Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams [Paperback]

Pamela Skillings (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 13, 2008

Does your corporate career leave you stressed out, burned out, or just plain bummed out? You’re not alone. The good news is that there’s a way out–and you’re holding it. Written by career expert and corporate escapee Pamela Skillings, Escape from Corporate America inspires the cubicle-bound and the corner-office-cornered to break free and create the career of their dreams–without going broke. With no-nonsense advice and unflagging humor, Skillings shows you how to

• assess your job’s “suck” factor–from terminal boredom to boss from hell
• identify your true calling–brainstorm fantasy careers and test-drive your dream jobs
• develop your Escape Plan–set goals, figure out your timing, and evaluate your finances and health insurance options
• find jobs that don’t bite–entrepreneurial corporate environments, energetic start-ups, the nonprofit sector, and flexible work options
• be your own boss–explore entrepreneurship and freelancing, assemble an advisory team, and start a business while you collect a paycheck
• follow your creative dreams–learn how to make time for your artistic passion and develop a plan to quit your day job
• overcome any obstacle–deal with fear, doubt, negative people, and other bumps along the road

Plus, Skillings shares success stories from dozens of corporate escape artists, including celebrity TV chef Andrea Beaman, Cranium CEO Richard Tait, and many others.

Full of practical strategies and fun-to-follow exercises, Escape from Corporate America will help disgruntled office workers everywhere find more meaningful, fulfilling careers.

Praise for Escape from Corporate America
"With insight and humor, Skillings enumerates the stages of “Corporate Disillusionment” and the features of the “toxic workplace”—the bullying bosses, moronic co-workers, “terminal boredom” and rampant racism and sexism. A multitude of questionnaires, exercises and worksheets helps readers determine their dream job, assess expenses and assets, and plot an escape plan to break free of corporate life without going bankrupt....Vignettes of successful fugitives from the corporate world populate the book and an extremely useful “Escape Tool Kit” supplies information on where and how to find career coaches, health insurance, job listings and a wealth of other much needed resources when embarking on career change. Comprehensive, informative and witty, this book will be indispensable to those looking to start new careers with concrete plans and well-defined goals." –Publishers Weekly

“Escape from Corporate America isn’t just the best book ever written on creating the career of your dreams -- it is the most stirring and useful book on careers that I’ve ever read. Pam Skillings inspired me first with her own story and then with stories who successfully escaped dreary, heartless, and sometimes nasty workplaces. This masterpiece will give you the skills to make the leap from a mind-numbing job to a great career and the courage to follow your heart.” –Robert Sutton, Stanford Professor and author of The No Asshole Rule

“This book might just change your life!”
–Barbara Sher

“Pamela Skillings gives you the tools you need to take control of your career and have a more fulfilling life.”
–Beth Schoenfeldt, founder of Ladies Who Launch

www.escapefromcorporate.com

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Journalist Skillings aims to rescue Americans from corporate tedium in this entertaining and informative guide to walking away from an established—albeit stultifying—job and forging a more rewarding career. With insight and humor, Skillings enumerates the stages of Corporate Disillusionment and the features of the toxic workplace—the bullying bosses, moronic co-workers, terminal boredom and rampant racism and sexism. A multitude of questionnaires, exercises and worksheets helps readers determine their dream job, assess expenses and assets, and plot an escape plan to break free of corporate life without going bankrupt. Skillings also provides pointers to those readers who simply want to be happier in their current jobs—including negotiating for more flexible hours, telecommuting and taking sabbaticals. Vignettes of successful fugitives from the corporate world populate the book and an extremely useful Escape Tool Kit supplies information on where and how to find career coaches, health insurance, job listings and a wealth of other much needed resources when embarking on career change. Comprehensive, informative and witty, this book will be indispensable to those looking to start new careers with concrete plans and well-defined goals. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"With insight and humor, Skillings enumerates the stages of “Corporate Disillusionment” and the features of the “toxic workplace”—the bullying bosses, moronic co-workers, “terminal boredom” and rampant racism and sexism. A multitude of questionnaires, exercises and worksheets helps readers determine their dream job, assess expenses and assets, and plot an escape plan to break free of corporate life without going bankrupt....Vignettes of successful fugitives from the corporate world populate the book and an extremely useful “Escape Tool Kit” supplies information on where and how to find career coaches, health insurance, job listings and a wealth of other much needed resources when embarking on career change. Comprehensive, informative and witty, this book will be indispensable to those looking to start new careers with concrete plans and well-defined goals." –Publishers Weekly

“Escape from Corporate America isn’t just the best book ever written on creating the career of your dreams -- it is the most stirring and useful book on careers that I’ve ever read. Pam Skillings inspired me first with her own story and then with stories who successfully escaped dreary, heartless, and sometimes nasty workplaces. This masterpiece will give you the skills to make the leap from a mind-numbing job to a great career and the courage to follow your heart.” –Robert Sutton, Stanford Professor and author of The No Asshole Rule

“This book might just change your life!”
–Barbara Sher

“Pamela Skillings gives you the tools you need to take control of your career and have a more fulfilling life.”
–Beth Schoenfeldt, founder of Ladies Who Launch --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (May 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345499743
• ISBN-13: 978-0345499745
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pamela Skillings is an author, journalist, and entrepreneur who spent twelve years working as a marketing executive for major New York companies.

