Your So-Called Careers Library: The Basics
Over the last couple of years, I’ve realised that there are certain books in my collection that are worth their weight in gold; I recommend and use them over and over. After a bit of prompting from some of you, I decided to pull them together in one place and help you build up your own so-called careers library. Here’s the first in the series.
I hardly need to tell you that there are approximately a zillion-and-twenty career-related books out there. If you’ve landed here, you’ve probably read a bunch of them already, to varying effect.
Ranging in style from slick Silicon Valley thought leadership tomes, to psychometric tests and questionnaires, dry but often fascinating academic texts, inspiring first person life changes – and covering pretty much anything you can think of in between. With something new hitting the shelves almost every week, the real problem is knowing where to start.
There are books for creatives, books for leaders, books for entrepreneurs, books for people who lack confidence, want to change careers or to be more productive, and more books aimed at women than you can shake a stick at…. We’re “too nice”, “not nice enough”, need to “embrace our inner bitch” or we’ll never lay claim the corner office, need to be our “authentic selves”, stop apologising, ask for more money because we know our worth, network the hell out of life and somehow – in between reading all the books, doing 70% of the cleaning and childcare and trying to fix the systemic inequality baked into our society – we need to make time to actually get some damn work done.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve realised that I recommend and use a few books over and over so I decided, after a bit of prompting from some of you, to pull them together in one place.
If you are looking for something to kick-start your so-called career, you could do a lot worse than these…
1.
Invisible Women: exposing data bias in a world designed for men
by Caroline Criado Perez
It’s pretty rare that you read something that makes you simultaneously furious, enlightened and immediately want to go out and buy a copy for just about everyone you know, but this book is so brilliant that is exactly how I felt.
If you’ve ever felt like all the odds are stacked against you in some weird way you can’t quite get to grips with, Caroline has the answers, and it's probably because you’re a woman. From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, and the media, she exposes the myriad ways in which the lives and experiences of half the population have been systematically ignored, and the consequences for all of us.
Clear some time for this, because you won’t want to put it down.
2.
The Hundred Year Life: living and working in an age of longevity
by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott
More than anything else I’ve read, The Hundred Year Life lays out the fundamental shift in the careers landscape from a linear, singular career path, as a stage within a 3-phase life (education/work/retirement), to something far more flexible and dynamic which meets the needs of a longer lifespan. The authors suggest that this increased longevity will result in recurrent phases of education and training, periods of work interspersed with periods of caring, self-development or reflection, and rather than a singular career path which peaks at retirement, we are likely to undertake multiple ‘careers’ across what is likely to be a 50+ year working life.
When I read it, during a mid-career change, my entire perspective on life and work shifted and suddenly what I was undertaking seemed completely reasonable, still daunting, but no longer quite so jaw clenchingly terrifying.
It can be a little dry in places - the writers are both academics and it shows - but the subject matter more than makes up for it.
3.
The Mother of all Jobs: How to have children and a career and stay sane (ish)
by Christine Armstrong
I saw Christine give a talk not long after this book was released and bought it immediately, despite at the time having neither children, nor a job. She is fucking awesome, and everyone woman who has, or who thinks they might want to have children AND a job (I know, the audacity!!), should be given a copy of this book immediately.
We all know on some level that balancing a job and children is going to be hard, but when it happens to you, it can feel as if you are in the midst of a unique crisis with no visible end. Christine’s book will help you realise that you’re not alone, and is full of sound advice, personal stories and quite a lot of swearing that covers pretty much every stage of the life of a working mum, from ‘I love my job, but shouldn’t I think about settling down?’, to ‘my teenager is a living nightmare, isn’t this supposed to be easier by now?’
It is also the source of one of my favourite quotes ever…
“It's not balance, it's a shitshow. Where growth for most women comes from throwing a cup of tea at their husband while dialling into a conference call one handed, while the other hand is feeding a snotty baby.”
4.
Brave New Girl
by Chloe Brotheridge
This is for everyone who thinks that confidence is something that you’re born with, and that they were born lacking. It's a beautifully kind and compassionate handbook to help you build your confidence at a pace that works for you, and because Chloe has suffered from low confidence and self-esteem (and dedicated her professional practice to helping people overcome their own confidence and anxiety gremlins) it feels incredibly authentic and personable.
You can read it from cover to cover, enjoy the experience and learn some stuff along the way, or you can treat it like a course, with each chapter a module that you read, absorb and then do the exercises before moving onto the next.
Either way, I defy you not to get something valuable out of it!
5.
The Joy of Work: 30 ways to fix your work culture and fall in love with your job again
by Bruce Daisley
Just when you were starting to think I only read books by women, up pops this stormer.
My copy of The Joy of Work has so many sticky notes marking pages, it looks a bit like a neon hedgehog.
I’ll be completely honest with you, I expected to hate this book. I was expecting so much egocentric willy waving about how great it is to work at Google and Twitter but actually that couldn’t be further from the truth. You get the sense right from the start that Bruce Daisley genuinely loves what he does, and the people he does it with, and honestly believes we all have things in our control to help us do this whole ‘work’ thing better. The section on lunch breaks alone is a total gamechanger.
He is warm and funny throughout and while some of the phrasing is a bit wanky for my liking, this is full of top tips, whether you’re the boss, or just want to feel happier, more productive and a bit less stressed.
About the author
Penelope Jones is the founder of My So-Called Career. She is a career coach and consultant who specialises in helping women in their 30s beat burnout and develop healthy, sustainable relationships with work.
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