Customer Reviews

Rebound: A Proven Plan for Starting Over After Job Loss

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book offers a lot of good advice about what to do when laid off. However, I am only giving it 3 stars for two main reasons: 1) The first third of the book is devoted to what you should do if you think you're in danger of being laid off. That's all well and good, but the title of the book is "Rebound: A Proven Plan for Starting Over AFTER JOB LOSS." Most people picking up this book will already BE laid off. Indeed, although the advice in the first third of the book is useful, it's also very frustrating to read these chapters after one has ALREADY been laid off! (e.g. Part II, Chapter 5: "Financial: What to Do Before You Get Laid Off.") It's very likely that someone reading this book will have already been laid off, and probably didn't follow much of the advice for the pre-layoff, so the whole thing starts off on a rather irritating note.

The second reason I'm giving 3 stars is because the information in the rest of the book, while useful, contains no real epiphanies. The section on finances suggests that you control your spending. The section on landing your next job implores you to use social networking tools, be aggressive, ec. This is all common sense to most people looking for a job. Unfortunately, with the economy in the shambles it is, just following these common sense approaches barely gives you a leg up over the masses.

There are some gems in this book. I enjoyed the section about how to talk about your job loss in interviews -- that kind of thing will definitely come in handy. And the in-depth interviews with people who have lost their jobs and started over are enlightening. But these enjoyable, informative sections are just too few and far between for me to really recommend the entire book.

Rebound is one of the best career books I've read in a long time. The author focuses on a single topic: getting laid off when you're in mid-career.

While some reviewers claim Rebound offers nothing new, I would say Rebound puts the information together in a compelling style that's easy to follow. Following the current trend in book publishing, she presents short, tightly organized chapters that answer very specific questions. What should you do when you anticipate being laid off? How do you handle the emotion? How do you deal with former colleagues?

Finney's advice is sound. Her chapter on networking is especially good. Most of my own career clients think "network" is a 7-letter word like some others I can't use in a review. They think of glad-handing and fake cheer. Finney's examples relate to my own clients: finding a new job from the source you least expected to deliver.

As another reviewer noted, Finney assumes that readers will want to get back on the horse (or treadmill, depending on your view). They will seek a new corporate job. I would never encourage anyone to stop searching. I sometimes recommend getting a temporary job just to pay the bills. But for some, self-employment can make more sense than pounding on pavements.

Another gap is the lack of reference to hiring help. While I agree with all Finney's suggestions to cut back financially, some people really need an objective outsider to assess their situation. Most career consultants charge $150 - $250 or more for a single hour (sometimes including follow-up and reading documents). But if a few hours can move your search faster by even a week or two, it's money well-spent. The key is to know how to choose your coach or consultant. A few tips wouuld have been helpful.

Definitely I'm going to recommend this book to my mailing list and my own clients.

Chances are you know of someone, a family member, friend or neighbor who has recently been laid off. In my case, it was me. I just finished reading Rebound and recommend it to anyone who is going through a layoff or thinks it could happen to them, and especially if you think that it can't happen to you!

Not only is this book full of practical and inspirational advice, (addressing your feelings, fears, frustrations, finances and finding your next job), but each chapter ends with three action items: the best thing you can do, the worst thing you could do, and the first thing you should do. I recommend reading the appendixes and resources and suggested reading at the end of the book as well.

As someone who still has a job (knock on wood) but with a company in the midst of layoffs I was fortunate to come across this book. I have never read a book about losing one's job before but I cannot imagine a book that covers so much ground so efficiently and, strangely I suppose, enjoyably. The author clearly understands that most of the people reading this book will have recently lost their jobs and writes in a very relaxed, comforting style, as if she were having a cup of coffee with you "the morning after" and trying to make you feel better with sensible suggestions and a calming dose of humor. However, in no way does this imply a relaxed attitude towards the information presented. It is not a feel-good book filled with cliches. This book is full of sound financial, legal and psychological advice. Some of the ideas presented are tried and true and most readers will probably have encountered them before but there are certainly enough "Hmm, I never would have thought of that" moments to justify it's purchase in addition to any other book you may have on the subject. This book is a great resource for those who have or may be about to lose their jobs but I would also highly recommend that it be read by people going on job interviews, young adults about to enter the job market and even parents about to start a family as it offers sound advice on how to deal with the familial issues involved in what may be a problem of epidemic proportions in the coming years.

