Careers: The Graphic Guide to Finding the Perfect Job for You

by Sarah Pawlewski

It's never too early for your teen or tween to start thinking about a career, and Careers is the perfect way to do it. Inspiring and imaginative as well as practical, Careers has charts and tables that help young people gauge interest about possible careers — it's like having a personal career advisor by your side whenever you need it!

Speech pathologist? Check. Zookeeper? Check. Jewelry designer? Check.

Nurse? Architect? Chef? Check, check, and check.

Covering more than 400 jobs, Careers is organized in an easy-to-navigate, clear structure that helps guide teen and tween readers. Check at-a-glance summary panels for chosen careers to learn about salary, working hours, training, and career paths. Cross-referenced job matrix tables offer another way to learn about all the options. Tweens and teens with no idea of what kind of job to look for can start with their favorite school subjects or hobbies and find relevant careers from there. It may not be time for your teen or tween to prepare a resume and find a job, but the advice in Careers can help young people start thinking about the future!

Reviews:

"This is the prettiest, most well-organized, useful and up to date guide to careers that I have ever seen. It is a wonder, and it is a treasure. I haven't said this about any book, in the last twenty years." — Dick Bolles, author, What Color Is Your Parachute?

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Childrens, Science, Business

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2015

Reviews

[miz · Rating 4 out of 5]

another book I checked out from the library during my idk what to do with my life crisis during fall 2021 but this one was actually kind of fun & helpful to read through 💃🏽

[Vernon Area Public Library KIDS · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent browsing introduction to the world after school. Divided into 15 categories of employment, each job has a two page spread providing very basic but intriguing information. For example, the pages identify your interests, skills required, entry qualifications, lifestyle, location, and the stone-cold realities of the job. For the Animal Care Worker there are career paths including an animal training, animal therapist, and pet groomer. If these don't interest your child there are three related careers provided.

Although these are brief introductions the material provided is concise and interesting.

Reviewed by: Kelsey Cole-Burns, Youth Services, Vernon Area Public Library

[Katie Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ecstatic that I happened to win a copy on goodreads. This book has almost every career in it with up to date info. I am a volunteer for a local teen organization and I plan on using this book as a way to help them out with their life decisions. Thank you!

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

DK Published has managed a nearly impossible feat here: they've created a book that is packed full of information but also inviting and friendly. A perfect synthesis of hard and soft presentation to create a very useful and incredible usable guidebook suitable for teens and tweens.

The book is color coded by job type and includes many disciplines: health and medicine; sports, leisure, and tourism; security and emergency services; construction; transportation; arts, crafts, design; performing arts, media, and journalism; sales, marketing, and advertising; administration and business management; finance, law, politics; information technology and computing; science and research; animals, farming, and the environment; engineering and manufacturing.

Each of the above disciplines give information on several job types. E.g., Animals, Farming, and the Environment has job descriptions for: veterinarian, animal care worker, zookeeper, farm manager, horticultural worker, landscape architect, ecologist. This allows the child to see the different aspects of working in that field and gravitate toward one that appeal most are for which they are best suited.

Each job has a career path journey graphically laid out with important aspects including personality needs, parent or role model influence, type of eduction received, internship, grades, after school jobs, future financial goals, where the tween lives, etc. It's a good reminder that no career is gifted - it takes work and dedication as well as many other factors to secure a desired job.

There is also an 'understanding yourself' checklist to help readers find careers of interest. This includes call out boxes on personal qualities, circumstances, skills, interests, subjects, motivators, etc. It's great for tweens/teens who haven't gravitated to a career goal yet.

There is also a section on taking action while in school to find out more about careers of interest. This includes setting goals, seeking advice, research, volunteering, and more. What it entails when actually going out and getting the job is also presented - again very graphically and intelligently.

Each section of careers/job disciplines are color coded for easy reference. There is a description, salary caps, industry profile, related careers, checklist call out box to see if it would be suitable for the reader, career paths, and skills guide. All beautifully laid out and easy to follow.

This could easily have been pretty to look at but not very useful. But in checking out the section on my particular career area (professional photographer), I was highly impressed with the relevance and accuracy of the job descriptions, salary expectations, and career paths. There were many places the editors could have got it very wrong if they had not looked into the careers in depth. But they got it all right - from the need for self promotion and management skills to the usefulness of internships. It was all right on the money for my husband's career as well.

