Our Top 5 Summer Career Reads
Summer's here and we know you're probably ready to kick back with a page turner or an easy beach read. But along with those purely-for-fun books, we encourage you to spend a little time this summer reflecting on your career or building your skills with some of our favorite new career reads
1. If you're ready to boost your management skills with an equity lens: Management in a Changing World: How to Manage for Equity, Sustainability, and Results by Jakada Imani, Monna Wong, and Bex Ahuja. This book from the team at The Management Center gathers some of their best tools and techniques specifically geared toward managers and leaders working toward social change.
2. If you're ready to stop chasing someone else's career dream and start chasing your own: The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World by Bruce Feiler. The world of work is drastically different than it was a generation ago, and our approach to career planning needs to change just as radically. Feiler shares a structure to help you conduct a "meaning audit" in your work so you can chart the path that's right for you.
3. If you want to learn how to make the most of LinkedIn for your career success: Linked: Conquer LinkedIn. Get Your Dream Job. Own Your Future by Omar Garriott and Jeremy Schifeling. Written by two former LinkedIn employees, this book shares great insights on how to optimize your profile and use LinkedIn as a key tool in your career and job search strategy. Even as LinkedIn veterans, we learned some great new tips from this one!
4. If you want to take a design thinking approach to work, and life: Designing Your New Work Life: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness - and a New Freedom - at Work by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The authors of the original Designing Your Life book (one of our all time favorite career reads) are back with a new version focused on how we can design our way through disruption, stay ahead of it, and thrive.
5. If you want to boost your energy, creativity, and happiness: Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World by Gretchen Rubin. So much of our happiness at work (and in life) is driven by knowing ourselves and really paying attention to what's happening around us. This book explores how we can use our powers of perception across all five senses to live happier, more mindful lives - with lots of applications for our careers as well.
We'd love to hear what you think of these, and what else is on your summer reading list!
*If you decide to purchase any of our recommendations, we encourage you to support local or independent bookstores, especially those that are diverse-owned!