For the last 3 or so years- every time a friend got fired, downsized, laid off, or was searching for a job that would make them happy – I’d hand them a copy of “Radical Careering” by Sally Hogshead.
If you are in advertising, you’d know who she is. Won every major ad award by age 27, and if you remember the launch of the BMW Mini Cooper in this country- you were probably reading her copy.
At one time, she was opening up the West Coast office of Crispin Porter + Bogusky [1]– which is almost the owner of the hottest agency of the last decade- doing work for Burger King, VW, Microsoft and even the new Domino’s ads where they admit their pizza used to blow.
Yep- Sally had reached the mountaintop in advertising- then chucked it all to become an author, speaker, consultant. She did a radical career change- and now, she’s giving away a PDF of Radical Careering- to help launch book 2: Fascinate [2].
It’s true: a FREE digital version of my first book, RADICAL CAREERING: 100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Your Career, and Your Life. Inside, you’ll find bite-sized nuggets ideas on creativity and your career, all wrapped in award-winning design.
via “What? A free copy of RADICAL CAREERING? …seriously??” [3].
Fascinate launches on Tuesday- and I don’t know how long this free book will be available, so get over to her site and download the pdf and enjoy the 100 Radical Truths to Jumpstart your career.
My favorite- number 15: Aspire to be the dumbest person in the room.
What’s yours?
When I saw the name of the first chapter (Deal with Reality), I thought this might be good. Then I skimmed through the bullets (cognitive style of powerpoint anyone?), and was pretty disappointed. I expected something insightful and along the lines of Collins’ Stockdale Paradox. Instead I got cheer-leading steeped in the pitch culture. If your field is marketing this is probably a good book (as an example of good marketing copy), for everyone else there’s: What Color is Your Parachute?
@jstults sorry you don’t like the gift.
Can’t beat the price- and the design is sweet. It’s a quick read- to get you to think- not to give you answers.
I like it. The people I’ve given it to liked it.
Can’t I do anything to make my readers happy?
Don’t take it personally (I should have used some emoticons or something); it is a good looking book and you can’t beat the price. I just wouldn’t suggest anyone quit their day-job and set sail with this as their guide. If what you need is just a pick-me-up (and if you’ve just been fired / laid off that’s often what you need most) then this is a great gift.
I recommend the new book for the new economy: “What Color Is Your Shopping Cart.”
Shopping Cart…Nice.
Here’s a related article in the WSJ: How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo
The suggestions are more mundane: get organized, use accounting software, set-up a work space separate from your living space, use social networks to get leads / referrals. All those suggestions about consulting well can apply equally to succeeding in a job hunt.
Great likn jstults. A lot of people don’t like the “consultant” idea of work. Mostly liberals. But what is funny is that liberals are the ones (ie Esrati) who rail against corporations that use to provide the tradintional 9-5 job. Of course “consulting” in the name of art and the like is ok for these same liberals.
If you make money, and perhaps provide jobs, along with the product or service you sell, then it is worth something. Hard to do, but what else is there? Corporations are shrinking in terms of employee numbers, outsourcing seems to be a better way to save money – mostly bc of health insurance. But in the future a lot of all this kind of stuff will change. One reason I support legislation to provide healthcare is that I believe it will fuel people to do their own thing – and with doing your own thing it becomes painfully clear that most people are not worth their weight in pickels. The true winners will win, and the leaches can slowly beat each other while productive people can move forward. All we will need is a big fence for the leaches. And with that the winners will figuare out with this simple peace of mind they will fight to end the rule of worthless government spending. Yes, we may have to feed the goverment pig to take the rest of their wonderful hand holding ideas away. Just the way the game has to be played.
If only that big government pig had spent more money on Gene’s education—then maybe he would be able to spell words like pickles and leeches.