Customer Reviews

The Jobs Rated Almanac: The Only Book You Need to Get Ahead in Today's Job Market-Revised Ed.

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Since I have a number of career books in my personal library, I can attest to this as being the book that is most likely to have information you can't find elsewhere, even though some might not be useful to all. For example, the book has infomration on some not-so hot jobs, like barber, or plumber but it also has some of newer high tech jobs, as ell as traditional professions (I.e. attorneys, financial planers etc) Krantz has amassed information on the whole occupational universe, including the hardest to find. He has not just salaries, but what you can expect to earn if you are very successful in each of the 250 jobs the book profiles. The book also addresses important but overlooked aspects of each job and has a whole chapter about the various stress components of each job. Unlike other job guides, this one even informs you what kinds of companies, coworkers and peers you are likely to have fn you choose a particular occupation. One of the things I like best is the book's organization, which allows you to compare every job aspect, from salaries to weekly hours worked with all the other jobs in the book.

I'm switching jobs and really appreciated all the information in this book. A friend of mine also recommended another book to me, called Finding A Career That Works For You. It helped me because at first I didn't even know what kind of job I wanted to LOOK for!

Alright, I've read the reviews and I am now going to try to present an unbiased view. First of all, I think that this book is great! It presents an enormous amount of information in a reader friendly style. It's true that some of the jobs are pretty obscure, but there is certainly more good to this book than bad. I just wish it was longer with more jobs listed. Oh well, it still is a plenty good book to spend your money on, even if just to see what kind of income your neighbor is making!

I found that Krantz's book offered very little in the way of fresh insights for career choosers. Rather it just reinforced the same old stereotypes in today's society. Male-dominated professions were ranked higher on numerous criteria than typical female professions such as teacher, nurse, librarian, and the list goes on. Krantz includes such jobs as President of the USA, NCAA basketball coach, senior corporate executive. Perhaps he added jobs like this to give credibility to the scope and depth of his book, but it did not whitewash the fact that very little other than stereotypes is offered to the reader. Krantz does not cite sources for his information except for Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Office, and unspecified industry documents. It appears that Krantz just wrote things off the top of his head, especially when it came to the stress level for various jobs. I found many ratings of the author's to be totally out of touch with reality. Can something like stress even be calculated without blurting the same old stale attitudes toward various professions? There are too many variables from job to job within each specific profession to make such a general judgement anyhow.

As a guidance counseler who tries to provide accurate information to students, I would not recommend this book to anyone. It only misguides and distorts the facts.

Now in an updated and expanded sixth edition, the Jobs Rated Almanac continues to be a highly recommended reference for anyone seeking to match their career goals and priorities to their next job. Such considerations as salary, stress, work environment, career outlook, security, physical demand, are provided for 250 jobs ranging from Actuary to Zoologist.

I liked the salary portions, and the job descriptions best. Was fun to see how much others make. Good for finding comparisons in various areas, ie. stress levels, money and perks too.

Since I have a number of career books in my personal library, I can attest to this as being the book that is most likely to have information you can't find elsewhere, even though some might not be useful to all. For example, the book has infomration on some not-so hot jobs, like barber, or plumber but it also has some of newer high tech jobs, as ell as traditional professions (I.e. attorneys, financial planers etc) Krantz has amassed information on the whole occupational universe, including the hardest to find. He has not just salaries, but what you can expect to earn if you are very successful in each of the 250 jobs the book profiles. The book also addresses important but overlooked aspects of each job and has a whole chapter about the various stress components of each job. Unlike other job guides, this one even informs you what kinds of companies, coworkers and peers you are likely to have fn you choose a particular occupation. One of the things I like best is the book's organization, which allows you to compare every job aspect, from salaries to weekly hours worked with all the other jobs in the book.

The format of this book is great- pick a job and see how it measures up by stress, pay, work environment, etc. But while the concept is great, many of the jobs covered (and not covered) are geared more toward a fun read than a real reference. How many Presidents of the United States, NFL football players, and Indy level race car drivers do you know? And would any of those people actually need to look at a reference book on careers to see if they really wanted to pursue that "career field"? How about a lumberjack- think he can figure out that he has bleak prospects and heavy physical demands without checking out a book on it? On the other hand, secretary is glossed over as one career field, not differentiating between the wide array of office managers and personal assistants that make up that field, and which are a large and real part of the working public. Most of the working people I know have job titles that you kind of have to guess to match up to the things presented here. Is a costume designer (not included) a dressmaker? Not really- maybe they should look at set designer (which is included)? My sister is a branch manager for a real estate company- is that the same as a real estate agent? Not really, but there aren't entries for small business owners, branch managers, or anything of that sort. A restaurant manager would be in the same boat- there's no entry for a regular job like that, while there are entries for rabbis, singers, and NCAA basketball coaches. How about a loss control coordinator, a business analyst, a cooking school coordinator, or a research and development manager? Good luck.
Even if there is an entry for the flashier kinds of jobs, the information can be misleading. The physicians I know are all making pretty close to what he calls the top earning potential as starting salaries, while the experienced actors I know would be lucky to make what he calls their starting salary, and that's mostly not from their acting gigs.
That said, the read is fun and will be a good starting place for many people, especially young people, to look at different fields. Just please don't imagine that you can prepare for a "career" as a fashion model and expect an $11,000/year starting paycheck.

This book is good reading for background information on a variety of careers. If you are in high school or college and trying to figure out what career field might interest you, you should take a look at this book. Most people will not be able to achieve the majority of these career paths. I am surprised that fields like President or NBA player are included.

I recommend this book to career beginers. It is a very good source fo determining well paying and convenient careers.