I was laid-off on the first business day of 2009. I had never, ever lost a job before, though I was 40 at the time and started working at the age of 13. I've had periods where I was relocating or changing jobs and therefore on the hunt, but never have I experienced the kind of psychological, financial, and personal trauma of being layed-off or fired. I was unemployed for six months to the day, had only one more unemployment check coming to me, and literally used my last penny of savings, severence, and retirement savings in the process. But in the end, I found a better job, for more money, and in a better location.

A large element of rebounding from an experience like that is psychological, and unfortunately most guides or advice (from books, neighbors, friends, and family) will range from utter crap to being taken advantage of by some recruiter or potential employer who wants first class talent at a third class rate.

I wont say this the best guide, that you should just do whatever it says, but when you're going through the horrible experience of unemployment this book will at least help you to avoid doing things which are downright wrong and stupid; or I should say it's at least preaching to the chior of good common sense at a time when you would be very prone to making some terrible mistake in your job hunt strategy because it seemed like it might resolve your dillema more quickly.

I also want to add though that this is a great book for people who really have no idea what is effective and what isn't, who have no plan or strategy in their job hunt or career. When I visited the unemployment office to attend required classes in order to keep receiving unemployment funds, I saw people who were in the right place at the right time and did something stupid that would lose them a valuable opportunity because they believed some myth they heard like, "You should always turn down the first offer" or "Never say you can start right away." This book will help you avoid making those mistakes.

BOTTOM LINE: Most of the advice out there is bad, terrible, literally detrimental to your efforts--though beneficially to recruiters and human resource professionals. This book can make the difference between you spending another month unemployed and literally scared about being able to pay your bills until you're employed again or making those opportunities happen and having it together enough to get and keep the job that's best for you.

To the explosively burgeoning market of books for the unemployed (and the soon to be unemployed), Martha Finney offers this pep talk in paperback, which is less about the specifics of searching for a new job and more about giving yourself the attitude adjustment necessary to survive and, yes, even thrive in this brave new world of employment.

In the preface she writes about her formative experience, the unceremonious canning of her career CIA father during President Carter's catastrophic gutting of America's defense and intelligence forces, from which she intuited a basic truth we would all do well to wrap our minds around: "no matter who I worked for, I would always and only be working for myself". Thirty some years later, facing a lingering recession bordering on depression and an administration seemingly bent on making it prohibitively expensive to hire permanent employees, we, the present and the future unemployed, need to embrace this concept if we are to survive the wild economic rollercoaster of the near future as well as the permanent economic changes that will emerge in the long run once the economic lunatics currently in charge of the government are replaced by the (hopefully) at least marginally competent.

In succinct chapters Ms. Finney takes you through the process from preparing for possible layoff (if you are fortunate enough to still have a job) all the way through to starting your new job, always with the emphasis on having (or developing) the right attitude: don't get mad (or at least don't STAY mad), don't get even, and finally, get over it and learn from the experience, though she puts it a lot less bluntly.

Note: As befits a brand new book, the Internet resources and suggested readings are current and up to date: We Are All Self-Employed: How to Take Control of Your Career, Your Job Survival Guide: A Manual for Thriving in Change, Traveling Hopefully: How to Lose Your Family Baggage and Jumpstart Your Life, You Unstuck: Mastering the New Rules of Risk-Taking at Work and in Life, Sklover's Guide to Job Security: The 7 Steps to Staying Employed and Employable, HR from the Heart: Inspiring Stories and Strategies for Building the People Side of Great Business, Living Rich by Spending Smart: How to Get More of What You Really Want, Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes, Revised 25th Anniversary Edition, The Optimistic Child: A Proven Program to Safeguard Children Against Depression and Build Lifelong Resilience, Making a Good Brain Great: The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance, Power Networking, 2nd Edition: 59 Secrets for Personal & Professional Success, The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking, Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People 2nd Edition, and The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels.

