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Ryan Paugh graduated from Penn State in 2006 with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business. After working in corporate communications, freelance writing and reporting, he co-founded 
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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
“What good is a book if you can’t make time to read it?” It’s the query I used to ask myself when walking into my college dorm and seeing the pile of career advice books glazed with dust. “C’est la vie,” I thought. “At least they make me seem smarter.”
If you’re like me, you don’t have the time or patience to read everything cover-to-cover. You hover over the bold text hoping to get the gist. Then it’s back to the grind.
If this screams YOU, then at last, there’s a career advice book that’s right up your alley – Getting from College to Career by Lindsey Pollak.
“You can read every page or skip the tips that don’t feel applicable to your situation,” says Pollak. “This book does not contain a step-by-step, all inclusive guide to getting a job. Rather, it offers the very best tips I’ve gathered on a wide variety of topics to help you stand out from the crowd.”
One of the biggest qualms I hear from peers seeking career advice is the corporate-centric tone of most publications. If you don’t want to be a cubicle jockey, what are they even good for?
College to Career skips the corporate jargon and gets straight to the point. Sick of hearing about nothing but business scenarios? This book is the universal roadmap to being a solid individual, regardless of your ambitions.
To prove my point, I had my friend Laura read the book and see if the advice suited her passion, nursing. She didn’t want to give it back.
“It emphasizes little things that affect us all,” Laura said. “It doesn’t matter what career you’re in.”
One of the most valuable features of College to Career is the “Make this work for you” checklists. After making key recommendations, Pollak encourages her readers to apply it to their own lives giving a step-by-step plan on how to achieve. There’s even a check-box you can pencil in after you’re finished. I’m a sucker for checking things off.
All-and-all, this is the book I wish I had transitioning into adulthood (interestingly enough, Amazon.com reviewers say the exact same thing). But I guess it’s not too late. If you’re already part of the real world (like me), you can still take advantage of Pollak’s millennial-friendly guide to fitting in with the rest of the working world.
Gaining respect in an atmosphere of Gen-Y scrutiny is no easy task. Especially without adjusting yourself to some of the working world’s in-place standards. Luckily, Pollak’s youth-oriented charisma in College to Career makes the transition a lot easier than it seems.
A friend sent me a copy of this book a few weeks after was released. It is by far the best book out there for not only college students, but those in high school, those already working, or those who are looking for work or even just a direction to get started. It reads sort of like a blog with all of the short chapters organized into categories, and you can easily jump around between chapters or read it cover to cover multiple times. She touches on so many of the soft skills that will help build you up as a person trying to adjust to life in the working place. She does this while maintaining a realistic perspective and tone that should appeal to people in all stages of their careers and lives as it is not just the newcomers that lack professionalism and courtesy.
It’s a definite buy and a keeper. Good review, Ryan.
Thanks so much for the great review, Ryan! And also to Jared for your nice comment.
For any Employee Evolution readers interested in my book, I’d also like to invite you to submit career questions to me at ask@lindseypollak.com for the Career Q&A section on my blog.
Thanks again,
Lindsey Pollak
lindseypollak.blogspot.com
This is a great book! I devoured it and made a few notes for myself before passing it onto my little brother, a junior in college. There are several points that I never thought of when I was in college but now wish I had.
Great review Ryan! I am definately putting this on my list of must-reads. It sounds like the type of forward-thinking career advice book that I’ve been looking for.
Ben:
Lindsey is definitely a forward-thinker. Check out her online resources too. You can find a link to her blog in her comment above.