.
Forget the traditional career advice you’ve heard! Networking,…
Stealing technology from parallel Earths was supposed to make Declan rich. Instead, it might destroy everything.
Declan is a self-proclaimed interdimensional interloper, travelling to parallel Earths to retrieve futuristic cutting-edge technology for his employer. It's profitable work, and he doesn't ask questions. But when he befriends an amazing humanoid robot,…
I grew up with a single mother who did not have much financially, but she gave me something even more valuable: encouragement to dream boldly, follow my passions, and believe in my ability to work hard and create a life I loved. I did not always make the right choices on my own journey, but every mistake became a lesson that shaped the work I do now: helping young people design futures filled with purpose and freedom. I wrote The Student’s Guide to Financial Freedom to share these lessons with high school and college students, the very people I have spent my career supporting.
Based on Stanford’s popular design thinking course, this book teaches readers how to approach life decisions the way designers approach creative problems, through prototyping, experimentation, and curiosity.
Instead of suggesting that people must choose one perfect path, Burnett and Evans help readers test ideas, explore possibilities, and build lives that fit their values and strengths.
I first encountered design thinking while founding a community nonprofit, and it changed the way I supported students. This book gives language and structure to something I encourage all young people to do: try things, follow your curiosity, and gather real-world data about what brings you alive.
It is one of my most recommended tools for designing a fulfilled life.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • At last, a book that shows you how to build—design—a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage • “Life has questions. They have answers.” —The New York Times
Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home—at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve.
Emilie Wapnick is an award-winning author and community builder. She is the founder and creative director at Puttylike, where she helps multipotentialites (people with many passions and creative pursuits) integrate all of their interests to create dynamic, fulfilling, and fruitful careers and lives. Her popular TED talk, Why some of us don’t have one true calling, has been viewed 7 million times and she has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, BBC, and Vice.
Written by a team of documentarians, Roadmap is a great read for folks who are just starting their career—or starting over! It offers inspiring examples of people with weird, creative careers, including tons of interviews where you can learn about people’s specific paths. The exercises in the book emphasize seeking variety and blending your interests, rather than narrowing down your multi-passionate soul.
The New York Times bestseller is back! The career workbook Roadmap is better than ever.
Roadmap has been updated and expanded
with tons of brand new content-including chapters on changing
directions mid-career and not letting your past define your future.
Through inspirational stories and interviews, journal-like prompts, and practical career development information, this helpful resource will steer students, recent graduates, and career-changers toward an authentic, fulfilling life.
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Features fresh perspectives from people like singer-songwriter John
Legend, surfing world champion Layne Beachley, and MacArthur fellow and
radio host Jad Abumrad
* Full of advice for people seeking a fulfilling work…
Meg Jay, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist, and an Associate Professor of Human Development at the University of Virginia, who specializes in adult development and in twentysomethings in particular. She earned a doctorate in clinical psychology, and in gender studies, from the University of California, Berkeley. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and on NPR and BBC. Her TED talk “Why 30 Is Not the New 20” is among the most watched of all time.
Three cheers for Entry Level Boss. I love Alexa's voice. I love her advice. And I love that she's broken down getting a job into the steps that every twentysomething wants and needs. Anyone who wants that first job--but is not sure how to get it--should read this book.
An easy-to-follow, nine-step process for how to land your dream job and cut through the noise of job-searching in the 21st century.
Banging your head against the wall about the job search? Wondering why nobody’s even bothering to send you a rejection letter (much less an interview request)? You are not alone. This process is a beast, but there’s good news: #EntryLevelBoss is the book for you. This is an easy-to-follow roadmap for transforming yourself from frustrated job seeker into hired, happy, productive human.
One part behind-the-scenes memoir, one part playbook, #EntryLevelBoss lays out career coach Alexa Shoen’s proven 9-step…
Nature writer Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of her experiences tracking wildlife—mostly mammals, from mountain lions to pocket mice—near her home in New Mexico, with lessons that hold true across North America. She guides readers through the basics of identifying tracks and signs, revealing a landscape filled with the marks…
Emilie Wapnick is an award-winning author and community builder. She is the founder and creative director at Puttylike, where she helps multipotentialites (people with many passions and creative pursuits) integrate all of their interests to create dynamic, fulfilling, and fruitful careers and lives. Her popular TED talk, Why some of us don’t have one true calling, has been viewed 7 million times and she has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, BBC, and Vice.
Another important antecedent to How to Be Everything, this book offers a serious focus on career, work, and revenue streams. Lobesnstine, a career and life coach, makes the argument that a need for variety and love for finding new challenges are not liabilities, but assets. If you’re ready to get down to business, this might be the read for you.
