Synopses & Reviews
From The Wall Street Journal's longtime career columnist, here is the street-wise book that finally tells readers what they really need to know: how to get and protect the job you want...when someone else wants it just as much.
Forget empowerment. Forget paradigm shifts. Forget gurus. Veteran columnist Hal Lancaster is tired of feel-good career guides written by football coaches and soap opera actors -- guides that boil the complex workplace down to a handful of buzzwords and conclude with a few rosy platitudes. Refreshing and sometimes controversial, Promoting Yourself is based on the premise that readers can best learn to build their careers not by listening to the ramblings of so-called gurus, but by studying the experiences of others like them who have been through the business wars and not only survived but flourished.
Through stories of real-life managers and professionals, Promoting Yourself reveals a workplace that requires you to pit your skills and competitive fire against a horde of ambitious bosses, peers, and subordinates, all seeking the brass ring of career success. Some will play fair, others won't, and justice won't always prevail. In his tough, savvy style, Lancaster answers the fundamental questions on the road to a rewarding career: How can you find the right job? How can you make your job better? When should you dump your current job? How do you survive your boss's many quirks and foibles? How do you make sense of all the mergers, technological advances, and cultural changes that have muddied the career waters? And what alternate paths to glory exist and what do you need to know to follow them?
Finding the right balance between work and family is a critical part of career development. While acknowledging that some people are willing to sacrifice their careers for their families, this book offers some clear-eyed reality therapy, suggesting that we must sometimes be willing to ignore the incessant calls of "family first" and occasionally say to our kids "No, I can't play with you. I have to work now." But it also shows that someone who has married and parented well, and frequently demonstrated enduring love of his or her family, will find that the kids will be okay and the spouse understanding. There are no pat answers to career success. But with Promoting Yourself, readers gain the street smarts and insight they need to maneuver through the highly political and often unjust reality of corporate life.
Synopsis
From "The Wall Street Journal's" longtime career columnist, the street-savvy book that finally tells readers what they really want to know: How to get and protect the job they want . . . when someone else wants it just as much.
About the Author
Hal Lancaster has spent more than thirty years at The Wall Street Journal as a reporter, editor, bureau chief, and columnist. From 1994 through 1999, he wrote the Journal's weekly "Managing Your Career" column and now writes "Career Corner," a twice-monthly feature for the acclaimed CareerJournal.com web site. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and two sons.
Table of Contents
Contents Preface
Introduction
PART ONE: SELLING YOURSELF
- Whither Goest Rsums?
- Highlighting Hidden Skills
- Promoting Yourself Online
- How to Tell Good Schmoozing from Bad
- Shhh! Be Wary While You're Job Hunting; the Boss May Be Listening
- Who Gets the Job, the Specialist or the Generalist?
- Acing the Interview
- Getting What You're Worth
PART TWO: GETTING AHEAD
- Taking the Road Less Traveled
- Hunting the Elusive Mentor
- Being a Hub: Leading When You're Not the Leader
- Is That Promotion Right for You?
- Breaking Out of Your Pigeonhole
- Chasing the MBA: Is It Worth the Hassle?
- Dunning Your Boss for a Raise
PART THREE: INTO THE MANAGEMENT MAELSTROM
- Avoiding Those First-Time Manager Blues
- Who Said Techies Can't Manage?
- Managing Techies When You Aren't One
- Managing a Hostile Crew
- The Art and Craft of Being a Good Number Two
PART FOUR: MAKING MIDCOURSE CORRECTIONS
- Turnarounds and Careers: Even a Lemon Has Juice
- Someone Will Benefit from a Company Crisis; Why Shouldn't It Be You?
- Learning from Failure: Overcoming Hubris
- Adapting to Continual Turmoil
- The Return of the Living Dead: Coming Back from a Demotion
- Job-hopping: Road to Riches or Ruin?
- How to Survive Your Midlife Crisis
- Can You Go Home Again?
- Using a Job Hiatus to Build a New Career
PART FIVE: SWIMMING IN A SEA OF CHANGE: FIGHT OR FLIGHT?
- The High-Anxiety, Low-Self-Esteem Blues
- Reinventing Your Job
- Creating Your Own New Job
- Should You Take a Buyout and Go Bye-Bye?
- Wielding the Broom: Who Gets Swept Out, the Old Ways or the New Manager?
- Postmerger Trauma: How to Avoid Being a Deer in the Headlights
- Chasing the Start-up Pot of Gold
PART SIX: OFFICE POLITICS: PLAYING WELL WITH OTHERS
- Mastering Office Politics Without Becoming a Jerk
- Getting Noticed Without Getting Pushy
- Learn to Negotiate; Your Career Depends on It
- Living with Bad Bosses: Love 'Em or Leave 'Em
- Surviving a New Boss
- Going over the Boss's Head
- Teaching an Old Boss New Tricks
PART SEVEN: ALTERNATE PATHS TO GLORY
- The Perils and Promise of Turning Your Hobby into a Career
- Alternative Work Arrangements: Beating the Odds and Making Them Work
- Living Life as a Pilot Fish
- Women Who Break the Mold
- Living La Vida Free Agency
- Getting Branded for Life
- Life as a Corporate Samurai
- Building a Parallel Career for Fun and Profit
- It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You End Up
Acknowledgments
Index