The Career Playbook

Hooray for another book that was published on my birthday! :O I’ll start off by stating that I don’t think I’m the intended target audience for The Career Playbook–not completely, anyway.

While I could be considered a “young professional,” I felt that this was geared more towards students who are graduating from college (whereas I currently have 3 degrees and will be finishing up my 4th).

The Career Playbook

By James M. Citrin

Genre: Business
Pages: 244

Part 1: How Careers Really Work

In this section, the author discusses how to think about your career, and how money, meaning, networks, and relationships, play into that.

The three broad factors to consider when you’re trying to figure out whether or not a job is a good fit for you:

• Job Satisfaction
• Compensation
• Lifestyle

He’s very realistic with his advice, and he makes it clear that you most likely won’t achieve the best in all 3 categories right at the very start. These things take time to cultivate. He also provides ideas for things you can do in order to incorporate your passions while still being realistic.

Part 2: How to Get the Job

This was my favorite section, as it’s what I’m working on right now (anyone wanna read my personal statement/CV!?)! The part on landing interviews/the art of interviews will definitely prove to be invaluable for me later on this year!

The “You’ve Studied Liberal Arts, Now What?” section intrigued me (one of my majors in college was Music Performance!)–I could definitely relate to what the author was talking about.

I’ve talked at length on how much I loved my time at Davis, but I don’t think I ever mentioned that I was actually thinking about transferring elsewhere after my second year. My grades and knowledge retention were infinitely better in my smaller classes, and I felt like just another number among the hundreds of other students taking the same courses.

I didn’t leave (thankfully, because my last two years there are still the happiest years of my life thus far), for the reasons listed below:

• I felt like I’d be a quitter if I peaced out without a fight.
• I’d just scored two internships I really loved (as a patient advocate/medical interpreter at Paul Hom Asian Clinic, and a Therapeutic Recreation/Child Life volunteer at a children’s hospital).
• I’d just found a major I wanted to switch to that looked all sorts of awesome: Exercise Biology.
• Having my best friend as a roommate was pretty stinkin’ awesome, and I loved all the extra-curriculars I was a part of.
• …My music family. Our classes had about 25 people in it (vs. 600) and we’d taken all the same classes together since freshmen year. <3 How could I just up and leave?
  

  I’m giving you one guess as to which cap is mine. :O It spells out “UCD_Music,” in case you were wondering.

There is definite value to smaller class sizes and having professors that love to teach rather than do research, and thankfully, I managed to get the best of both worlds while I was at Davis, especially after I started taking my upper division classes. Clearly, I just needed to find my niche! <3

Part 3: How To Thrive

The author talks about how to get off on the right foot at your new job, how to be an inspiring leader, and cultivate a mentor. I also enjoyed his discussion on how to move from job to job, and how to negotiate your salary, as these are classic things that I think I’d be absolutely terrible with navigating through.

I found a lot of useful information in The Career Playbook, because despite all them degrees, I can still very much relate to the topics he writes about, especially as I still have yet to finish school and start getting paid to work off this monstrous student debt I’ve been accumulating.

I’d definitely recommend this to any new graduate (or graduate-to-be) looking to enter the job market!

• Have you ever heard of The Career Playbook?
• What advice do you have for someone who’s job-hunting?
• What are your best tips/suggestions for rocking an interview?