Getting from College to Career Rev Ed: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World [Paperback]

Lindsey Pollak (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 31, 2012

“A well-written, lively and easy to follow guide.”
—Time.com

“Perfect for today’s students, who inevitably want what they want (and only that!) when they want it.”
—Campus Career Advisor

Getting from College to Career by Career Expert and Global Spokesperson for LinkedIn, Lindsey Pollak, is an insightful, essential world guide for college students and recent graduates who are preparing to embark upon a career beyond the university walls. Now newly revised to reflect the most recent changes in the economy and job market, these “90 things to do before you join the real world” will give every young grad a head start, providing essential information for adapting to and succeeding in a marketplace that is now more competitive than ever.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Perfect for today’s students, who inevitably want what they want (and only that!) when they want it.” (Campus Career Advisor )

“A well-written, lively and easy to follow guide.” (Time.com )

“Pollak’s thorough research reveals some startling facts that the modern job-searcher may be overlooking.” (Metro New York )

“I find Lindsey’s advice on how to stand apart from the competition to be extremely valuable - especially as it relates to entrepreneurs…Getting From College to Career is a great read and a book I thoroughly enjoyed!” (Cari Sommer, Forbes.com )

From the Back Cover

Get Ready for the Real World

How do you get a job without experience and get experience without a job? It’s the question virtually every college student or recent graduate faces. Now newly revised and updated, Lindsey Pollak’s Getting from College to Career is the definitive guide to building the experience, skills, and confidence you need to succeed in the job search, offering action-oriented tips and strategies ranging from the simple to the expert. Learn how to:

• Get the best tools for career prep and job hunting
• E-mail like a professional
• Go global
• Practice the eight essentials of internship achievement
• Perform five minutes of stand-up
• Overprepare for interviews
• Persist without being a pest

Getting from College to Career gives you the essential information and guidance you need to get your foot in the door of the real world. Don’t start your first job search without it!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; Revised edition (January 31, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062069276
• ISBN-13: 978-0062069276
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > Business & Investing > Job Hunting & Careers > Job Hunting

More About the Author

Lindsey Pollak is a bestselling author and nationally recognized expert on next generation career and workplace issues. She serves as a Global Spokesperson for LinkedIn and is the author of Getting from College to Career: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World, recently published in a revised edition.

Lindsey has spoken for hundreds of universities, conferences and corporations, including IBM, ESPN, Merrill Lynch, Time Inc., Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and MIT. Her advice and opinions have appeared in such media outlets as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour, CNN, NPR and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

She also appears on several "Best People to Follow on Twitter" lists, and Forbes named her career advice blog one of its Top 100 Websites for Women.

Lindsey is a graduate of Yale University and is based in New York City.

For the best career advice for young professionals, subscribe to Lindsey's blog at http://www.lindseypollak.com/blog.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great advice for recent graduates or current students March 12, 2008

By Rusty Rothwell

Format:Paperback

I read about this book in a NYT "career advice" article. Given the fact that I was in my last semester of college, I ordered the book thinking it would help me in my upcoming job search.

I landed a good job in a major city just a few days after ordering this book. For that reason, given the intensity of my last semester and a move across the country, it took me a few months to pick the book up. Had I read the book before I took the job, it would have given me advice and suggestions on negotiating my starting salary, observing the office culture, and networking.

Still, despite having landed the job I wanted, this book has been helpful. It has opened my eyes to the importance of the persona you put on at work, the way you interact with co-workers, and the importance of networking within your respective industry. If I ever consider switching jobs, I have no doubt this book will help with the transition.

But, this book is not just for the recent graduate! It provides valuable advice for any college student, regardless of your class or academic standing. Given the fact that Ms. Pollak is young and down to earth, it offers real world suggestions that affect the younger generations; this includes cleaning up your "online record" of social networking profiles, book reviews, etc. It also provides excellent samples of resumes, cover letters, and lines to use when attending job fairs or industry trade shows. The chapter on potential interview questions is top notch!

I highly recommend this book. Since it is broken down into suggestions instead of chapters, it is an easy (but informative) read!

Rusty Rothwell
Houston, TX

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Job Seekers May 16, 2007

By Patricia Hudak

Format:Paperback

This book can be summed up in one word - advantage.