This is the type of book that is so well presented, it really should be at every junior high school in America. But it is also very useful and practical as a place to begin discussions of career choices in middle and high school. It's a book presented for the reader but without pandering or oversimplification. The graphics do more than pretty up the text - they categorize, order, and clarify the information presented.

This is one book I highly recommend - one of the most intelligently presented, relevant, and accurate non fiction children's books I've read in a long time. Reviewed from an advance readers copy supplied by the publisher.

[Angela Blount · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally Reviewed for Young Adult Books Central: http://www.yabookscentral.com/yanonfi...

This guide is a laudable, wholly comprehensive resource for any young person considering the direction of their education and future employment.

"Thinking about your future career is exciting, but it can also be daunting. You need to pick which subjects to focus on in high school, make choices about college, and think about the interests and talents you have—and which you would like to pursue. It is best to approach choosing a career as a process rather than a single decision."

And with that advice, the book proceeds to offer a color-coded and simplistically illustrated springboard for that process.

The introduction uses introspective questions to ease you into the selection mindset. At first the base imagery may seem busy, but with a bit of browsing the structure proves a consistent layout on a two-page spread dedicated to each career option. Complete with concise description, entry qualifications, skills guide, salary scales for both entry-level and senior positions—along with a list of closely related professions—readers are given the most critical and to-the-point information in an approachable, easily digested manner.

The 400 jobs listed range the entire spectrum in terms of educational requirements. While this reviewer could only personally vet a handful of careers in this book, I did take the time to present it to a number of different people—all of whom agreed the section dedicated to their particular specialty was accurate and properly informative. Though it’s by no means exhaustive, this handbook could prove tremendously useful to young adults seeking to narrow down their most fitting, practical, and potentially stable job options. (The pay scale indicator was perhaps overly vague, but that should only encourage further personal research.) I sincerely wish I’d had a guide like this to flip through back when I felt the confounding pressure of settling on a major.

If there’s a teen in your life who seems lost in the vocational selection maze, this book could be just the kind of map they need.

[Fiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this book was very insightful. This is a very excellent book for those who need an idea of what direction to go in for a career. The book also explains what education and steps to take to achieve the desired job and also gives other careers related to one that may interest you. Overall, the book is well organized and easy to follow and find what you are looking for in a career.

[Kim Childress · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best career books I've seen. Easy to read and up to date with the latest tech jobs, I highly recommend to students and adults! Watch for more at ChildressInk.com, including an upcoming give-away.

[Sandralk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book off Goodreads and waiting to receive it in the mail.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Commendable guidebook for middle and high school age teens interested in researching possible career paths. Graphics on every page add to its appeal as does the concise information regarding each profession. Every job includes a description of the career, estimated salary range, a skills guide, related careers, and paths to get there. The book begins with how to narrow down interests to a potential field of study and ends with a glossary.
Good resource to have on hand in both classroom and school libraries. This is one students should be able to use for independent research.

[W-TCPL Teen Central · Rating 5 out of 5]

Careers is a very educational book on different jobs that a young man or lady might be interested in. It gives you loads of informational facts and ideas. It has an At A Glance Key, which I like to call an average, standard checklist. This book is great for people who are still on the path of looking for a job. It might even make its reader change its mind on what they have always wanted to do. Careers is definitely a good read for young adults.

~Marcus F.

[Brenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is honestly nothing wrong with this book. Its colorful and descriptive, uses easy to comprehend language and is full of just about every career you could imagine. It's useful for researching one specific career but its also kinda fun to just browse through (esp. as an artist type- you get to see just how much more business men make than you!- yippee!)
Like I said before this is the end-all be-all perfect career guide and it is holy in my opinion.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An updated encyclopedia of jobs that's easy to study. Gives the ups and downs to each job as well as related career options. As other reviewers pointed out, there are no salaries listed. Which is, of course, probably the main criteria for a job search. However, the book might be aiming for job satisfaction, which does not necessarily correlate with good pay.

[Kme_17 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recived this as a first read. This was a great informative book. It has a lot of different jobs that are not in the everyday thinking. I really like that they have varied information for each job. Great for high school seniors looking to see what they want to do, or even those older that want other options.

[Ashley]

Pawlewski, S. (2015). Careers: The graphic guide to finding the perfect job for you.
Citation by: Ashley Burnette
ISBN: 9781465429735
Type of Reference: Handbook
Call Number: Ref 331.702 Care
Content/Scope: This handbook contains a job description, information on related careers and salaries, and a skills guide.
Accuracy/Authority/Bias: This handbook is recognized and reviewed as one of the best career guides on the market for middle/high school age students.

