The Mid-career Success Guide: Planning for the Second Half of Your Working Life

New
Hardcover
2006
$71.37

Most people realize that the employment deal has changed: the days of lifetime employment, or even a clear trajectory up the corporate ladder, are long gone. Dozens of surveys merely quantify what we all know-that education, hard work, and loyalty are no longer enough to guarantee job security. People in mid-career today want to take greater control of their working lives for many reasons. But they are not sure of how to do that in a working world full of change, uncertainty, disappearing career paths, downsizings, and early retirement packages. In The Mid-Career Success Guide, Sally Power draws from her research in management and career development to explain the sources and implications of these trends, and provide solutions to the challenges they present.
The book introduces the Employability Plus model, an approach to career management that leaves behind the traditional job- or organization-centric perspectives by focusing on the individual's work, as a portfolio of skills that can be shaped to their interests and to their employers' needs and desires. Moreover, Power explores how individuals can make the time to develop new skills and knowledge, even when they are employed full-time, in order to expand the array of options available. Featuring real-life examples, interactive exercises, and an appendix of research tools and methods, The Mid-Career Success Guide offers fresh strategies and tactics for overcoming job stress and uncertainty, and proactively managing your career in midlife and beyond. In addition, it will serve as an essential resource for managers, human resource and career counseling professionals, and professors and students of organizational behavior and workplace trends.

Synopsis

Most people realize that the employment deal has changed: the days of lifetime employment, or even a clear trajectory up the corporate ladder, are long gone. Dozens of surveys merely quantify what we all know-that education, hard work, and loyalty are no longer enough to guarantee job security. People in mid-career today want to take greater control of their working lives for many reasons. But they are not sure of how to do that in a working world full of change, uncertainty, disappearing career paths, downsizings, and early retirement packages. In The Mid-Career Success Guide, Sally Power draws from her research in management and career development to explain the sources and implications of these trends, and provide solutions to the challenges they present.

The book introduces the Employability Plus model, an approach to career management that leaves behind the traditional job- or organization-centric perspectives by focusing on the individual's work, as a portfolio of skills that can be shaped to their interests and to their employers' needs and desires. Moreover, Power explores how individuals can make the time to develop new skills and knowledge, even when they are employed full-time, in order to expand the array of options available. Featuring real-life examples, interactive exercises, and an appendix of research tools and methods, The Mid-Career Success Guide offers fresh strategies and tactics for overcoming job stress and uncertainty, and proactively managing your career in midlife and beyond. In addition, it will serve as an essential resource for managers, human resource and career counseling professionals, and professors and students of organizational behavior and workplace trends.

$71.37

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 216
Edition: annotated edition
Publisher: Praeger Publishers Inc
Published: 30 Oct 2006
ISBN 10: 0275988015
ISBN 13: 9780275988012
Book Overview: In a world of work where all the rules have changed, evolving concepts of career management are critical for any working person to grasp and a topic of constant debate amongst those few who watch the changes from the working professional's point of view. In this book Sally Power makes an intelligent, worthy and valuable contribution to a discussion that impacts your happiness. -- Martin Yate, Certified Personnel Consultant, Author of Knock 'em Dead 2006: The Ultimate Job Search Guide The Mid-Career Success Guide demands moving beyond denial and combative responses to workplace turbulence. Power's model pragmatically drives mid-careerists to adopt an 'added value' lens while respecting that free agency isn't for all. Precision-like insights about negotiating 'different deals' and intensifying one's career management help readers expand success strategies. Power's book is reality-based, well documented, and uniquely sensitive to mid-career transitions. In its pages, readers will find case examples, depth, and hope far exceeding any self-help book. A most timely work! -- Rich Feller, Professor, Counseling and Career Development, University Distinguished Teaching Scholar, Colorado State University The Mid-Career Success Guide offers practical and insightful advice about how to advance your business career. Anyone interested in navigating through the world of business will benefit from reading it. -- Peter Cappelli, George W. Taylor Professor of Management, Director, Center for Human Resources

Media Reviews

Power, a researcher in management and career development, presents this guide with strategies to deal with job stress and insecurity and to give the reader a positive direction for the working future....The appendices include career development resources (the most important being the library and reference staff) and recommended reading....For anyone who is assessing where they are in their career, or is helping others who are, this is a very informative and useful tool to help determine what one wants in a career and then help take the steps needed to get there. - The Australian Library Journal
Aimed at white collar workers in the middle years of their career paths, this text offers practical advice for achieving success in today's rapidly changing employment environment. Power describes an innovative approach to career management that focuses on the continual development of an individual's portfolio of skills. This model is further illustrated with a wealth of real-life examples and interactive exercises. - Reference & Research Book News
[O]ffers career advice to white-collar workers who commit themselves to a particular type of work after experimenting with different jobs and knowing how the earning world works. The focus of this book is to help workers take personal responsibility for managing their careers in a continually changing environment....This is a good source of information about today's volatile working environment, and although everyone will not agree with the author's advice, she offers a thoughtful perspective. - Booklist

Author Bio

Sally J. Power is Professor of Management, College of Business, University of St. Thomas, in Minneapolis, where she teaches courses in organizational behavior, management, business ethics, and career management. She has published many articles in such journals as Global Economics Quarterly, The Counseling Psychologist, The Journal of Business Ethics, Teaching Business Ethics, and The Journal of Psychological Type, and presents frequently at such conferences as the Academy of Management and the National Career Development Association.