Customer Reviews

Guide to Your Career, 5th Edition (Career Guides)

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I am a big fan of the Princeton Review guides on colleges. I own several of them. And, I refer to them constantly. My daughter is in high school, and we use this college information almost on a daily basis. Now, she is looking one step beyond and considering different career paths.

I spent an hour doing research on career guides at Amazon. I also did more research by browsing in the best physical bookstore I know off (Stacey's in San Francisco). After conducting this data gathering, I came up with a clear winner, this Princeton Review book. There is just so much more information, more concisely, and clearly presented than in any of the other career guides I browsed through.

This career guide answered all the basics questions we had on this vast subject. The Birkman Career test as outlined near the introduction is excellent. Just to verify the accuracy of this test I took it myself. And, it was spot on. I know it will be a great help for my daughter too.

The book describes in detail about 230 different professions or careers. For each profession, the 2004 edition discloses detailed salary information (at the start, after 5 years, after 10 years). It indicates what kind of journals such professionals read. It describes the requirements to enter the field, what it takes to build a foundation in a small section called "Paying Your Dues." It also discloses what kind of careers you can easily transfer your skills into. For instance, an economist can become a statistician, banker, financial analyst, or journalist, among other professions.

At the top of each right-handed page, the book also has four little icons that quickly let you know info about: pay, working hours, educational requirement, and contribution to society associated with a given profession. The book also gives you realistic lifestyle expectation over the next two, five, and ten years for each profession.

Just as its college guides, the Princeton Review packs in an amazing amount of information in just two pages. This time it is not about a specific college, but instead a specific profession. I would think that be more difficult. But, Princeton Review handled it just as elegantly. I strongly recommend this book for any one interested in the subject.