Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Dealing with "the Confidence Issue" in Your Career


Last year I got a book proposal from Katy Piotrowski, a career counselor in Ft. Collins, Colorado, who had hit upon a novel approach for a job search book series, and one that resonated with me. In her experience, she found that many people looking for jobs faced a formidable hurdle: fear. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of talking to strangers, fear that on some level kept them stuck right where they were. So she proposed The Career Coward’s Guide series.


The approach is warm, friendly, and nurturing. She breaks the task of finding a job into small steps, and then breaks that down even further into “baby steps.” Before you know what’s happened, you’ve landed a life-changing job!


The first book in the series is The Career Coward’s Guide to Interviewing, and it’s available now. The second is The Career Coward’s Guide to Changing Careers. It went to the printer yesterday and will be available in a month. Other titles will follow.


Of course, not everyone appreciates, or even gets, what we’re trying to do. Richard Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute?, reviewed an advance copy and railed on us for insulting people by calling them cowards. (Apparently in his day, that was about the worst thing you could call someone.) The title is being ironic; you know, like calling someone a Dummy or an Idiot. Nobody really believes they are too stupid or scared to succeed in life. But everyone will admit they can use a little help from time to time.

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