Hired! The Job-Hunting/Career-Planning Guide with Portfolio Disk (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Connie Harris (Author), Mike Henle (Author), Mike Stebleton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0139193170 | ISBN-13: 978-0139193170 | Publication Date: February 15, 2001 | Edition: 2

For Career Development, Job Search, Career and Life Planning Courses. Hired! is a practical, life-career planning guide designed to reach a variety of audiences. It is a resource that can be used in life-career decision making courses in any setting. Unlike other textbooks, Hired! focuses on helping students develop an ongoing, flexible portfolio of information about themselves and work in order to prepare them for satisfying and productive lives in an ever-changing world. The exercises and writing activities encourage students to take a proactive role in creating their futures. The second edition provides information on the changing nature of work/careers including trends, and enables students to actively explore how to thrive in these changing environments.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Written in a practical, hands-on style, readers will develop a portfolio of information about themselves and the changing world of work that allows for lifelong use. HIRED! 2/e is designed to help you prepare and take advantage of the ongoing changes in the way that we work. Rather than view career decision-making as a single event, the authors help you see it as a life-long, dynamic process. You are in charge of your own life/career.

HIRED! 2/e is exercise-driven and filled with a variety of examples to assist readers along their own journey. Through structured personal "think pieces" and other activities, you will have the opportunity to reflect on relevant issues and integrate this self-knowledge into your life/career planning — including the job search process.

Additional highlights of the second edition include:

• Using the Internet to help you learn about yourself and the world of work
• A focus on the changing nature of work — including trends in the workplace
• Exploring issues of diversity and working in a multicultural society
• Reconfigured final unit, "Creating and Managing Your Future," that will allow you to explore the four life zones: professional, personal, social, and financial
• Updated examples on the job hunting process including helpful suggestions
• More written self-assessment exercises located directly in the textbook
• A new chapter, "Exploring through Experience," that will assist you in discovering the value of education outside the walls of a traditional classroom

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

HIRED!, Third Edition, is based on a holistic approach to career-life planning. Incorporating life-planning issues with the techniques of the job search process, HIRED! is a resource that can be used in multiple settings with diverse audiences. Students in career planning courses at a variety of institutions (community colleges, technical programs, four-year degree-granting institutions) will benefit from this comprehensive and practical guide. Due to the wide scope of the audience, the authors have used a variety of examples that reflect the breadth of career areas that students might pursue. Additionally, HIRED! can also be used by individuals who are not enrolled in an academic institution, but who are eager to engage in the process of career-life decision making. Finally, HIRED! can be used in nonacademic programs by training professionals, facilitators, and others in business, industry, and nonprofit organizations.

HIRED! focuses on helping students develop an ongoing, flexible portfolio of information about themselves and their work to prepare them for satisfying and productive lives in an ever-changing world. The third edition provides information on the changing nature of work—including trends in the marketplace and a turbulent post 9/11 world—and enables individuals to actively explore how to thrive in these fluid and dynamic environments.

Students graduating in the twenty-first century will likely be affiliated with multiple work situations throughout their lives. Many workers will "job hop" frequently in order to seek out new and rewarding opportunities. In fact, the average amount of time spent with a current employer for workers ages 25 to 34 is less than three years. The days of the traditional, loyal employee staying with one equally loyal employer are long gone. You are in charge of your own career.

Although estimates vary, many career experts contend that the average young American beginning his or her career today will hold seven to eight different jobs between the ages of 18 and 30, and one in four young workers has more than 10 different jobs during this period. Other predictions indicate that individuals will have three or more careers before they retire—if they retire at all. Clearly, change and transition will become commonplace as people plan their work in the future. HIRED! is designed to help individuals prosper in these turbulent times. Readers will learn how to develop their own portfolios to help them organize information about themselves and the world of work as they manage work-life transitions in the future.

HIRED! allows readers to actively prepare themselves to confidently take advantage of these changes in work. This textbook is filled with exercises and examples to assist students in their journeys. The exercises build knowledge and skills through doing. In turn, this "doing" through writing activities leads to greater understanding. One of the goals of HIRED! is to motivate you to become personally responsible for your life and to become an active participant in its process.

This textbook is a hands-on manual combined with a portfolio that you create, which provides for the ongoing task of organization for job hunting and life planning. HIRED! encourages readers to view the term career holistically. Often, career is looked at as paid employment only. We all play multiple roles in our lives, and paid work is just one of those roles. HIRED! invites readers to explore those other roles in life. Additionally, HIRED! promotes balance and harmony in the various components of your life. With the whole-life approach, you can use the past to help you make well-informed decisions about life in the present and the future. Career decision-making is a lifelong process, not a single event. HIRED! gives readers an ongoing system that works throughout this process.