During the long process of figuring out how to quit her job without going completely broke, Pamela met dozens of inspiring people that had escaped Corporate America to start businesses, find more life balance, and explore personal passions. She also met dozens who felt stuck in corporate jobs they hated and feared there was no way out.

The purpose of her book is to provide career change information and inspiration for anyone who has fantasized about jumping off the corporate ladder.

When not working for clients, Pamela spends her days writing about cool stuff like Manhattan bars, expensive real estate, and career crises for About.com and other publications.

Do you have a story about life in Corporate America? Email her to share your advice or just to vent.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 106 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking Charge, with the Able Assistance of Pamela Skillings May 13, 2008

By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

The bookshelves groan with the weight of self-help books, some invaluable, and some ordinary common sense made marketable by astute `guides'. Though this remarkably readable new book by Pamela Skillings is subtitled `A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of your Dreams', suggesting yet another of the self help series genre, what this carefully detailed, wise, and immensely user friendly book offers is a call to the reader savvy enough to buy this guide to address not only employment and how to make meaningful, plausible changes in job situations, but also how to essentially take charge of your life in every facet of living.

Skillings uses a conversational style of writing, full of wit, insight into the unspeakable issues that crowd many of our professional lives, and practical approaches to what other authors have created as `formulas', and in doing so she manages to supportively take the reader by the hand and lead the way down the dark hall of indecision or stifling boredom to the possibility of light at the end of the tunnel of change. `You don't have to settle' is a term she frequently inserts into this fact-filled examination of the good and the bad side of Corporate existence. The signs and symptoms of corporate burnout are detailed in lists of levels of `disease' states that provide a lot of truth as well as significant humor (monotony, control issues, workplace drama, cubiclitis, etc.). But Skillings has the wisdom to refuse to push her readers into leaving the womb of corporate security. Instead, she offers skilled advice on how to evaluate job and life goals, and follows this with detailed methods of how to approach dreams of finding the perfect job - along with a healthy list of the possible temporary setbacks and side effects of making change.

One of the many fine points of Skillings' mentoring is her realistic approach to the challenges that accompany change. After long chapters on how to decide what kind of job would provide personal satisfaction as well as a means of viable financial support, she outlines sensible and attainable pathways to make the `change' work. After deciding just what would make the reader's life happy in the work environment (and it follows, in the home environment), Skillings suggests seeking advice from people in the field of work being considered, doing temp work in that field, volunteering in areas associated with the goal (adding to the resume as well as to the conviction that the change will be what the seeker wishes) - all before `quitting the day job'. In other words, Skillings advice is crowned by recommending sound research and implementation of dreams BEFORE taking the leap.

Within the context of the conversational advice are numerous examples of people who indeed escaped from corporate America, lists to complete to aid the reader in defining exactly what are the goals and the steps toward achieving them, and a constant supply of warmly friendly, gently humorous, reality based supportive asides that reassure the reader that `you can do this'! In her final chapter HAVE A NICE ESCAPE, before she shares myriad contacts and resources to aid the reader, Skillings warmly states `Only you can decide if you're really ready to escape from Corporate America. The most important thing to remember is that you always have options. You deserve an inspiring, fulfilling career, and there's no reason you can't have one.' Dreams and Visions fill the pages of this fine book and it would be difficult to find a more informed and supportive guide to attaining those than Pamela Skillings. Highly Recommended! Grady Harp, May 08

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Changing your existance from dread to dynamic... May 17, 2008

By Thomas Duff HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I'm fortunate... I love my job. That doesn't mean there aren't some days where I'd gladly trade it in for a new model, but that's true for anything you do. However, I'm constantly amazed by how many people truly *hate* what they do, and only continue working because they can't afford not to. Pamela Skillings looks at people in that predicament and offers them a way out in her book Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams. It's a well-written book that should give you all the help you need to start making choices and decisions to change your current situation.

