“A career is a series of ups and downs, of comebacks.” — Steve Guttenberg
I did a serious overhaul of my Career Books collection. I think you will like what you find. It’s a pretty robust collection of the best career books on finding jobs, charting your career, improving workplace effectiveness, finding your work-life balance, and more.
The goal for my Career Books collection is to improve your career success, whether you work for yourself or a company.
So whether you are making a comeback, finding your path, or have career trajectory, this is the book collection to draw from. You will find insights and actions to help you flourish with skill. It includes many of the best books I have used to manage my career, and have recommended to others, to help them find their way forward and make the most of what they’ve got.
Work Less, Achieve More
You’ll find many of the classics like 7 Habits of Success, Who Moved My Cheese, and What Color is Your Parachute? But you will also find many others that you probably never heard of like, Work from the Inside Out, Overachievement, The 80/20 Individual, and many more. This is a powerful set of books that puts an arsenal of strategies and tactics for managing your career at your finger tips.
I’ve grouped the books into meaningful collections, including a section on Artists at Work and Zen at Work. I’ve expanded my Effectiveness section to include several of the career books that will really help transform your results at work. I’ve also added a new section on Work Less, Achieve More. I wanted to share the short-list of books that help you get more out of the time you already spend, and ideally, work less, but flow more value for yourself and others. It’s not a gimmick. It’s not a scam. It’s shifts in strategy so you can be better, faster, cheaper than the competition.
I’ve included books that cater to special interests such as artists, achievers, consultants, entrepreneurs, and “scanners.” (In the book, Refuse to Choose, scanners are “people whose unique type of mind does not zero in on a single interest but rather scans the horizon, eager to explore everything they see.”)
I also made sure that my Career Books collection directly addresses common scenarios during job hunting, such as figuring out what you want, job searching, interviewing, and creating better resumes.
10 Great Books on Career Development
Here are the top ten career books from my Career Books page:
- Go Put Your Strengths to Work, by Marcus Buckingham
- Mentored by a Millionaire, by Steven Scott
- Overachievement: The New Science of Working Less to Accomplish More, by John Eliot
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey
- The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, by Stephen R. Covey
- The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive, by Brendon Burchard
- The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick), by Seth Godin
- The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, by Michael Watkins
- Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement, by Tony Robbins
- Work from the Inside Out: Seven Steps to Loving What You Do, by Nancy O’Hara
(For more great career books, see the complete Career Books collection.)
The strategy behind my top 10 list is to include foundational books that will serve you throughout your career. They are simply great books to have under your belt and they will improve your overall workplace effectiveness and career outlook. They will get you on path and help your trajectory. The rest of the collection will help you quickly zone in and target any areas that you want to focus on such as work-life balance, setbacks, job searches, interviewing, resumes, etc.
Take a stroll through my Career Books page and explore many of the best career books that will serve you for the rest of your life to get the best from your life.
Gary Lindberg on Best Lessons Learned as a Bestselling Self-Published Author