Cool Careers for Dummies (Paperback)

~ Marty Nemko PhD (Author) "Sure, some people come out of the womb knowing what they want to be when they grow up - the 5-year-old violin prodigy comes to..." (more)
Key Phrases: neat niche, deterrence specialist, dream employers, Cool Careers Yellow Pages, United States, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Looking for a job? Thinking about a career change? Dreading it? Well, Cool Careers for Dummies promises not only to help you find jobs you never knew existed, but to make it fun! From enologist (that's winemaker, dummy) to attorney specializing in outer-space issues, career specialists Marty Nemko and Paul and Sarah Edwards have compiled over 500 interesting, offbeat, and just plain cool jobs. But that's just the first step.

After the short descriptions of cool careers--thoughtfully separated in their own yellow-pages section--the authors present a smart, funny, well-organized guide to choosing and nabbing the perfect job, even jobs that don't make the "cool" list. Filled with practical advice such as using e-mail to reach potential employers (it's more likely to get answered), Cool Careers for Dummies is a sure cure for the interview jitters. Important tips and pitfalls are highlighted with bold icons, making this useful as a handy reference as well as a career guide.

Sections on résumés, interviews, and salary negotiation round out the package, making this the perfect companion for the first-time job hunter or the seasoned professional looking for a change--after all, you don't have to be a dummy to need a little help. A word of warning: if you think you're satisfied with your career, be careful with this book--you might find yourself longing to be a newborn photographer or a dating coach! --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Sure, some people enter preschool knowing what they want to be when they grow up. But most of us aren't so lucky, and we don't get much help. Some parents say things like, "It's your life, you decide." Other parents go to the other extreme, expecting you to follow in their footsteps. In high school, you take a career test, but many high school students laugh at their test results: the utterly useless, "You could pursue a wide range of careers."

This revised edition of Cool Careers For Dummies provides insight into landing a job for anyone who doesn't know where to look, doesn't have time to look, or doesn't want to suffer through a long back-to-school stint. It's designed for people of all walks of life to uncover rewarding, viable careers or get in on the ground floor of the next Big Things. What's more, this guide even offers tips to make even a humdrum job much better.

Clearly organized by specific topic areas, you can easily find the topics that appeal to you. You'll uncover information like

• Finding the right career for you, whether you've never had a career before or want to dump your old career for a new and improved one
• Getting smart about choosing, and making the most of, a career
• Landing the job you want even if the thought of networking gives you the creeps and you don't have a 500-name Rolodex
• Customizing your career to make any job better by tailoring it to your strengths and using wise approaches to your boss and co-workers

And, you'll find a fast yet substantive introduction to more than 500 good careers, including many unlikely suspects!

Despite taking career tests, plowing through fat career guides, and spending hours of reflecting, many people end up falling into their careers more by chance than by choice. Not a good way to ensure career happiness. There is a better way. Read all about it, in Cool Careers For Dummies.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 2 Sub edition (March 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764553453
• ISBN-13: 978-0764553455
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #96,636 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gift that kept giving, December 29, 2000

By	artemis w (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cool Careers for Dummies (Paperback)

For a little while in college I was queen of career guides and resume books. But that wasn't helping me figure out what I wanted to do. And it certainly wasn't helping me find a post-college job. An arbitrary cousin sent me this book for graduation, and 2 years later I still use it. I threw out all the other books. "Cool Careers" outlines new approaches to finding both careers and jobs, and walks you through interviews and salary negotiations with simulations. The authors also pay special attention to shaping your job to suit your needs once you have it... a section that distinguishes it from other books in this category. Most importantly, the book leads you on a job search that balances the short-term panic with the long-term perspective needed to secure the RIGHT job for you.

Using this book, I found an unadvertised entry-level job without a resume in a field I didn't know existed. A year later I found a managerial position in the same field. The friends who graduated with me work meaningless jobs in cubicles, and they still don't know what they want to do when they "grow up". I have a career, making real decisions, and the confidence that I can find a new one whenever I want.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad....But Not Great, February 10, 2004

By	M. Lee (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews

I was somewhat disappointed with this book. Although it was organized very well, had a nice index, which made it easy to find things, and was written in a simple, right-to-the-point, easy to read way, the book was a little innacurate when it came to some job descriptions. For example there are many jobs which 5 years ago may not have required a college degree but due to the ultra-competitive world we live in now, they may now require a college degree. This was overlooked on a few of the careers listed. Take for instance becoming a foreign language/interpreting. This has become a highly competitive sought after job and the minimum requirement is not only being fluent in another language but to also have at least a Bachelor's Degree. Having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I know how cut throat the job market is so I was hoping that the author of this book was more aware of things like that. Even careers like becoming a police officer has changed quite a bit. Now many police departments require police recruits to have a college degrees, which was definitely NOT the case 5 or 10 years ago. But overall this book was fairly good. I recommend it just as long as you are aware that there may be a few flaws. I also think it depends on where you live. If you are from a super competitive urbanized part of the United States, like the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, or New York, remember that the standard for getting a decent jobs is completely different than anywhere else in the country. In fact I'm hoping oneday a book called "Cool Careers for People Living in California" will be published! Lol!

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally . . . a career book that works!, August 27, 1998

By	Judith Grutter, M.S., NCCC "gstahoe" (South Lake Tahoe, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cool Careers for Dummies (Paperback)

I've been a career counselor for over 30 years and referenced every self-help book there is. This one MOTIVATES clients to DO something. The others all start with what the COUNSELOR wants to do -- this one starts with what clients want -- information about the cool jobs! And it doesn't force the usual program of testing, more testing, and even more testing down their throats. In fact, if clients don't know the answers to the assessment questions, they're told to "skip it" and move on. That's the key -- users aren't stuck in the hard stuff that keeps them from acting. This book is wonderful -- what looks like just a fun surface approach to a very complex subject is actually very thorough. But it doesn't hurt! It makes you want to really take a look at your career.