Trajectory: 7 Career Strategies to Take You from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

by David L. Van Rooy

When the economy's difficult and jobs aren't secure, people tend to focus on the short term...on survival. But what they don't grasp is how their current position could be a springboard to their next position--or even the one after that. Caught between a fear of failure and a desire for instant success, they limit the risks they take, unwittingly limiting their opportunities. As much as they want to get ahead, they simply can't see how to get there.

Trajectory is the answer. Each and every person has their own "trajectory" or career path--and this timely and refreshingly practical new book presents seven strategies designed to help anyone create and manage theirs. Readers will discover how to:

● Make the most of feedback
● Avoid stagnation and break through plateaus
● Think big, act small, and move quick
● Achieve growth through failure
● Move to the front of the pack through persistence
● Continuously develop both "soft" and "hard" professional skills
● And much more

Career success doesn't happen overnight. From building relationships with mentors, to positioning (and repositioning) yourself for promotion--this essential guide provides the tools you need for a lifetime of advancement.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

DAVID L. VAN ROOY, Ph.D., is Senior Director, International Human Resources Strategy and Operations at Walmart. In his prior role with the company he was responsible for the world’s largest employee engagement and performance management programs. He is passionate about helping others grow their careers and for more than a decade has been responsible for the development of leading talent-management programs for some of the world’s best companies, including Burger King and Marriott International.

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to Trajectory and found the book felt very familiar. To the good, the advice I had heard before and I already believed it to be true. To the not-so-good, because of the familiar advice and the examples the author used, this felt like a decades-old career self-help book. I listened to the audiobook, so I was not always “in the moment” as the book played, but early on I noticed examples and stories that I would consider typical “guy” themes – professional men’s sports analogies, examples of the military, and the like. I tried to notice the topics of examples and analogies point forward, and the ones I did recall were about a specific man's career. I certainly could have missed a number of other examples while I was driving, but from what I recall I was left with a belief that the book catered to men and men’s careers. By itself this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and I see women reviewers on Goodreads and Amazon didn’t call this out. But this is what made the book feel like something out of the 70s or 80s to me. For career advice, certainly not bad, and I thought well organized and sized right for the topics and advice given. But not very unique.

[Shay Hafez · Rating 3 out of 5]

يقدم الكتاب سبعة مفاهيم أساسية في رحلة المسيرة المهنية لكل فرد. الأفكار مفيدة ومختصرة، وهي تستند إلى تغيير أسلوب التفكير أكثر من التغييرات المادية.

[meghabhav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical advice. I liked that there were examples provided to teach the reader a lesson and the exercises were useful tools to help me goal-set, assess myself and plan. I took many notes and look forward to reflecting on my own lessons learned from reading this book.

[Shanon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book with practical advice and quick read. Repetitive in places but the repetition wasn’t overly annoying and usually lent to expanding a concept.

[Shane Hammons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good reminders but nothing mind blowing for me personally. The audio book narration was somewhat robotic so that took away from the impact (for me).

[Sabrina Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The excises after each chapter are instrumental.

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Van Rooy shares a smart and readable compilation of his best career advice. He uses a lot of the same stories one encounters in this genre, .e.g. the marshmallow experiment. Normally I'm less impressed with books that do this, because I'm looking for something new. But I was impressed here because Van Rooy does it so well. The trajectory concept is a different framework - a very practical one. One specific gem of a concept I found useful was "Think Big, Act Small, Move Quick."

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of good information and well written. Especially helpful to me, lesson 3 (Think Big, act small, move quick) and lesson 5 (avoiding stagnation). I found a lot of food for thought!

[Marcela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read, had lots of exercise to take action to get ahead.