I have read several books and have attended many classes and seminars on career planning to know that this book is it! I have to admit that even with all of my knowledge on resume writing and interviewing, I was still taking notes, this book is that great. Getting from College to Career of the most complete guides to job-hunting that manages (very well I must say) to keep the reader engaged, enlightened and well informed, all at the same time. Lindsey's advice is practical and easy to implement for both college students and recent college graduates.

Getting from College to Career is an essential reading for anyone who wants to have an advantage in their career. I wish I had this book before I graduated so that I could have taken advantage of all the advice that Lindsey so perfectly dishes out to readers in 90 steps. It is the advice that you wouldn't normally hear from college Career Service Centers, but it's what you need to know if you want a leg up on the competition. My hope is that colleges jump on the bandwagon and start giving this book out during freshmen orientation.

Definitely pick this book up if you or for someone you know who is going through the job search process, they will thank you for it.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This should be required for students August 13, 2007

By Andy Drish

Format:Paperback

I will graduate in 5 months and I learned more by reading this book than I have in the majority of my classes. Here's why:

Content - The material is applicable to everyday life and has kept me from making stupid mistakes that make me look like a "college kid" vs a "young professional."

Voice - It's relieving to finally read a book by an author that understands our generation and knows how we like to learn.

Action - After every step, there is an action item to put into practice. A great way to read the book is over one month, doing three action items each day.

Every student should read this book before they graduate.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed August 27, 2010

By Berkeley2010

Format:Paperback

Given all the great reviews this book has received I expected it to be more useful.
First, it is much more a guide to finding a job than it is to finding a career. I was hoping it would talk about the transition from college to a first full time, and hopefully career starting, job but it is completely full of the normal tips that are everywhere (how to make your resume better, etc.).
Second, it is written in a somewhat condescending way. At the same time, it is written in a really informal way and it comes across like she's trying to connect with youth- but it seems forced and is distracting when trying to read a section.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! October 27, 2012

By Larry Chiagouris

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a great complement to my book "The Secret To Getting A Job After College". While I cover the details about resumes and cover letters, this book does a very effective job addressing issues related to determining what you should think about doing after college and the author also has a valuable section on how to prepare your elevator speech. I recommend it for everyone who is in college or has graduated in the past few years and I now consider it required reading for many of my students.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for hapless college students or graduates March 3, 2010

By Maxwell Platoff

Format:Paperback

Throughout my time in college, I admit to espousing a fairly naďve and arrogant attitude about how one moves from education into the workplace, being fairly blind to my own sense of entitlement. I repeatedly spurned the advice that my friends and family tried to offer me, and as a result I made little progress when I finally graduated and expected my life to fall into place without my own involvement. Finally, after little success, I came to my senses and decided to seek help from an expert in order to gain some perspective. Lindsay Pollak's Getting From College to Career had been recommended by various sources and seemed like a worthwhile read, and I am incredibly glad that I bought it.

My initial fear was that the book would just be a recapitulation of the normal tips for improving one's résumé and cover letter and ensuring a solid interview. Pollak does address these topics (what kind of career-counselor would she be if she didn't?), but what I really found valuable was the bevy of other minutiae of job-hunting that might not even occur to most people. Pollak, a reasonably young professional, is tuned into the technological advances that have somewhat altered the employment landscape, such as online job posts that have overshadowed the more antiquated newspaper classified ads. However, her age also allows her to use her wisdom to help the young, tech-savvy, and clueless students of today. For example, her point that one should customize his or her online appearance in order to avoid disclosing embarrassing character flaws or incriminating photos.

For those of us who have a hard time transitioning from reading a book to executing the recommendations provided therein, Pollack includes convenient checkboxes to mark once each task is accomplished.... Some of these may take time, like setting up an interview, but others are quite simple, such as changing one's outgoing voicemail message to sound more professional. Overall, I found that this layout gives the reader a feeling of progress while making his or her way through the different points.

Ultimately, I found Pollak's book to be a total wake-up call in terms of my career. Learning that 70 - 80% of jobs are found through networking provided a motivating force to get me out into the world and work for what I wanted, rather than sitting passively at my computer and waiting for listings that somehow applied to me. Obviously, a 300-page paperback cannot address all the possible pieces of advice that one would need to land a dream job, but it comes pretty close, and Pollak lists references other materials to look up for more specialized areas. I would highly recommend this book to all college seniors, especially those from liberal-arts schools that are tragically remiss in offering substantive career guidance. It will prevent them from spending some depressingly long years living in their parents' basement. Read more ›