career books

Magenta

Hi,
Can anyone recommend any good books about career advice/working?
Covering topics like, how to get promoted, what to do/what not to do, etc.
Websites would be good either. Thanks!

r3nu4l

On a very non-academic scale you could try 'The Rules of Work' or 'The Rules of Management'. I have the latter since I first became a manager and it has been useful to some extent. Some things really stuck with me, others didn't.

Really, to move forward in your career, while books are fine and helpful for sure, you need to ask two things.

1. Do I want to progress in my current company or elsewhere?
2. What skills am I missing?

The latter is vital. Listen to feedback from your managers, ask for feedback. Rather than getting defensive about anything they bring up, just ask: 'What do I need to change to move forward?' or 'What skills do you think I need to improve on or gain to progress?'
if your manager is not useful in that regards, see if you can talk to anyone else in a senior position in your firm or a similar company and ask them what skills they consider vital.

That's a start anyway, I'm sure others will have good/better ideas too

HOS 1997

I would also recommended asking a more senior manager to be a mentor for you. Mentors are invaluable in my opinion.

Irish_Elect_Eng

Hi,

Can you let us know (In General) what role you have and what you are aiming for.
With a little information we can recommend some essential reading.

A good start may be:

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2012: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers

But Assuming management is your goal :-)

In general there are three types of books that are useful to achieve your goal with an example of each:

(1) General Behavioral books.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

(2) Books on particular Roles

A Handbook for First Time Managers

(3) Books on Particular Skills

The Manager's Guide to Effective Meetings

As others have mentioned a gap analysis of your current skills against your goals is an essential first step.
There are many resources that can help you with this but the best by far is a trusted mentor, not necessarily your boss.

Or you could do a more formal assessment check amazon for the following.

Complete Management Skills Assessment Kit
Rate Your Skills as a Manager

One resource for "cutting edge" business thoughts is the Harvard Business Review, it opened my eyes to many new possibilities :-)

starlit

What Color Is Your Parachute?

I've read this book and found it very good. Really helpful and insightful when it comes to pursuing careers. It helps you focus on different areas of your career and job search. You learn a lot about yourself and what career path you might like to pursue, weighs up thinks you never thought about before maybe.

It's a good starting point of a book to read so I would highly recommend the book OP.