50 Ways to Get a Job: An Unconventional Guide to Finding Work on Your Terms

by Dev Aujla, Lodro Rinzler (Foreword by)

Overview

A new personalized way to find the perfect job—while staying calm during the process.
 
You are so much more than a resume or job application, but how can you communicate that to your potential employer? You need to learn to ask the right questions, stop using job sites, and start doing the work that actually counts.
 
Based on information gained from over 400,000 individuals who have used these exercises, this book reveals career expert Dev Aujla’s tried-and-tested method for job seekers at every stage of their career. Filled with anecdotes and advice from professionals ranging from a wilderness guide to an architect, it includes quick-step exercises that help you avoid the common pitfalls of navigating a modern career.

Whether you've just decided to start the hunt or you're gearing up for a big interview, 50 Ways to Get a Job will keep you poised, on-track, and motivated right up to landing your dream career.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143131533
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,216,967
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dev Aujla is the CEO of Catalog, a recruiting and insight firm that has provided talent and high level strategy to some of the worlds most innovative companies including from BMW, GOOD Magazine, Change.org, and Planned Parenthood. He speaks regularly and blogs for outlets that include INC Magazine and Fast Company. His writing and work have been featured in dozens of media outlets including the New York Times, Glamour Magazine, MSNBC, CBC and The Globe and Mail.

Read an Excerpt

MAP YOUR CURRENT  CAREER PATH
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "50 Ways to Get a Job"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Dev Aujla.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Foreword Lodro Rinzler xiii

