I Lost My Job! Now What?: A Self-Help Workbook for Moving Forward
Product Description
In Elizabeth Black’s compelling and very important book, I Lost My Job! Now What? the former Vice President of Human Resources for a global information technology company lays out a comprehensive, practical, and easy-to-follow guide for everyone who has lost a job. From the first responses?shock, disbelief, fear, anger?to the big question?what’s next??the author takes you through a step by step guide to becoming reacquainted with your skills and strengths, lists of job boards and networking possibilities, even tips for working with recruiters. The section on skills inventory is an awakening, because you will discover many talents you never associated with a successful job search; the sample resumes and interview tips bring you closer to your goals. By taking an active role in assessing your feelings, strengths, dreams, and goals, you learn to regain control of your life and find that new job…. More >>
I Lost My Job! Now What?: A Self-Help Workbook for Moving Forward
This book is a great resource for executives of smaller companies who want to provide outplacement in layoff situations but cannot afford thousands of dollars per employee for retained services. In I Lost My Job! Now What? Betty Black presents a useful workbook that anyone facing either an imposed job loss, or self-driven career change, can use to effectively work though process. Multiple techniques are presented to assist an individual throughout the process including; how to gain support during the grieving progress, how to honestly assess skills and attributes, how to identify professional aspirations, how to structure an effective resume, how to network and use the job boards , and how to interview effectively. In I Lost My Job! Now What? Black has packaged her wealth of expertise into an incredible tool for individuals facing a career change.
This book is chock full of practical, no-nonsense advice to chase away the lay-off blues and put you in charge of your destiny. Ms. Black must have consulted with real-live unemployed folks when putting this together, because it has the ring of reality to it. I know, because it was just what the doctor ordered for me when I lost my job as VP of Human Resources.
This workbook does what many others don’t… it makes the difficult ordeal of losing your job a little easier and a little less overwhelming. It will help you organize your thoughts, develop a plan and execute on it. It’s thought provoking, absolutely relevant from section to section, easy to understand (a must!) and provides practical tips that anyone can – and should – use as they embark on a new career journey.
As a career/life coach, I find this book to be an excellent resource for those who cannot afford to invest in job placement services or career coaching. It is also a good refresher for people who have been supported by job placement services in the past and find themselves in the job market once again without that support. This book provides the advice and direction needed to launch a successful job search today. While it doesn’t replace personalized career coaching, it enables the readers to reflect on some basic coaching questions that, when answered, will help them to begin to self-direct their careers.
This book has all of the attributes that I look for in a workbook:
1. A quick read. I was able to read all of it in less than an hour.
2. Easy to understand.
3. Leads me step-by-step towards my goal.
4. Provides me with insights and details that weren’t obvious to me.
My immediate reaction to reading this book was excitement because I now had approach to pursuing new employment, which I had not done in over a decade. Being rusty at it, “I Lost My Job! Now What?: A Self-Help Workbook for Moving Forward” provided me with four important areas of guidance:
1. An easily understood approach to “shaking off” the conclusion to the previous employment experience
2. Ways of getting prepared for the unknown length of time between jobs
3. A method for clarifying what I wanted pursue for my next career position
4. Practical steps for engaging in the actual job search.
Among the most valuable parts of the book are the various references it provides to websites and other resources that are now available to people in a career transition that either didn’t exist a few years ago or just were not known to me.
I recommend this book because so much important information is presented in a logical, easily digestible manner.