Rating: Summary: better ways to spend money Review: After reading this book people are better equipped for the career search, and they feel better about doing it. This book not only provides ideas and resources for the career hunter, it goes a step further and explains the whys behind the challenges ahead. The listing of careers suitable for artistic types is interesting and helpful. This book fills a needed gap and would be excellent reading for high school students and their parents, or any other person seeking meaningful employment.
Rating: Summary: the right book for some of us Review: Before you buy this book, I think you should read all the reviews posted here. There is a wide range of opinion (Eikleberry would use the word divergent), and there is merit in all. If you are motivated to earn big money, you won't find this book helpful. It doesn't have nuts and bolts - could have used some hints on resumes and interview strategies for the creative folks who have changed jobs more frequently than others. It seems a little restrictive in its use of creativity - I believe we all are creative, only it looks different depending upon personalities and occupations. This disclaimer notwithstanding, it's a great book. I'm a career counselor, with many clients who are or would be in the arts. I'm recommending this book to them. If you majored in music, theater, art, or even the liberal arts, you will be reassured by this book. If you wish you had majored in these things, it's not too late to get back to your first career aspirations in some employable form. I particularly like the section on the interim job (which may be for a few months or for a lifetime). This can be reassuring to read, so the artistic soul can stop the self-flagellation because he/she "sold out" and took a job. For the small cost of this book, you can become re-inspired and energized in your career quest.
Rating: Summary: the right book for some of us Review: Before you buy this book, I think you should read all the reviews posted here. There is a wide range of opinion (Eikleberry would use the word divergent), and there is merit in all. If you are motivated to earn big money, you won't find this book helpful. It doesn't have nuts and bolts - could have used some hints on resumes and interview strategies for the creative folks who have changed jobs more frequently than others. It seems a little restrictive in its use of creativity - I believe we all are creative, only it looks different depending upon personalities and occupations. This disclaimer notwithstanding, it's a great book. I'm a career counselor, with many clients who are or would be in the arts. I'm recommending this book to them. If you majored in music, theater, art, or even the liberal arts, you will be reassured by this book. If you wish you had majored in these things, it's not too late to get back to your first career aspirations in some employable form. I particularly like the section on the interim job (which may be for a few months or for a lifetime). This can be reassuring to read, so the artistic soul can stop the self-flagellation because he/she "sold out" and took a job. For the small cost of this book, you can become re-inspired and energized in your career quest.
Rating: Summary: creative advice and creative realization Review: book that exposes what you thought of yourself and that its ok not to be like everyone else in your approach to life etc a welcome for people who are not your traditional suit and tie persons
Rating: Summary: Eikleberry has shown me I am not alone! Review: I bought this book for a friend, but I had no idea I needed it this much myself. Eikleberry's book lays out a psychological profile of creative and unconventional people and shows us there are many more like ourselves out there. She maps out the skills and interests of creative people and shows you how they point to different career paths. There are even self-tests along the way to help you assess your skills-and the results may surprise you.This book shows you that just because you're an "artistic" person doesn't mean you have to choose between being a starving artist or having a "normal" job. She explores the wide variety of jobs available for creative people, but is also realistic in stating that these jobs are not as plentiful as more conventional jobs. If you're frustrated, and generally feel lost in your career choices, this book can give you hope and help point you in the right direction. She doesn't give you the answers, but she helps you know how to look for the answers within yourself. I highly recommend this book to college students and twenty-somethings in particular. But this book is appropriate for any creative and unconventional person who needs a new direction.
Rating: Summary: Insight into and Understanding of the Creative Job World Review: I highly recommend this book to any person who has even a sliver of creativity and feels that there must be something else out there besides the typical 9 to 5 drugery. Good news, there is! Carol Eikleberry's book is not a "Follow these 5 steps to obtain your perfect job" guidebook. What is does offer, however, is an overwhelming amount of promising insight, advice, and support for creative people uncertain of their career future. From an analysis of the creative personality in the workplace to real life examples of those who have made it, this book delivers hope to the weary and gives us the tools to begin on our career journey. It is The Career "Bible" for unconventional people!
Rating: Summary: Like all good advice its up to you to apply it! Review: I like this book because I have no problem slotting myself as a particular personality type. Sure, there are many possible selfs that we could be, but lets face it, in todays competitive job market it pays to identify strengths, and an honest self analysis will prevent much frustration. Rather than try to reinvent yourself, why not identify your likes and aptitudes. I dont think the Holland codes and the Myer Briggs tests are the last word on personality theory, but after many years of hardship trying to follow the "sensible" path, I can only say its great that this kind of book is available these days. A very reasonably priced book. Not the only good career guide available ( there's plenty of free stuff on the web ), but the advice in this book is so resonant.
Rating: Summary: A Great Idea Poorly Executed Review: I thought this book would be so helpful to me, an artist looking for a tolerable day job while I continue to pursue my career. Unfortunately, it was quite a disappointment. I took the quiz and it identified me as a type which I honestly don't agree with. Most of the recommended jobs were neither interesting nor creative. The rest were impossibly out of reach, such as symphony conductor or State Director of Natural Resources (I mean come on - there are only 50 in the nation and they are political appointees). The last straw was when it recommended my current position - a job in which I am slowly dying from lack of stimulation.
Rating: Summary: This book will help people with learning disabilities Review: I took a different tack than most people who reviewed this book already; I reviewed the book for people with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and dyslexia who are often creative and unconventional. This is what I wrote in my annotated bibliography of Learning A Living; A Guide to Planning Your Career and Finding a Job for People with Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia; This book tells how artists and creative people can find fulfilling employment. Both jobs that are intrinsically creative and jobs that can support an art career are covered. The author has intuitively written a book that is extremely helpful to many of us with ADD and LD. As a matter of fact, in many of her anecdotes describing herself, she sounds like someone with ADD and LD. She proposes many exercises which can help you find a great job and career. She ends with a list of jobs that work for creative people.
Rating: Summary: Wonderful book for conventional people with small ambitions Review: If the thought of spending the rest of your life working for somebody else doesn't horrify you, then this is the book you need to improve the way you're making your living. It can give you some amazing insight to who you are and what you need, tens of job ideas and general encouragement for finding your own way in the life. If you aim higher than simply finding a more attractive job, forget the book. It's not for you. Now, let me tell you about the book itself. Carol Eikleberry obviously worked hard on it. She has given her best to make the book as appealing and interesting as possible. However, every time I open and read it, I just can't help the feeling that the career advisor Eikleberry is much, much better than the writer Eikleberry. If you have a chance to talk to her in person, I advise you to do it. Besides of the obvious point that the author pays very little attention to the possibility of being one's own boss, she also concentrates too much on her own type of unconventionality. I fell in a pretty different category in her personality test and there's hardly any advice for my type in the book. That's what I meant by saying that the book is for conventional people with small ambitions. Now, I can well understand that Carol Eikleberry had the largest possible audience in mind while writing the book. Surely, she knows from her solid professional experience which types are more frequent. Probably I'm just too different from an average unhappy American. I really can't blame her. But I can return the book - in fact, I did, for it was useless for me. The two good things in this book are a very interesting personality test - a kind you probably haven't seen before, and tens of job ideas, some of which might be pretty surprising for you. Otherwise, it's just plain mediocre. It well deserves three stars.
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