The Good News About Careers: How You'll Be Working in the Next Decade [Paperback]

Barbara Moses PhD (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2000

Devoid of real job security, today's working environment can be a scary place. But the good news is that, with its emphasis on freedom and flexibility, the new economy also provides individuals with incredible opportunities for self-experimentation and expansion into different roles. In this powerfully candid work, acclaimed career counselor Barbara Moses shows individuals and managers how they can profit from future work trends. She offers professionals clear advice on how to maintain self-authenticity in a shifting career landscape-how to work for "Me, Inc."--and gives managers concrete suggestions for leading the organizations of today and tomorrow. It's a solid guide that offers inspiration and sound ideas for finding liberation, satisfaction, and success in an uncertain world.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

A very sensible, passionate, yet somewhat scattered account of the new workplace, its young and old employees, and methods to manage and mentor. Moses, author of Career Intelligence (1997), is a great raconteur, telling tales of business encounters of the strangest kind. There are good psychological tips for every conceivable issue, from adopting a temporary-worker attitude (keeping your portfolio up-to-date, for instance) to career-proofing children (foster their trade and service skills, in other words). Some of the more memorable pages include an exchange between twentysomethings and fortysomethings, as well as one of the Gen-X's typical work-life questions: "Hey, do I have to work on my birthday?" An uplifting, practical view of a workplace that offers little security or stability. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Moses, a career guru? offers a truly useful guide to career activism." (Fast Company)

"Moses, whose book Career Intelligence, was a Canadian best-seller, offers an astute, refreshingly jargon-free, and essentially hopeful analysis of the conditions of the new working world." (The Toronto Star)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (March 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787952699
• ISBN-13: 978-0787952693
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,249,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Less than I hoped for, but still lots of good stuff, August 27, 2000

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Good News About Careers: How You'll Be Working in the Next Decade (Paperback)

As more people assume control and responsibility for their careers, they'll be looking for books like this one. I approached this book with eager anticipation when I learned that Barbara Moses is the work issues columnist for Canada's national newspaper, the "Globe and Mail." An earlier work, "Career Intelligence," was a best-seller according to the author's bio at the back of this book.

While I found a lot of meat in the 226 page hardcover I read, I was disappointed in the lack of flow I expected. I suspect that the book was assembled as a collection of some of the author's columns or that chapters were written separately and perhaps intended to stand alone. For this reason, I recommend readers move through the book from cover to cover, but also expect to use the book as a reference as they return to individual chapters for guidance.

"Good News" is organized into four parts. The first section deals with The New Workplace, emphasizing Living and Working in TempWorld. Interesting theme with a lot of validity, but I didn't find "Temp World" mentioned again until almost the end of the book. Her tips for living and thriving in TempWorld make a lot of sense, including "try to define yourself in terms that are independent of your job title." Moses asserts that "effective career management means making informed choices." I would have liked to see her continue the TempWorld theme throughout the book-it would have fit nicely.

Part 2 explores The New Worker. Early in this section, Moses addresses the blurring of work and personal boundaries, illustrating this challenge with one of her many vignettes. Asking "What kind of worker are you?, she describes six different career approaches and what motivates them. I felt she could have expanded this portion more to help readers use this insight more effectively. Again, I was frustrated with the lack of depth; many topics were treated more shallowly than I hoped for.

The New Manager Section begins talking with managers and supervisors, offering them strategies to address some of the common concerns of the new worker. She talks about the old worker vs. the new worker, the manager as career coach, mentoring, and how to give people a belief in the future. In this section, Moses is clearly talking to managers, so her "voice" is much more focused than I felt in other sections. A question in my mind was about who the book was written for.

The fourth section is entitled "A New Set of Skills" and begins with encouragement to become a career activist. Other chapters on selling yourself, networking, and communicating take us back to talking with the workers directly. As she moves toward the close of her book, Moses predicts that "only when people are empowered by a belief in their own employability can they develop a more equal, rather than fear-driven, relationship to their organization." She encourages people to assume control of their careers because work plays such a crucial role in who we are.

At four different places in the book, the author used language that I feel is totally out-of-place in a business book. She may argue that such expressions are in more common usage today, but she'd be stretching the point.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide to today's workplace -- and tomorrow's, April 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Good News About Careers: How You'll Be Working in the Next Decade (Paperback)

"The Good News About Careers: How You'll Be Working In The Next Decade" is an excellent survey of today's workplace, packed with practical advise as to what you need to do to succeed in your career, now and in the future. Especially good are the chapters on generational conflict in the workplace, on the different types of "New Worker", and on "career-proofing your children." Dr. Moses, author of the acclaimed "Career Intelligence" has again delivered a thought-provoking and timely guide to career success.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking Charge of Your Career, April 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Good News About Careers: How You'll Be Working in the Next Decade (Paperback)

The Good News about Careers is insightful and illuminating. It delivers on the message "take responsibility for your career" by providing concrete strategies for surviving and thriving in the new world of work.

A great read for anyone who is wants to become "a career activist" or who has a role in supporting others' career development.