The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People [Paperback]

Carol Eikleberry (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 1, 2007 | Series: Career Guide For...

You don't have to stifle your creative impulses to pay the bills. For anyone who's ever been told, "Don't quit your day job," career counselor Carol Eikleberry is here to say, "Pursue your dreams!" Now in its third edition, her inspiring guide provides knowledgeable career guidance, real-life success stories, and eye-opening self-evaluation tools to help artistic individuals figure out how to remain different, unconventional, and hard-to-categorize while finding work they love.

 The revised third edition of the popular guide for offbeat individuals seeking work that suits their unique skills, talents, and passions. Updated throughout, including new inspiration and tips for keeping a creative job notebook. Descriptions of more than 270 creative jobs, from the mainstream (architect, Web designer) to the unexpected (crossword-puzzle maker, police sketch artist). Previous editions have sold more than 60,000 copies.Reviews“What a great manual for young rebels and older freethinkers who are plotting their next career move.”—Boston Globe

 

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

* The revised third edition of the popular guide for offbeat individuals seeking work that suits their unique skills, talents, and passions.
* Updated throughout, including new inspiration and tips for keeping a creative job notebook.
* Descriptions of more than 270 creative jobs, from the mainstream (architect, Web designer) to the unexpected(crossword-puzzle maker, police sketch artist).

About the Author

CAROL EIKLEBERRY, PhD, is a licensed psychologist who has worked as a career counselor for more than 20 years, both in private practice and at university counseling centers. She lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press; 3 edition (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580088414
• ISBN-13: 978-1580088411
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Business & Investing > Job Hunting & Careers > Job Hunting

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 87 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars the right book for some of us May 23, 2004

By Anne S. Headley

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

113 of 115 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eikleberry has shown me I am not alone! December 29, 2001

By C. M. Archibald

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Insight into and Understanding of the Creative Job World December 11, 1999

By F. Jerry Bigelow

Format:Paperback

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!

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, insightful compendium of useful experiences/ideas August 24, 1999

By Brad Carss ([e-mail])

Format:Paperback

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.

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best career book I've read! November 4, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

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)!

103 of 112 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A Great Idea Poorly Executed October 15, 2003

By Andrea Studebaker

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I thought this book would be so helpful to me, an artist looking for a tolerable day job while I continue to pursue my career. Unfortunately, it was quite a disappointment. I took the quiz and it identified me as a type which I honestly don't agree with. Most of the recommended jobs were neither interesting nor creative. The rest were impossibly out of reach, such as symphony conductor or State Director of Natural Resources (I mean come on - there are only 50 in the nation and they are political appointees). The last straw was when it recommended my current position - a job in which I am slowly dying from lack of stimulation.