Customer Reviews

Sink Or Swim!: New Job. New Boss. 12 Weeks to Get It Right.

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Be knowledgeable about your industry. Be knowledgable about your company. Be knowledgeable about your required job skills. Communicate well with people. Set goals for yourself. Dress like others around you dress. Pretty common sense stuff.

By the way, check out some of the other reviews. It's pretty unusual for any book, especially a one like this, to get all 5 star reviews. Look at the earliest 8 reviews. This is the only review that has been written by each of these 8 reviewers. All written on May 8. Almost all from San Francisco/California (interesting that the company founded by the authors is in San Francisco.) A bunch of people from San Francisco just happened to swarm to Amazon on May 8 to give the book a bunch of 5 star reviews. Interesting.

The polar opposite of a theoretical business management book, Sink or Swim is relentlessly practical and relentlessly upbeat. The clear message is that you can make it to the top if you buckle down, take your job seriously, understand your company's culture, do your networking, and so on. It's solid, straightforward advice, organized into 12 chapters, each of which corresponds with one of the new worker's first 12 weeks on the job. After 12 weeks, the authors conclude that if a reader has followed their advice, "the attention you paid in the last three months to taking care of yourself and your career has manifested itself into a successful foundation."

Although the authors don't precisely say so, their advice is better suited to someone starting his or her first job than to an experienced worker. It starts with many of the basics: follow the dress code, don't check your e-mail in mid-conversation, show up on time for meetings. Most people who have been in the work force for a while know those things, or at least we hope we do.

Still, the Sindells provide some solid and less obvious career advice that can be useful to employees at all levels. For example, they suggest that an employee develop a personal "PR message" - almost a personal brand that the employee is known for around the company. They suggest that you identify a couple of qualities that you want to stand for, such as reliability, hard work, or creativity, and repeat the "PR message" consistently at the office. "Your PR message helps you articulate your strengths, measure progress, and define and realize your professional legacy," they write. This can be good advice. Knowing yourself is the first step to understanding others. But it can be overdone. No one wants to work with someone who's always chattering away with some personal mantra.

Building on a great deal of business research that has been done about personal networks, the Sindells suggest that an employee consciously build his or her own network within the company. Schedule lunches; go out of your way to meet people. The more people you know, the more information you will have access to. As they write, "An effective network means that you have the ability to pick up the phone or send an e-mail to one of your colleagues and know that an answer to an important question or resource is on its way." That's absolutely correct. Many workers focus too much on building networks outside our firms and don't cultivate the people within our organizations who can help them when they need help the most.

Let me begin by saying that I started a new job, and before the transition, I bought four books on this same topic. I hoped that between all of them, I would learn everything necessary for my first 3 months at my new job.

After having read all of them, I came to the conclusion that I would have saved some money had I only purchased Sink or Swim. It was by far the most comprehensive, week by week guide about how to start a new job and successfully chart your path within the first three months of your new job.

Some of the sage advice includes simple matters like knowing the right time to speak to your boss, the types of conversations you want to have when first being introduced to your new colleagues. Some of the best advice comes in the form of advice for the reader that helps them present the best possible image to others.

Readable, engaging and formatted in a clear reference style, I highly recommend this for anyone who is starting a new job, or for anyone who wants to start their old job, anew.

I bought this book during a transition from the tech industry to finance. Also, I've been out of the standard corporate environment for a while and thought I might need a refresher on the goings on. Not! The book is quite elementary. I returned it the next day.

It is well written and the authors target areas of importance for survival in a corporate office. However, this book is NOT for professionals! I repeat it is NOT for professionals! It is for the recent college graduate who has never stepped foot in a corporate office. Again, do not waste your time or money with this book if you already know how to handle yourself in a business work environment.

If you're a brand new college grad and just received your FIRST job offer from a corporate firm, by all means grab this book and read it through before your first day.

Easy and fun to read, and gives you a lot of "heads up" what to consider and actions to take when starting a new job and/or career.
You think you know it all, but after reading this book you realize you don't. Many great ideas and well-written information that we all need to know about. This book is simply a "must read" for every single person starting a new job, no matter what position - it's extremely helpful!
I am already giving it to new employees in my company and I truly recommend everyone to read it - even if you are not starting a new job!

I really enjoyed reading Sink or Swim, and found its prescriptions extremely valuable to my career. I am a nine year veteran middle manager at one of the world's most prestigious investment firms. I have taken several courses in leadership, communication, and professional comportment. Yet I learned more about how to be a superior associate, in the first five minutes of Sink or Swim, than I had found combined among those places throughout my career. Personally, I learn best by doing. And I loathe dry technical tomes. This book skips the quantum pedagogy, delivering instead concise practical initiatives. Plus the authors' voices are upbeat and funny throughout, making the time spent with them as entertaining as it is empowering. I wish I had read this book years ago -- I have no doubt it is already making me more successful. I intend to make a gift of it to anyone starting a new job. This is my first time reviewing a book on Amazon, but Sink or Swim is simply too helpful not to share with others. It is an honor to testify.

You can tell that the authors (1) wrote a strong book proposal that (2) covered the first two weeks of work. The proposal sold, and then they were stuck with trying to come up with ten more weeks of advice. The result is a deeply repetitive, inadvertently condescending book that gives you advice that is both obvious and ridiculous. Don't wear T-shirts to the office. Ask everyone around you what they think of you. Pay attention to trends. Manage your time. And don't forget - don't wear T-shirts to the office! It's well-meaning, but perhaps most useful for recent college grads. It would have been helpful for the authors to target a more specific audience. The authors' attempt to be as general as possible gives the impression that they've never actually worked in an office - only read business books and watched Office Space. If I could figure out how to demand my money back for a Kindle book, I would.

Starting a new job, you might not have time to read this book during your first 12 weeks. I felt that the book covers a lot of common sense information and lacked any sort of ground breaking secret to success information. If you lack people skills, this book could be beneficial to you.

Nearly all the advice in this book is for individuals right out of school going on to their first jobs. Even then it is weak. For example, it has advice such as learning as much about the industry the employer is involved in and the company itself in the first week on the job. Is this not something that should have been done before even an interview? Other advice includes not speaking to loudly while at one's cubicle. Most of the advice in the book is along these lines. Not of much (if any use) to someone who has worked before. To someone on their first job, however, this simple advice may actually be worth something (despite being common sense).

This book is perfect for new college graduates or inexperienced employees starting new jobs. Milo and Thuy Sindell provide a wealth of information about proper business conduct and etiquette, including a checklist for recommended activities during your first 12 weeks on the job. Although the material is basic and somewhat repetitive (just like a start-up job), we think the book would make a great gift for anyone who is just beginning to learn the workplace ropes.