Your Career, Your Way (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: create your strategic plan, personal strategic plan, clothing buyer, Example Poorly, Spring Quarter, Competitive Analysis (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Consultant Quast contends that any woman regardless of age or profession can use the business concept of a strategic plan to advance her career. Ten chapters take the reader through the various stages of creating and implementing such a plan, from reviewing assets and evaluating competitors through determining goals, checking progress, and rewarding achievements. Quast's approach is based upon her own experiences climbing the corporate ladder, as well as her work with clients as a career coach and mentor. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR) -- Book News Inc. Portland, OR ©2007

If you want to get ahead in the business world, just read the step-by-step instructions provided in Lisa Quast's first book. Her book includes worksheets and templates for marketing yourself as a product. She leads you through the steps of assessing your assets and liabilities, getting feedback from colleagues and other business people about your strengths and weaknesses, establishing goals and setting up a plan of action. The reader can use the book like a workbook or download the same worksheets from the author's website. Any woman who aspires to climb the corporate ladder would find much useful information in this slim volume. -- The Odessa Record, by Terrie Schmidt-Crosby

The message is everywhere - in order to be successful you must have goals. Well, that may be true, but most people have very little understanding of how to develop, manage, and maintain these goals. Good news - help has arrived! Your Career, Your Way takes this overwhelming task and breaks it down into a step-by-step process.

For those who have struggled with letting their career manage them, have been overlooked for career advancement, or have a hard time selling themselves in interviews, this book will help you find your way. Taken from the perspective of strategic product planning, the book points out the importance of understanding your product (assessing your assets and liabilities), assessing differentiators (your distinctive assets), obtaining customer feedback (testing your beliefs), evaluating your competitors (determining what you need to do to be the best for the job/position you seek), determining your goals (short and long term stepping stones), and creating your strategic plan (pulling it all together to create your career roadmap). Once you have completed the exercises and are on your way to making your career goals happen, it's important to check your progress, stay the course, and celebrate and reward achievements. The book provides templates for working through the process as well as sample stories to provide guidance throughout the steps.

The book sets such simple and clear guidelines you'll wonder how you ever struggled with goal setting. The satisfaction of taking control of your career and the self confidence that will come with understanding your product (you!) will make you wonder how you ever survived without these vital tools.

Lisa Quast spent years writing strategic plans that created roadmaps for products and businesses to be successful in the market place. Suddenly, while feeling discontent with the direction, or more specifically the lack of direction, her career path was taking, it occurred to her that she could apply her strategic plans to a new product - her career. What has resulted is a brilliant tool to guide woman toward taking control of their career, understanding where they want to go, and what they need to do to get there. This is an absolute must read for anyone - while written for women the tools and techniques apply to everyone - and every goal. -- Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Regan Windsor, 2007

You can manage your career, your way. You can put yourself in the driver's seat, steering yourself toward destinations of your choice. So make the commitment to treat yourself like a product, to continually upgrade yourself, and differentiate yourself from others." So begins author Lisa Quast in a book on thoughtful professional planning, Your Career, Your Way! Having developed strategic plans in her marketing career, Quast asked herself, "What could I achieve if I applied a business concept to myself?" She tried the strategic planning process out on her own career before offering the method to other women in this book.

Written in a crisp, no-nonsense style, the premise of Your Career, Your Way! is that women should view their talents and skills as competitive products to be offered carefully to potential employers. The exercises include a number of self-surveys to help readers develop a proactive set of skills through self-examination and goal-setting. Each chapter is packed with thought-provoking exercises that help readers to manage their careers rather than to stumble from one serendipitous employment to another.

Strategic planning was developed to help businesses position themselves competitively. Using Your Career, Your Way!, the reader can do the same for themselves, following ten crucial steps, from assessing assets and liabilities to goal setting and finally to success. This is a working book, meant to be written in, digested, and taken seriously as a basis for developing a professional lifestyle. The author uses two fictional women with different skill sets and different goals to illustrate how to construct a strategic career plan. One is a married mother of two who aspires to be a clothing buyer, the other a single woman whose goal is to become a vice president of marketing. Together, these characters help the author demonstrate the strategic career planning process.

The book is sprinkled liberally with inspirational quotes from famous women, quotes that set the stage for the reader's identification of professional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Examples are given for each exercise, followed by templates for the reader to complete and supplemental information on finding a mentor, selecting a coach, goal-setting, evaluating accomplishments, and celebrating success. The book seems geared for individuals pursuing a career in the business world and is, in that way, restrictive. In truth, the material it contains could be applied in many professional fields as self-study, seminar material, or supplemental text. Your Career, Your Way! would be an excellent gift for any woman developing a professional career. -- Reviewed by Rebecca Sisk, PhD, ForeWord CLARION Reviews

Product Description

Your Career, Your Way is the book for all woman who do not want to trust their career advancement to luck. It is for women who want to take control of their career and achieve their aspirations. Achieving success requires more than luck, more than hard work - it requires a plan. Your Career, Your Way offers the roadmap to women's dreams by guiding them through the creation and implementation of a personal strategic plan using easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: WingSpan Press (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595940421
• ISBN-13: 978-1595940421
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #420,577 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, Motivational and Thought-Provoking For All, January 23, 2007

By	J. Ritchie (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is not only for someone who's lost in identifying his or her career trajectory. It's for everyone interested the pursuit of betterment. While designed to help professionals, I found the book and exercises to be applicable to my personal life too. Quast does a great job of thoughtfully, yet quickly (3 hours or so) helping readers self-assess their own strengths and weaknesses - there's nothing like finding a roadmap that will help you take a closer look at what you are doing and how you might do it better. I finished the book with a newfound motivation to strive for a little more, while having the tools to do so at my fingertips. I'd highly recommend.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Career Tool for Women and Men Alike, May 18, 2007

By	Paul Szilassy (Edmonds, WA) - See all my reviews

The format, writing style, and length of this book make it an easy read - you can probably finish it in one sitting (maybe two if the kids distract you). This simplicity does not in any way diminish the value I have extracted. As other reviewiers have written, the real benefits come from taking time for introspection and thoughtful completion of the exercises. The author's intelligent career management advice will help you build a strategic plan to help you meet your goals. Treating your career like a strategic exercise will highlight personal strengths and weaknesses; identify necessary experience, education, and training; and give you an objective basis to manage your career growth with drive and conviction.

This book was clearly tailored to help women define and achieve their career aspirations. But men - myself included - can also benefit greatly from Lisa Quast's cogent advice!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important tool to owning your career (and life), August 8, 2009

By	C. Armer - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book was inspiring as well as hands-on which made it a valuable read. It is a resource you will want to keep on hand and go back and read through your contributions and thoughts. Not just a motivating book but also a tool to getting what you want.