HIRED!'s four units—Discovering Your Authentic Self, Creating Opportunities, Selling Your Talents, and Balancing Your Career and Personal Life—are designed to build on and interact with one another. Each unit allows you to practice what you have learned in the preceding unit. Each includes personal think pieces that will provide you with the opportunity to think critically about the issues presented. Finally, each unit serves to build expression, inspiration, and direction.

The third edition of HIRED will continue to be holistic in nature, with an emphasis on life and career planning in a changing world of work. Additionally, the tone of the textbook will be interactive—including a workbook approach with numerous exercises for the reader to complete. There are several significant changes to the third edition:

• First, the edition will introduce a fictitious college student, Mai, who is a 19-year-old sophomore in college. Mai will be introduced in the first chapter and readers will journey along with Mai throughout her career decision-making process through her senior year. Most of the chapters will include a segment that briefly describes Mai in relation to the topic of the corresponding chapter. The readers will have the opportunity to respond to questions and action exercises that are relevant to career decision-making. Additional student profiles have been added throughout the textbook.
• Second, "action" step exercises have been added at the conclusion of most chapters. The objective behind the action step exercises to give readers the opportunity to proactively begin to take their next steps towards implementation of a plan. Revisions and omissions of many exercises were made in this third edition of HIRED.
• Third, updates on job search skills, including new examples of resume writing and interviewing, are included. Advances in technology that relate to the job search process will be included (e.g., Internet resources, electronic approaches, and others).
• Fourth, updated information on resources, websites, statistics, diversity, post 9/11 changes, and other trends in the workplace are included.
• Fifth, a stream-lined and re-packaged table of contents (i.e., presentation of topics) was made for this edition. All chapters were revised and updated.
• Finally, a newly revised chapter on Portfolio development and how to use a portfolio was created for the third edition.

The goals of Unit I, Discovering Your Authentic Self, are awareness and direction (knowing what you want to do, what you have to offer, and where you want to go with your life-career planning). As you complete the exercises in this unit, you will be motivated to move into the detailed work of the next unit.

The goals of Unit II, Creating Opportunities, are expression and creation (capturing who you are and your experiences on paper). Completion of this unit prepares you for the action of Unit III.

The goals of Unit III, Selling Your Talents, are implementation and realization (planning and executing the step-by-step job-hunting process). Once you have achieved these goals, you will be on your way to realizing the career and life-fulfillment goals presented in Unit IV.

The goals of the final unit, Balancing Your Career and Personal Life, are growth and harmony (continuous learning and wholeness). Establishing balance and harmony throughout your life brings you back, full circle, to Unit I, Discover.

As you begin your journey into HIRED!, relax and enjoy the creative energy and awareness found by doing the exercises. Apply the new knowledge and skills to all areas of your career and life. Enjoy the journey!

The HIRED! System

JOB-HUNTING SUCCESS IS NOT A SECRET—IT IS A PROACTIVE, ORGANIZED APPROACH TO FINDING REWARDING WORK.

The steps of the system—Discover, Create, Sell, and Balance—build on and interact with one another. No one part stands alone. You stand in the center and are the "manager" of the system. You are the manager of your career and life.

HIRED! and the Portfolio

The portfolio (to be discussed in chapter 5) that you will create drives the HIRED! system. This portfolio is flexible, expandable, and portable. It meets the needs you have for career-life planning, including job hunting.

There are numerous exercises and documents. These activities will allow you to record a wide range of personal and professional information that will help you in your career and job search. The documents you collect will complement the other reflective activities that you will include in your portfolio of information.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 334 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2 edition (February 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0139193170
• ISBN-13: 978-0139193170
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,675,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Offers a concise career-planning overview, May 22, 2008

By 

Tim Huffner (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hired! The Job-Hunting/Career-Planning Guide (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

As the title of this book suggested, "Hired!" clearly and concisely touches upon each of the key components in the job-hunting and career-planning fields to help prepare those entering the workforce. From self-analysis, to career research, portfolio production, networking, marketing, interviewing, cover letters, resumes, and more, this book does a great job at providing easy-to-read guidelines and examples to aid in one's endeavor to securing a job. The all-blue colors used throughout the book can get a bit 'blah,' but that certainly doesn't take away from its content which is both educational and enjoyable to read. I felt that a few other career-related areas could've been touched upon to a greater degree--such as business attire and proper business meal etiquette, but overall it does a good job. Throughout each chapter, there are also many exercises which will help polish your understanding of the material presented while also building up your own career-related portfolio. I learned a lot from this book and would recommend it to recent graduates and jobseekers.