100 Best Careers for the 21st Century [Paperback]

Shelly Field (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1996

For young people everywhere who want to pick an exciting career, here's an expert's list of all the best choices. In the bestselling tradition of ARCO's 100 Best Careers for the Year 2000, this carefully researched guide describes scores of attractive jobs opportunities in the career areas expected to grow fastest in the first decade of the next century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's the great contemporary struggle--finding work that satisfies the soul and fills the purse. In the old days, you'd have mended shoes, tempered iron, or tilled the fields, and if there was food on the table and your children were healthy, you'd count yourself a success. But those times are long past. Now there's the pernicious concept of job satisfaction to deal with, plus requisite baubles like 27-inch televisions, Pentium-chip computers, and name-brand sneakers to purchase, and so the pressure mounts. If you're vying with notions like downsizing and job marketability, it's worth looking at the jobs of the future. Shelly Field lists 100 careers, from geriatric social worker and travel agent to CAD specialist and pet sitter. For each, she provides a job description, earning range, recommended education and training, and necessary skills, personality traits, experience, and qualifications. She then spends a couple pages discussing just what the job is like, what the employment opportunities are, and what the future holds for that position.

Where do you apply if you're fresh out of college and mom's saying, "Get a job?" With a mortgage to pay off, do you stay in the old job you hate or make a change? Shelly Field's guide to careers of the 21st century doesn't answer these questions directly, it doesn't replace old-fashioned soul-searching and creative initiative, nor does it tell you what to do if you've got the soul of a poet with champagne tastes, but it's a great, practical place to start the process of matching you (your interests and skills) with reality (the job market). --Stephanie Gold

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Arco Pub (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028605950
• ISBN-13: 978-0028605951
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,698,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A totally wrong approach to choosing a career, May 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: 100 Best Careers for the 21st Century (Paperback)

I think Field's list of "growth fields" is accurate, so the book is a valuable resource for this reason. On the other hand, if you're young and unsure what career to choose, the absolutely WORST thing you can do is sit down with this book and say "Well, I'm good at x, y, and z, and p and q are growth fields, so therefore I should be a ... " You may (as I did) end up in a job you do moderately well, but hate! You'll do far better to start by asking yourself, "What do I value the most?" and "What do I most enjoy doing?" -- and then ask yourself "How can I make this into a job?"
Books like this always remind me of the scene in "The Graduate" where a helpful elder takes Dustin Hoffman aside and tells him he has one word of advice for him: "Plastics!!" Barbara Sher's books are a great antidote.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT BOOK IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR ANSWERS ABOUT CAREERS, May 26, 2000

By 

pat (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Best Careers 21st Century, 2/e (100 Best Careers for the 21st Century) (Paperback)

I buy all of Field's career books. This one in particular is good if you're looking for a specific career to get into. It tells you everything you need to know and gives you options you probably wouldn't have thought of. As one of the other reviewers mentioned, I too, went to Field's web site as listed in the book. I had a couple of questions about getting the job I wanted. I too, e-mailed her and she answered right away.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 100 Best Careers for the 21st Century, February 24, 2000

By 

Joyce Warren (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Best Careers 21st Century, 2/e (100 Best Careers for the 21st Century) (Paperback)

I found the book very helpful --very informative about new career options. It gives all the specifics you need -- more concise and more helpful than other books of this type.