Introduction xvii

Starting

Map Your Current Career Path 3

Find a Friend in the Same Situation 6

Schedule a Vacation Buffer 8

Download Your Bank Statement 12

Update Linkedln as Your Future Self 17

Field Note: Dealing with Jealousy 20

Finding Your Purpose

Find Your Center of Gravity 27

Describe Your Dream Job 31

Interview Someone 34

Write Fiction About Yourself 37

Go on a Solo Trip 40

Field Note: Finding a New Way of Being 43

Overwhelmed

Commit to Doing These Four Things When You Feel Overwhelmed 47

Make Structural Changes to Your Living Space 50

Sit Quietly in a Room for Forty-Five Minutes 54

Rethink Your Daily Routine 57

Renegotiate Five Commitments 59

Field Note: Situating Yourself 63

Learning New Skills

Make a List of Your Skills 69

Make a List of What You Want to Learn 72

Go on a Research Trip 75

Create a Company Brief 78

Learn Outside of School 82

Take Better Notes 86

Look for Answers in Unlikely Places 90

Field Note: Finding Interest in the Details 94

Networking

List Twenty People Whose Careers You Admire 99

Help Five People 102

Map a Network 105

Create a Course Pack 108

Reconnect with Five Mentors from Your Past 112

E-mail Someone You Don't Know 115

Make a Company List 119

Choose Three Events to Attend 122

Practice Different Ways of Introducing Yourself 126

Find Your Future Boss 130

Field Note: Cultivating Curiosity 133

Stuck

Make Your Own Finish Line 139

Send a "Looking for a Job" E-mail to Five Close Friends 143

Find a Just-Ahead Mentor 148

Record Yourself in a Stressful Situation 152

Win Over Someone Who Cast You Aside 155

Switch Plans 158

Field Note: Living with Less 162

Applying for Jobs

Go to a Job Board and Then Leave 167

Organize Your Job Search in a Spreadsheet 170

Talk to a Recruiter 173

Find a Job Title 176

Get a Side Hustle 180

Send This E-mail to the Company You Want to Work For 184

Field Note: Balancing Physical and Mental Work 187

Interviewing

Prepare Your Interview Story 191

Prove You Are Mission-Aligned 194

Decide When to Work for Free 197

Write Your Own Job Description 200

Change Your Decision-Making Method 205

Start Work Without Telling the Company 209

Field Note: Deciding How Much You Need to Make 212

Happy

You Got a Job 219

Acknowledgments 223

About the Author 225

Editorial Reviews

02/12/2018
Aujla, CEO of the recruiting firm Catalog, which works with nonprofits and startups, presents a practical guide for young people looking for their first—or their first paid—job. The book aims to teach job seekers how to understand their own skills and needs, and thereby improve their chances of finding suitable employment. Good jobs, Aujla advises optimistically, will feel natural and rejuvenating; bad jobs will turn a hapless employee into a stressed-out clock-puncher. So how to find the right one? Chock-full of exercises, this well-laid-out collection of concrete advice will help young readers feel better equipped to define their dream jobs, research potential employers, prep for big interviews, network effectively, and overcome obstacles when they inevitably get mired down. Clearly talking to millennials, Aujla urges a high-confidence approach which may feel foreign to the anxious parents dispensing this book as a graduation gift to their college seniors, but which will be endlessly helpful to the graduates themselves. Aujla has parlayed his experience into an excellent job hunter’s 101 for the young and ambitious—or just unemployed. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Dev’s book offers fun and practical exercises for feeding your professional curiosity, examining your career journey from new perspectives, and creating opportunities to have a wonderful impact on your life. For people who see a career as a mission and every day as an opportunity to learn and grow, 50 Ways to Get a Job is an energizing read.”
—Mike Steib, CEO of XO Group and author of The Career Manifesto: Discover Your Calling and Create an Extraordinary Life

“Finally, a career book for a generation with nonlinear careers. 50 Ways to Get a Job gives you the practical advice you need to build a meaningful career, on your terms. This book takes you on a thrilling choose your own adventure journey to build a career—and a life—that’s right for you. I can’t wait to read it again (and again, and again . . .).”
—Adam Smiley Poswolsky, author of The Quarter-Life Breakthrough

“Through a series of compelling provocations and pragmatic exercises, Dev offers hope to a new generation looking to navigate today’s uncertain job market to find a job that works on your terms. Philosophically rich and practical, this is a must-read for anyone looking to craft a professional identity in today’s complex world.”
—Alexa Clay, author of The Misfit Economy

“Finding work you love can feel exhausting and futile. Dev Aujla’s book offers inspiring insights and tools for navigating your career in the digital age. Whether you know what you want or you’re unsure what’s next, this book will support you in taking the leap toward meaning and purpose.”
—Amber Rae, author of Choose Wonder Over Worry

“The framework and exercises in this book will help you develop faith in your own desires, skills, and abilities so that you will not only learn to trust your path, but trust yourself.”
—Summer Rayne Oakes, founder of Homestead Brooklyn & SugarDetox.Me

“Everyone may take a different path through this book but the results are the same—a career you have chosen and a job you’re proud of. I loved that I could turn to any page and find advice that was immediately helpful whether you’re just starting or twenty years in. Dev helps makes an overwhelming subject seem doable.”
—Rahaf Harfoush, co-author of The Decoded Company  and author of Hustle + Float

“This book isn’t just for recent grads. It’s a book of elegant strategies for getting to better, more meaningful work that I can keep on my shelf and refer to again and again.”
—Anya Kamenetz, NPR, author of The Art of Screen Time

From the Publisher

03/15/2018
At times it seems there are as many job search books as there are job seekers. Aujla, a recruiter and non-profit executive director, contributes to the plenitude with this work. His subtitular "unconventional" approach involves reframing one's thinking about work, making changes to one's environment and lifestyle, and undertaking unhurried and in-depth exercises aimed at finding meaning in one's next job, rather than merely procuring employment. A potpourri of philosophical influences are scattered throughout, including Buddhist thought, feng shui, mindfulness, and self-help philosophies such as "finding your center of gravity" and "finding a new way of being." VERDICT Based on interviews with thousands of career counselors, self-help gurus, recruiters, and career changers, the author's many recommendations and exercises will undoubtedly resonate with job seekers and career changers receptive to the notion that the quest for nonlinear careers requires unconventional strategies.—Alan Farber, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Library Journal

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