If you're trapped in a well-paying but dead-end job you don't like, or, worse still, you're out on the street without work, how do you move into a career you've always wanted that provides a paycheck you can live with? You need professional help, but you don't need advice from some intellectual guru whose qualifications don't include having experienced your dilemma. You want someone that's been there and done precisely what it takes to gain successful and joyful employment.
Dr. Diane Hamilton has been there and done that. Her book, HOW TO REINVENT YOUR CAREER, offers profound and practical insights and suggestions on each step required for getting your dream job. Her professional education and extensive employment experiences have uniquely qualified her to write this book. She has several degrees, including a Master's and a PHD degree in Business Management. She also has a license to sell real estate and has been certified by the Certified Medical Representative Institute as a Medical Representative to doctors and other health care professionals.
Concerning Dr. Hamilton's employment experiences, she has worked as an office manager in a company's agricultural chemical division, a pharmaceutical sales representative, a loan officer and account executive with a mortgage bank, and has sold real estate and computer software. She is currently a writer of books and a professor, teaching bachelor, master, and doctoral-level business courses for six online universities.
HOW TO REINVENT YOUR CAREER is logically divided into ten very readable chapters, each of which describes in everyday language the steps you must take to overcome a specific barrier between you and the job you are seeking. Each chapter is replete with comprehensive lists of things you should consider and "things you can do to prepare."
Chapter 1, for example, teaches you to analyze your current employment situation by considering twenty "Warning Signs That You Need to Change." This is followed by a list of 15 areas on which to assess your skills and by numerous other lists of insightful self-analysis, including ten questions to ask yourself if you're over 40.
Chapter 2 gives persuasive evidence that understanding your personality type is crucial for seeking a job that is compatible with your interests. Dr. Hamilton recommends use of the Meyers-Briggs Assessment Test, and/or other personality assessment tools, to compare your responses to those of people in different types of occupations.
Chapter 3 gives advice about educational choices; chapter 4 describes multiple ways you can pay for your education; and chapter 5 tells you how to use education, life experiences, past jobs, and networking to further your quest for ideal employment.
Chapter 6 explores the powerful concept of selling yourself. Dr. Hamilton advises you to sell your prospective employer on the benefits of your skills, not on just their features. Of most importance, it's what your education and experience can do for your employer, not the fact that these features merely exist.
Chapters 7 and 8 deal with facing your fears and overcoming mistakes. This advice is couched in motivational language that will inspire you to persevere in seeking the job you want. "It's never too late," says Dr. Hamilton, "to do something that you've always wanted to do."
Preceded by advice in chapter 9 on the benefits of getting healthy and staying that way, chapter 10 wraps it all up with a masterful analysis of exactly what you need to do when a prospective employer summons you for an interview. First, Dr. Hamilton tells you how to correctly prepare a resume and cover letter and how to dress properly for an interview. Then, among other pertinent instructions, she lists 25 things not to do in an interview. Perhaps the most important element of this chapter is a list of 20 questions you should have answers to before you go to your interview.
Dr. Hamilton ends her book with a Conclusion concerning how to deal with obstacles and bring about their solutions. She offers several lists of resources to help you and follows them with a spirited challenge to change, to realize that you CAN reinvent your career.
Unlike some other books on career counseling, How to Reinvent Your Career is based upon the real-life experiences of its author, not merely on analytically compounded advice derived from academic research. Why settle for anything less than the real thing?
Edwin Scroggins is also the author of
Strawberry Lane: A Mystical Memoir of Boyhood in Rural South Texas
