Customer Reviews

I Went to College for This?: How to Turn Your Entry Level Job Into a Career You Love

5 star:		(8)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really enjoyed this book! It was a wonderful journey full of real people and real job/life situations. I highly recommend this book to everyone just out of college or looking to change/re-evaluate their career.

If I had read this book when I finished college I would have gotten a lot farther a lot faster. The author has a way of making it easy--and fun--to read about what is usually the worst--and least challenging--part of your career. She obviously has an insight into the workplace that can only come from someone who has been there and done that. Now, if she could just write a follow up for thirtysomethings!

Amy Joyce's "I Went to College for This?," while a welcome departure from the heaviness and angst of "Quarterlife Crisis," is ultimately undermined by its breezy style and surface-level treatment of the officeplace.

The title is positioned as a kind of how-to for new workers; but for anyone who's (barely) survived the Fortune 500 entry level, it's plain that the author lacks that seasoned, discerning eye, and fails to impart any real use-it-today knowledge (due, in part, to an over-reliance on third-party accounts).

Without a compelling discussion of young professionals' values, fears, and hopes, moreover, she fails to engender that deep heart - mind connection with the reader--ignoring the bigger question of what young workers should actually do with their newfound career knowledge.

I recommend Michael Ball's "@ the Entry Level: On Survival, Success, & Your Calling as a Young Professional." This book really levels with its readers about life as an entry leveler, and truly helps them discover who they are. Plus it's laugh-out-loud funny!

This book was awesome. It has practical, great advice, written in a conversational style that makes it easy to read. These are the things no one ever teaches you but you REALLY need to know - and it comes from the voice of someone OUR age who has been there, not some condescending "adult." (Wait - are we adults?) But seriously, I am buying this book for every new college grad. I highly recommend it.

We all go to college with the assumption that we will do great things. Unfortunately, college doesn't prepare folks for what is actually going on in the "real world" nearly as well as a recent grads first 5 weeks on the job.

Having successfully worked and lived through the .Gones and (partially) climbed the corp ladder at the worlds best software company I can tell you that this book is a must read for new grads. The book will level set their expectations and provide needed insight into not only how to survive but more importantly how to succeed at their first real job.

Peppered with examples of people who have found jobs they love through networking and staying focused on their goals, `I Went to College For This?' accurately shows the trying and troubling first few years after college. This is a something I wish I would have read before graduation to better prepare me for finding a job I love. It is informative and doesn't speak down to readers like many other `how to' or advice publications, but instead speaks to readers conversationally, making it much more enjoyable. I look forward to reading future books by Mrs. Joyce.

"I Went to College for This?" accurately describes the initial upset and frustration at life after college. More specfically, it describes the frustration that people do not initially recognize the new graduate's unique and amazing abilites, hire her right away and pay her $150,000.00 a year. It is a surprising reality.

Joyce's book imparts practical information and relates real life experiences of others who have found themselves in the same predicament. The advice is to find work you love without losing yourself. Remember, everyone started at the bottom. Joyce's prose is amazingly well written with the occasional twentysomething sarcasm found in parentheses.

Well written, practical advice from which anyone can benefit!

A must for students and guidance counselors. I found it witty and wise! The perfect graduation "read'.

This book is larded heavily with third-party anecdotes of people on their own career paths which are supposed to be inspirational or teach the reader something. Unfortunately, I found these stories taught me little since they had little relevance to my own situation. How could they? Everybody's life is different. For example, in the section on how first jobs can be disappointing, which is supposed to cheer us up, we read about how the "friend who worked as an aide on Capitol Hill for a senator had to wear business suits". Gasp! Then we read about how "Another friend took a job in human resources but was asked to fill in for the company receptionist to answer the main phone lines during lunch hour"! Oh no! The shame! The fact is, these stories are so out of touch with the reality of many people's first jobs, at a time when many college grads end up flipping burgers or cleaning washrooms, when blue collar jobs are being lost to automation and immigrants, and white collar jobs are being outsourced, it's laughable. Since everybody's experiences are different, anecdotes don't teach much of any value anyway, and especially not pie-in-the-sky anecdotes like are found in this book. Perhaps some readers will find the stories encouraging but they will leave the rest of us cold.

I found this book to be extremely informative, not to mention witty and entertaining. It is beneficial for those who are just starting their career and also people (like myself) who have been in the work force for several years and are wondering where to go next. I highly recommend it.