The guide to leading a creative, passionate, and multifaceted life―big enough to embrace all your dreams
Are you unwilling to settle on doing just one thing “for the rest of your life”? Do you jump at the chance to learn something new―or, after achieving success in one field, find yourself yearning for new challenges and looking around for something different to do? If so, you may be a Renaissance Soul. The Renaissance Soul is the first book devoted to this personality type, and in this updated edition―in paperback for the first time― author Margaret Lobenstine offers a life-planning strategy perfectly…
Many degree holders experience career and financial challenges they aren't prepared to handle. I know this first hand because after completing my Ph.D., I faced joblessness and massive student loan debt, and after becoming a professor, I saw my students encounter similar situations.
This prompted me to write, Dump Your Degree: How to Repurpose Your Education, Control Your Career, and Gain Financial Freedom. My mission is to provide tangible solutions to students and early career professionals so that they stop solely relying on their degrees but instead learn how to use the sum of their knowledge, skills, and talents in unique ways to create meaningful, viable careers.
For many, choosing a career path feels like the sole reason for going to college. The pressure is high, and you think you have to have it all figured out immediately. What do you do to help you make those tough decisions? Mike Sun's book offers a step-by-step guide on choosing the right career path while in school and, more importantly, making it a career you enjoy. Career Development for New College Studentswalks you through job exploration, self-discovery, and career goal setting so that you are well-prepared for the road ahead.
Worried about your professional future? Feeling lost or intimidated by your options? You’re not alone…
When you were a child, people probably asked you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
As a kid, you may have had all sorts of answers to that question.
An astronaut, a ballerina, a veterinarian – the possibilities are endless. But as you get older, it becomes clearer that deciding what you want to do with your life isn’t as simple as it seems.
Sure, there are many career pathways open to you. In fact, there are so many options that…
Emilie Wapnick is an award-winning author and community builder. She is the founder and creative director at Puttylike, where she helps multipotentialites (people with many passions and creative pursuits) integrate all of their interests to create dynamic, fulfilling, and fruitful careers and lives. Her popular TED talk, Why some of us don’t have one true calling, has been viewed 7 million times and she has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, BBC, and Vice.
Pamela Slim offers a wonderful way to reimagine your life and career, build your personal brand, and share your story. Multipotentialites often struggle to describe where they’ve been and where they’re headed in an impactful way. This book argues that your career is not a linear thing—it’s a collection of different types of work that you’re proud of. Body of Work will help you see your life story from a totally new vantage point.
These days it's increasingly rare to have a stable career in any field. More and more of us are blending big company jobs, startup gigs, freelance work, and volunteer side projects. We take chances to expand our knowledge, capabilities, and experience. But how do we make sense of that kind of career - and explain it? Pamela Slim, the acclaimed author of Escape from Cubicle Nation, gives us the tools to have meaningful careers in this new world of work. She shows how to find the connections among diverse accomplishments, sell your story, and continually reinvent and relaunch your brand.
The Bridge provides a compassionate and well researched window into the worlds of linear and circular thinking. A core pattern to the inner workings of these two thinking styles is revealed, and most importantly, insight into how to cross the distance between them. Some fascinating features emerged such as, circular…
After an early career in the technology industry, I co-founded a trade association for women entrepreneurs who were seeking venture capital funding for their businesses. As a nonprofit CEO, I had a powerful bully-pulpit advocating for what I believed was an important cause, but I didn’t have much of a strategy to build a following for my ideas. Later, a friend called me a "thought leader, " which shifted my worldview. Soon, I helped my first client go from being invisible in her field to becoming a recognized expert—testifying in front of the US Senate, recognized by the White House, and asked to lead a state-wide initiative in her field.
I think of Dorie Clark’s book as a companion book to mine. If you like my book, it’s likely that you’ll also get a lot of value out of reading hers. In this book, Clark focuses on helping people discover their breakthrough idea, a step that I think of as a prequel to the steps I outline for becoming a thought leader. She goes deep on the concept of the “Big Idea,” sharing some of the pathways that others have taken to distill a unique perspective or innovative differentiator that allows them to stand out.
As I do in my book, Clark then shares her perspective on building an audience for your ideas, effectively communicating your message, and inspiring others to embrace your vision. Both books also focus on dealing with naysayers and what it takes to truly scale big ideas and create a movement that makes substantial change…
Standing out is no longer optional. Learn how to become a thought leader - the agenda setter, the go-to person - with Dorie Clark's Stand Out.
Too many people believe that if they keep their heads down and work hard, they'll gain the recognition they deserve. But that's simply not true anymore. To get noticed, create true job security, and make a difference in the world, you have to make sure your ideas get noticed.
Drawing on interviews with thought leaders including Seth Godin, David Allen and Daniel Pink, Dorie Clark shows you how to break through the clamour of…
