Maybe it’s the heat in Texas or the glorious days of summer vacation, but summer seems to be the season of reading. For many, that may be a bag full of “beach reads” and fashion magazines (and there is nothing wrong with either of those). But summer can also be a great time to fill your head with business reads, especially if you’re in the middle of a job search.
Reading can help your job search in several ways, including insights from successful people and experts that may inspire you to think differently about the process, keeping your skills and knowledge on top of your game and helping you discover content to share with people within your network to help keep you top of mind when they hear of any appropriate job opportunities.
Make the most of your summer by reading a book or two that will help you figure out your strengths, network, and find your next job. Here are a few titles that will help you build your career while you soak up the sun:
What Color Is Your Parachute? 2018: A Practical Manual for Job-Seekers and Career-Changers
by Richard N. Bolles
A job-hunting classic, What Color Is Your Parachutehas sold more than 10 million copies for a reason. The book covers the basics of a job search, including interview advice, salary negotiation, resume tips, and what to do when your job search is just not working.
StrengthsFinder 2.0
by Tom Rath
Know where you want to go career-wise by knowing yourself a little better. Take the StrengthsFinder 2.0 online assessment and look up your top five strengths in this slim, quick read. Each strength has correlating ideas for action for the reader and for working with those who have that strength.
Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It
by Peggy Klaus
If the thought of talking about yourself makes you break out in a cold sweat, pick up Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It. It outlines strategies that can help even the most taciturn among us to talk about ourselves and our accomplishments in a way that attracts, not repels, others.
Never Eat Alone Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz
Even in this digital world, you still need relationships with real, live people in order to get ahead. Never Eat Alone looks at how you can build a robust social network through reciprocity, research, and a little self-reflection.
Further Reading:
- Explore more books about job hunting and career planning with this list from career site, The Muse.
- Whether you are in the early stages of your career or you can choose a job that feeds your soul and not just your pocketbook, check out this great list of job hunting books from Fast Company.
Just for Fun:
- Tech billionaire and humanitarian Bill Gates reads about 50 books a year and writes about those books on his blog, Gates Notes. He recommends five books worth reading this summer that range from a biography about Leonardo da Vinci to historical fiction.
- A little bit on the lighter side, the New York Times offers 73 summer reading titles from a broad selection of categories, including thrillers, cookbooks, sports, and travel.
- And of course, author James Patterson has another thriller on the best-seller list, The President Is Missing: A Novel. This time around, he shares the author credits with former President Bill Clinton.
The best thing you can do by reading is to constantly expose yourself to information and content that interests you and may have absolutely nothing to do with your career or industry because it will make you different. You never know what you may find out you have in common with the person on the other side of the interview table.
Let us know about any good books you are reading this summer!
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