Finney does a great job in explaining the steps to take after a lay-off. The advice is practical, very much grounded in common sense. The concepts are not new but they are focused on how you handle each step of the "Rebound". What I took away from reading this book is that if Plan A and B changes, you can now work on Plan C, D, etc and get back to living your life. Finney writes really well in that the reader does indeed feel self empowered, but not isolated (Like even if you are taking the steps alone, you really are not alone).

Since I get that from this book, it will remain a part of my career library as well as a recommendation to friends and family

This is not just another "how to find a job book". Even though I am not facing impending unemployment, I found this book interesting, with helpful tips and advice and an easy to follow flow from one chapter and one section to another. It was informative and addressed subject matter by getting to the point without a lot of long winded explanation or repetitive information like self-help books can be. Having been through job-loss a number of times, I would highly recommend this book to anyone recently unemployed or even looking to reevaluate their current employment situation.

The author provides short chapters that make this book easy to pick up and put down at any time without losing track of where you are or your train of thought. Each chapter ends with quick tips, which are summarized again in the appendix to help reinforce important points of the book, and provide an easy to follow check list for those interested. I found this book reinforced what I already know works, while also providing additional tips to success in handling unemployment/reemployment situations, including personal behavior and dealing with family. The author draws not only on her own experiences and knowledge but also from various resources and experts on each topic that she presents, and she lists her references at the end of the book for anyone who would like to obtain further reading on a particular subject matter. The only advice in this book that I would suggest taking with a grain of salt was the chapter on `Using Social Networking.' I agree that networking is important, but I am somewhat cautious about posting personal information all over the internet and networking sites.

Like any self-help book not everything in this book will apply to everyone and the information within can be used at varying degrees to assist in job search, etc., but overall, I found it a very helpful, informative book and think it deserves a place in anyone's back-to-work tool kit. It would even be worth it to have this book to help prepare for the chance of lay-off.

Layoffs are up. The employment market is tight. What do we need? Another book on how to handle a midlife transition after some form of job loss, of course!

While it would be easy to just write this book off as pretty obviously timed to take advantage of a growing market (ironically one of the few right now), the fact is, Martha Finney has some food for thought interspersed between the standard fare that you would expect from a book of this nature (don't go postal in your dismissal meeting .... sage advice.)

Finney, comes over however as a credible voice and the book is well written in short, pithy and to the point chapters that will make it easy for a reader to go through both as a straight read or as selected portions for pep-talks and preparation for the needed tasks to move through this sort of transition. Finney's background as a journalist and consultant in HR matters put her in good stead and make her a credible voice. Yes, a lot of what she has to say is common sense, but then some of it may just save you some important leverage should you face the situations she describes such as a settlement package being presented to you in the exit interview where you are asked to sign your rights away (hint: don't do it!)

If you have an inkling you might be taking the long walk down that cold and dreary hall, do yourself a favor and pick this book up to prepare for it before you need to.

4 Stars.

Bart Breen

Rebound is a book we all need to keep on hand in our bookcase or home library, yet we hope we never need to use it. In today's economy, even those of us who think we have a secure position within our company, never really know when you will get the dreaded pink slip come Friday.

Sure, the bulk of the information in this book can be easily found in various locations on the internet, blogs, etc., but if you recently jobless, you may not be in exactly the best frame of mind to go digging for information on the web.

This book brings all the information you could possibly need together in one concise location; from the first feelings of anger and grief, to getting your financial eggs all in a row, to the job interview, and acceptance of a job offer. Everything you need in one book.