Book recommendations: finding work that works for you
Are you at work right now? If you’re not at work right now, are you thinking about it? Well, just in case you thought you could have five mins off being at work or thinking about work, here’s a blog post about work! Because let’s face it, work is life, isn’t it? Whether you love your job or not, chances are you’ll be looking for a new one at some point. Maybe you’re bored or feeling stuck. Maybe you’ve realised you don’t actually enjoy what you do. Or perhaps you’ve done everything you can in your current role and are looking for new challenges. Here are three books that might help you figure out what’s next and lead you a job that feels fulfilling… and pays the bills.
Is this it?
Ruth Kudzi
If you’re sitting at your desk wishing that you could do something else but feel like it’s impossible, then this book is for you. It breaks down the mammoth task of figuring out what you want to do into small, easy to follow, chunks that are perfectly manageable. It gently guides you through a process of looking at what’s really important to you, working with your existing strengths, how to deal with those negative thoughts that hold you back and getting on top of the habits that will drive you forwards. Sometimes you can read a book about making changes and feel overwhelmed… this book is different. By the time I got to the end of this book, not only did I have clarity on what I truly wanted from life, I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do to go about getting it, and felt like I really could do it!
Pivot
Jenny Blake
This is a brilliant and detailed guide on building and changing your career. In a nutshell, ‘pivoting’ is all about keeping grounded while exploring other options, until you’re ready to move. There are four stages:
Plant: creating a foundation from your strengths and values and interests
Scan: researching new and related skills, identifying and plugging knowledge and skills gaps and talking to people
Pilots: testing your new directions in a series of small experiments so you can adjust as you go.
Launch: making your bigger move. Your pilots have already moved you forward and now it’s time to pick up your feet and go!
There’s a whole section on non-scary ways to build your network and connections for those who hate networking! It’s also full of insightful tips that are relevant in today’s crazy working world.
If you’re someone who has had several different jobs and already jumped around in different roles and across industries, this book might help you make sense of the journey you’ve been on. It’s not that you’re never happy, can’t commit or are indecisive - you have been pivoting the whole time!
Designing your life
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
This book gives you a real kick up the backside and forces you to get creative with your thinking and your doing. It shows you how to use design tools like reframing, prototyping and mind mapping to build a life (not just career) that will work for you. I love the language of this book (wayfinding, failure immunity) and the tone is light and humorous but persuasive. The authors use relevant and relatable anecdotes to illustrate their ideas. The tools and techniques can be applied to any problem you have in your life/job, whether you want to do something different or not.
There are similarities and crossovers with these three books, especially around looking at strengths and values, but I’ve read them all and got something (lots of things) from each of them. I’d suggest looking them up and reading reviews and samples to see which one(s) are most relevant for where you are.
I’d also recommend getting hard copies rather than digital or audio because they contain exercises that you’ll want to do, and it’ll be easier to refer back to things that you want to remind yourself about.
I’m posting this with a warning though: if you are really considering a new direction, you’ll need to do the work, not just read the books! If you’re anything like me, you’ll find it easier to read and research than take action… but unfortunately, change does not happen via some kind of inky osmosis.
If you pick any of them up, I’d love to know what you think. Also feel free to suggest other books you’ve come across that I can add to my ever-growing list!