Preface

In my capacity as a career coach and a volunteer for a large job search group in the Philadelphia area, I often found myself recommending books to job seekers and career changers. Because I wasn’t comfortable recommending a book I hadn’t read, over the years I read a lot of career books. Some were good, but many were clearly self-serving attempts to get the reader to hire the author to help implement the guidance in the book. As a result, I often turned to a handful of classics, including Dick Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute?, for my book recommendations.

Still, I longed for a book that gave solid advice on finding a job that truly fit the job seeker. One that answered common questions I encountered as a career coach and provided step-by-step instructions for how to implement the suggestions. In 2014, when I accepted my current role with the Association for Talent Development (ATD), I learned that ATD was thinking about publishing just such a book! ATD had in mind a book that would complement the career coaching provided to ATD members at their annual conference and be relevant across all occupations.

We gathered 16 career coaches and job search experts and asked them to provide their best advice on a topic in which they had expertise. We asked them to include:

•  carefully screened advice on the most common issues encountered by job seekers and career changers

•  practical, step-by-step instructions

•  free and low-cost resources for readers to turn to for further information.

Find Your Fit is the culmination of the efforts of those 16 coaches to provide detailed advice on how to find a job you’ll love.

What Is This Book About?

According to The Career Counselor’s Handbook, by Howard Figler and Dick Bolles, you need to answer three questions when looking for a job or seeking to make a career change:

•  What do you want to do?

•  What are you doing about it?

•  What is stopping you from doing it?

Find Your Fit is organized into sections that will help you to answer those three questions. In Part I, you’ll create a self-inventory to help tackle the question, “What do you want to do?” We cover how to identify your personality traits, interests, and skills, and how they relate to job satisfaction. Then, we discuss how to identify a workplace environment that suits you best. Finally, we help you create a career goal and plan to find such a job.

In Part II, we cover the mechanics of job searching in the 21st century. That includes basics such as resumes, interviewing, and applying online, as well as personal branding, networking, and salary negotiation.

In Part III, we cover some of the challenges that may be keeping you from realizing your goal. It begins by helping you gauge your job satisfaction and the types of problems you may be having in your current situation. We then cover how to gain experience and move up, as well as how to decide if you need new training or a credential. We also explore the world of self-employment and even include a chapter on how to look for work overseas.

How to Use This Book

Find Your Fit was written so you can read it from cover to cover or focus on the individual topics that are most important to you. The chapters also include cross-references to beneficial material in other chapters, in case you’re not reading the book in order.

If you are in transition or want to make a change, I would advise you to start with Part I to make sure you are clear about what you want to do. One of the most common mistakes made by job seekers is that they don’t know what type of job they’re looking for—that’s akin to going on a vacation without a destination in mind! So, before you jump straight to the chapter on resumes, complete the exercises in Part I to be sure you know where you’re going before setting out on your journey.

If you have a job now and are not sure if it is a good fit, I suggest starting with chapter 12, “Should I Stay or Go?” It contains a quiz that helps you to diagnose the problems you are having, and directs you to the chapters that will be most relevant to the changes you might need to make.

Who Should Read This Book?

This book is written for working professionals looking to improve their job and career satisfaction. It is not only for people who are “in transition,” but also for those who are looking to advance their careers, make a career change, or find a job that is a better fit than their current situation. Our hope is that you’ll use the tools and methods in Find Your Fit to help you increase your happiness at work and grow your career in the direction you want it to go.

Is It Realistic to Find a Job That Fits?

If you’re ready to identify a job and a company that is a good fit for you, and develop a plan for how to land such a job, go to chapter 1 and get started! However, if you’re skeptical about this being a realistic goal, stay with me for a moment. Based on the experience and knowledge of the 16 career coaches featured in this book, it is both realistic and imperative that you take this approach. Employees who are a good fit for their jobs and the company culture are much more likely to succeed and thrive. Staying in a situation that is a poor fit makes you not only unhappy, but also less likely to succeed. So why not try to improve your chances for success and happiness?

Summary

The advice provided in this book will not go out of style. While technology has changed the nature of the job search in many ways, it hasn’t changed the fact that people hire people. So, while a machine may screen your resume, always remember that there are still people on the other side who want to find the right person for the job. This book will help you ferret out those companies and people who are a great match, and present yourself as a “prescreened” candidate who is an ideal choice for both the job and the company. Find them—I assure you that they will be happy to hear from you.

Acknowledgments

My deepest appreciation to all 16 authors for their hard work and dedication to making this book a reality and to Dick Bolles for being gracious enough to write the foreword. Many thanks to our gifted editors Kathryn Stafford and Melissa Jones, who worked painstakingly to bring this book to fruition. Thank you also to Jennifer Homer, who had the idea for this book, and all the career coaches who have helped us over the years and provided some of the examples contained in this book. Finally, my heartfelt thanks to my husband, Tom, and children, Andy and Claire, for supporting my efforts over the past year to make this book a reality.

Sue Kaiden
Career Development Community of Practice Manager, ATD