Contents:
Quiz: Are You A Corporate Casualty?
Part 1: Plan Your Escape
1. This Is Not Your Father's Job Market
2. The Trouble with the Rat Race
3. True Callings and Wrong Numbers
4. Let's Get Practical
Part 2: Exploring Escape Routes
5. Corporate Jobs That Don't Suck
6. Take A Break
7. Swim in a Smaller Pond
8. Go Solo
9. Build a Business
10. Follow Your Creative Dreams
11. Make A Difference
Part 3: Going Over the Wall
12. Going Over the Wall
Have a Nice Escape
The Escape Tool Kit
Acknowledgments
Meet the Corporate Escape Artists

The thing I like most about this book is that it doesn't try to fit everyone into a "one size fits all" mold. In the job world, "one size fits almost nobody". Skillings lays out the reasons why you may not be satisfied with your corporate existence. Sometimes it's due to burnout, sometimes to disillusionment, or even due to reorganizations that have relegated you to working for the boss from hell. Whatever the case, getting to the core of your dissatisfaction is key to figuring out how to correct it. Once that's established, she then explores the potential options that you might want to explore. For some, corporate life is fine, but you need a new pond. There's nothing wrong with a cubicle if that fits your style and comfort zone. Perhaps for others, it's just a sabbatical that's needed to recharge the batteries a bit. Maybe a start-up where you're playing a variety of roles? Become your own boss as a contractor/consultant? All those possibilities are put out there for you to consider, along with hints as to why or why not each one may be right for you. The final part of the book wraps everything up with a realistic expectation of what you'll feel when you've made the decision to pull the trigger... fear. Often that fear keeps people from taking that final step. With Skillings's help, you can see that for what it is and act accordingly.

Another thing that makes this an enjoyable read are the real-life examples interspersed throughout the book. She's gone out and interviewed a number of well-known people and asked them how they fell into their "dream job". What you'll find is that the differences between you and them are not as large as you'd think. In many/most cases, they started with the same fears and concerns you have, along with a feeling that they were missing something in their current situation. The main difference between them and you is that they've taken the step and done the hard work, and are now reaping the rewards. You're not guaranteed to succeed, but you're guaranteed to fail if you don't begin.

An excellent book to recommend to that cube dweller who continually laments their lot in life. Things can be different, and Escape from Corporate America can help show you the way.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pragmatic, Entertaining and Insightful Approach to a Major Career Overhaul May 16, 2008

By Ed Uyeshima HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Have you ever watched The Office only to realize the skewering social satire is not that far off the reality of your mundane day-to-day life at work? I knew I wanted to read this book the moment I saw the title, and I was fortunate to receive an advance copy from the author's husband. Truly leading by example, Pamela Skillings has written such an entertaining tome on seeking career fulfillment that it stands among the most insightful in an increasingly crowded field. It's a thorough start-to-finish treatise that resonates from Skillings' own story as an aspiring journalist who ended up working in corporate America for twelve years earning a six-figure salary only to realize she was never really satisfied. For most of us, such a revelation, if it ever reaches the level of our consciousness, comes with a wave of dread that crystallizes into a paralyzing fear over an unknown future. With a fluctuating economy that produces constant employment uncertainty, the clarity that comes with living a life of predictable mediocrity may hold a certain appeal to those unwilling to incur a risk by taking a deep-dive journey into themselves.

Unbeknownst to them, this book needs to become a must-read because Skillings does an adept job in convincing us to embrace change and not waste most of our days in "toxic workplaces" full of boredom, political plays and even worse. She begins appropriately with a quiz as to your readiness to leave corporate America. Once you know where you are in terms of satisfaction, then she makes clear how you need to plan your escape. First, you need to forego the preconceptions of what job suits you based on the conformist ideas and white-picket-fence dreams of your father's generation. I particularly liked her section on recognizing the warning signs at the workplace and how one should separate economic reality from career fantasies. Skillings manages to be pragmatic without being cynical and goes through the questions of finance and health care with refreshing directness. The bulk of the book focuses on exploring your escape routes, and here she discusses all the possibilities, whether it be a more attractive corporate career, taking extended time off, pursuing job shares or flex time schedules, working in a start-up, building your own business, or even more adventurously, following your creative dreams.

As someone who has firsthand experience with corporate downsizings and major reorganizations, I am more than familiar with what Skillings describes so accurately here. In fact, a few years ago, I found myself packing up my desk, handing in my ID, and letting that overwhelming feeling of failure envelope other aspects of my otherwise productive life. I became a consultant in my field of specialty, which is why I read with interest the chapter on "solopreneurship". I wish I had this book back then to guide me through the process because Skillings has such a firm, clear-eyed grasp on how to maximize the opportunity presented by a layoff in a constructive, applicable manner. I also appreciate how she does not rely solely on her expertise and has recruited a number of people to speak to their own major career transitions from Sally Fegley, a corporate real estate executive who turned into a gourmet chocolate maker, to more renowned people like Dilbert creator Scott Adams and gossip columnist Perez Hilton. Naturally, Skillings ends the book with how to "go over the wall" by forging a new identity and not getting burdened by others' opinions of your actions. There is also a helpful section at the end called "The Escape Tool Kit" which is full of good reference material to help you get started. All of a sudden, reading Richard Bolles' classic manual, What Color Is Your Parachute?, doesn't seem nearly enough. I really believe Skillings' book is indispensable for career-switchers.