The Authentic Career: Following the Path of Self-Discovery to Professional Fulfillment

by Maggie Craddock

Most people suffer from some sort of job dissatisfaction. But figuring out whether they should change or their jobs should change isn’t easy. From a leading executive coach comes The Authentic Career, perhaps the first book to provide readers with a formal sequence that combines professional, psychological, and spiritual resources to achieve career success and fulfillment. The four-stage process — clearly outlined and filled with exercises, examples, and inspirational quotes — has proven successful for the author’s clients of all levels, from Fortune 500 CEOs to professional women returning to the workforce after having children. Craddock combines her business background as a Lipper Award–winning fund manager with her training as a social worker and years of experience as an executive coach to outline a therapeutic process that clearly separates what we want and need in order to find fulfillment from the external demands and expectations that family, society, and the workplace impose on us. Identifying our authentic career goals and strategies requires that we carefully examine our inner lives, Craddock believes, separating them from the daily demands and frustrations of our work lives.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 21, 2004

About the author

Maggie Craddock is an executive coach with over 20 years of experience working with clients at all levels of the professional spectrum. Best known for her work with Fortune 500 CEOs and senior management teams, Maggie has coached people at all levels of the professional spectrum. She has been featured on CNBC, ABC News, National Public Radio and quoted in national publications including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the and the Chicago Tribune.

Maggie is the author of Power Genes: Understanding Your Power Persona and How to Wield It at Work (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011) and The Authentic Career: Following the Path of Self-Discovery to Professional Fulfillment (New World Library, 2004).

She has also written a wide range of nationally syndicated articles on relational agility in the workplace and her methodology has been discussed in publications ranging from the Harvard Business Review to Oprah Magazine.

Maggie has been featured at Deutsche Bank’s annual Women on Wall Street conference, she has served on the faculty of The Advanced Management Program at Wharton University and she is a popular keynote speaker at leadership conferences for both corporate clients and industry networking associations.

Before founding her executive coaching firm in 1998, Maggie worked on both on the buy side and the sell side in the financial services industry. As a lead portfolio manager working for Scudder, Stevens and Clark, Maggie received two Lipper Awards for top national fund performance: Best Short Term Multi-Market Income Fund, ranked #1 by Lipper in a universe of 77 funds, and Best World Income Fund over $1 billion in size, ranked #1 by Lipper in a universe of 7 funds.

She also served as a National Director of Consultant Relations for Sanford C. Bernstein and represented the firm at board presentations for top pension fund clients across the country.

Maggie received an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics as well as an MSW from New York University. Maggie received her BA in Economics from Smith College, and she is an Ackerman certified family therapist.

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library, hoping to gain a bit more insight for my personal career search. It was an enlightening experience - mainly because I was finally ready to read this information and do something about it. Ms. Craddock has you go through a step by step process to delve into the reasonings behind how you view yourself, your job, and where you're capable of going. How did your grandparent's concepts of roles shape who you are today? What types of things do you think you SHOULD be doing? Are they really necessary?

Peppered throughout with relevant and illuminating quotes, I found this to be a quick read. The personal exercises were well organized and required me to really think about my answers. It also opened a dialogue with my parents to get their personal views about the questions it was asking, rather than just have my opinions of those views.

I have to say this isn't for everyone and it's not going to give you the specific answer of what you should do with your life. However, it does provide you with a good background and supporting materials to really get you thinking about what you want to pursue, and why.

[Adra · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a section in Ms. Craddoock's book that hits home with me. I could not understand for the life in me why co-workers sometimes took a dislike for others on the job for no apparent reason. According to this book, it turns out that individuals bring a lot of baggage from their childhood to work. One person in this book admitted to not liking their co-worker because they resembled a relative who had mistreated them in the past. Is that wild or what? Comment | Permalink


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[Linda Ashman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good workbook-style book about vocation/career. I liked her thoughtful, spiritual (but not religious) approach.