Yesterday I was at Borders looking through endless shelves of wedding planning books and found myself (surprise!) a little bored. (Let's hope my fiance doesn't read this.) So I wandered off and eventually found myself in the career section. Did you know that as recently as the mid-80's most bookstores did not even have dedicated career sections? Yesterday I counted 7 shelves and quit counting after 200 books. If you search for "career" in the book section of Amazon.com, you get 305,077 results. It's overwhelming. How does anyone even know how to start when they are bombarded with so much information?
It can be even more disorienting if you take the time to read through the titles of some of the books out there. First up are the dozens of resume and cover letter guides with trumped-up titles such as "The Damn Good Resume Guide", "Cover Letter Magic!", and "Don't Send a Resume" (really? - don't buy this one). Then you find yourself looking at books that portend gloom and doom for your career. It's hard to walk away with a positive outlook on getting a job when more than half of the job search titles read like this (these are all real books!):
- "I Hate My Job Handbook"
- "Life's a Bitch and Then You Change Careers",
- "I Don't Know What I Want, but I Know It's Not This", and
- "Addicted to Unhappiness"
Do I have a point to make? I think so. In today's society, more than ever, what we do for a living helps define who we are. And while no one person - no author, professor, career coach, or Assistant Director of the Kelley School of Business Career Placement Office (yours truly) - can tell you what career is right for you, some resources are better than others. Books? There are some good ones - and even more not so good ones. The Internet? Great for research - not always so great for actually finding a job.
And this is precisely why we have a Career Placement Office here at Kelley. Career exploration should be fun. Really! You should take time to enjoy exploring your skills, values and interests and investigating the myriad of career paths available to you. If there is a particular book or website that might help you - we'll point it out. If you want more specific job search guidance - we can help with that too. Just want to talk about possible careers? Come in with or without an appointment. We are here because you will never find the book, "The Complete Resume and Job Search Guide for a Kelley Indianapolis Marketing Major Interested in Public Relations Who Wants to Stay in Indianapolis After She Graduates".
Have any ideas for future postings? Internships? Career Fairs? Thoughts in general? Let me know and I'll be happy to incorporate your opinions into upcoming postings.
