Maybe It's Not Too Late to Join the Circus: Books for Midlife Career Management

MIDCAREERLIBRAKIANS 1,OOKING FOR LAREER MANAGEMENT H E L P on the bookshelf face thousands of choices. This article reviews thirteen popular career self-help books. The reviewed books cover various aspects of career management and provide information on which might be best suited for particular goals, including career change, career tune-up, and personal and professional self-evaluation. The comments reflect issues of interest to midcareer professionals. No one z r qunlzjrd for any job on thrjirst dau (Adam?, 1998,p. 10). IMAGINET H A T A LIBRARIAN is thinking about a midlife career change. What is the best way to move from thinking to action? A good suggestion would be a book about evaluating career changes, but which one? A search of a public library catalog yielded 1,205 vocational guides (hit$:// wm.u.och.lib.jl.us/) and Amazon.com listed 8,295! Even among the books aimed at midlife career changers, the offerings are extensive. This article will examine books on various aspects of career management and provide information on which might be best suited for a particular goal, such as changing careers, career tune-up, and personal and professional self-evaluation. Career management can be defined as the process of developing the skills needed to choose and direct one’s path in life (Cosgrove, 2000). Career management skills include the following: Self-evaluation-ldentifylng personal values, skills, interests, aptitudes, and abilities that may change throughout life. Marilyn Kay Harhai, Associate Professor, Department of Library Science, Clarion University, 840 Wood. Street, Clarion, PA 16214 LIBRARYTRENDS, Vol. 50, No. 4,Spring 2002, pp. 640-650 02002 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois HARHAI/BOOKS FOR MIDLIFE CAREER MANAGEMENT 641 Planning process-Setting shortand long-term goals, decision-making with goals in mind, and adaptability to change. Integration-Integration of work and other life activities through lifestyle choices, balancing roles, selecting leisure activities, and personal growth. Exploration-Awareness of job markets and opportunities and pursuing self-development in relation to them. Marketing-Putting the other career management skills to use to improve a current career situation or career transition (Cosgrove, 2000). The books in this article are evaluated for how well they help explore or develop these career management skills. Titles on the specific aspects ofjob-searching (i.e., resumes, cover letters, interviewing, job Web sites) are not included. The selection process for the books included was not scientific. For the most part, the titles have stood the test of time. Discover What You AreBest At was first published in 1982 (Gale & Gale, 1998). What Colorls YourParachute is in its 29th edition (Bolles, 2000). A few items are necessarily of newer vintage, such as, Career Xroads, which is a directory to job, resume, and career management sites on the Web, and even this title is in its fifth edition (Crispin & Mehler, 2000). Some titles, like In My Wildest Beams and I Could Do AnythinglflOnly Knew “hat It Was, have made the NewYork Times bestseller list (Best Sellers, 1998). Overall, the books are popular titles that should be readily available. But while they may be popular best-sellers, not