Arrangement/Presentation: This handbook has easy-to read features. It contains graphics, bright colors, and an index that allows for easy cross referencing.

Relation to other works: This book could be used in addition to other college reference materials found within the library. It could be very helpful for students in completing their required ILP features in middle school.

Accessibility/Diversity: This handbook offers useful features for all students but could be especially helpful to students who lack access to internet at home such as minority students.

Cost: $19.99
Professional Review: A typical library’s collection of career books can quickly become dated or out of touch. Enter this manual. With simple graphics, bright colors, and a vast compendium of information, this guide will engage teens who are wondering, “What now?” Each page contains a job description, information on related careers and salaries, and a skills guide. The book explains precisely how to go from dipping a toe into the waters of a particular job to the highest positions within the field. The index is well organized, and the entries are nicely cross-referenced. The material can be dry or a bit vague at times, especially for readers who would be interested in discovering real-life applications. However, it should be useful for students, and the wide scope of knowledge will keep it current for longer than many comparable titles. VERDICT This strong addition will be fun for browsers as well as for those selecting college majors and making job decisions.–Erinn Black Salge, Saint Peter’s Prep, Jersey City, NJ

Reference: Salge, E.B.,(2016). Guides to Nutrition, Math, and Careers | Reference Reviews. Retrieved November 19, 2016, from http://www.slj.com/2015/06/reviews/re...

[Laurie B · Rating 4 out of 5]

DK always does a nice job and this is one of the most attractive career books I've seen, which is why I purchased it for my library. The colorful, infographic style of the book feels fresh and should appeal to the internet generation. There's a nice variety of careers presented and they're neatly organized. There's also some helpful "prep" advice in the front that briefly covers everything from figuring out what you like to do to landing an interview.

One of the things I like most about this book is that it uses a star rating system for potential salaries, rather than specific dollar amounts, which should keep it from getting dated too quickly. Overall, I think this book is a great place to start any career research.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely well-organized walk through of major career options and minor options alongside the larger careers themselves that breaks down skills and pathways to get to that place after an introduction of how to move toward being in a place to make some of these important decisions mainly by knowing what your strengths and interests are and the work that would need to go into getting there.

Happy to have this in our HS collection and already have a few teachers to show this to students with.

[kiran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, although I'd have preferred more information.

[Gabrielle Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really helpful guide in finding a job

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Raimonda Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought it for my grandson but read some of it before I gave it to him. Interesting and informative

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm impressed my two careers were mentioned

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely informative guide for anyone looking at information on multitudes of different careers. I definitely wished something like this was available when I was a teenager taking career classes in high school and not having any idea on what I wanted to do.

In the introduction, it asks you to think about things like: What interests do you have, the subjects that you are good at, what are your personal qualities, etc. It then lists just about every career that you can think of. Obviously not every single career option is mentioned. But it should help anyone who knows what field they want to go into. The careers are color-coded for easier access. For example, any career in Health and Medicine is in the Pink section of the book. For each career, the pages list things like: Job description, Expected Salary, Necessary Skills, Related Careers.

One thing that I wish the book had was maybe some website links to explore careers further online or even links to Career Path quizzes, if those still exist. But overall, I think this is a great book for pre-teens, teens, and even adults who are looking for information on careers they might want.

[Donna Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using a graphic flowchart design, Careers: The Graphic Guide to Finding the Perfect Job for You presents a simple overview of 130-plus different careers. Each job is presented on two pages which includes a simple job description, salary, industry profile, and a career path flow chart. Also included is a skills guide, related careers, and a helpful "at a glance" section that relates the job by interests, entry qualifications, lifestyle, locations, and realities of the job. This is a helpful resource for the high school student who is exploring possibilities for a number of job types. The quick and easy graphics make it possible to explore many careers in a short amount of time for a basic overview of each job.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it is clearly geared towards high schoolers, it is still extremely helpful for people in college and university. Even people still trying to figure out what they want to be will find it helpful.

I love how it gives you a breakdown of everything you would want to know about the career, such as: salary, skills required, whether you need a degree and what a typical career path would look like. There was so many careers included in this book, even ones less know, such as librarians and farm managers.

Great book for careers and I would highly recommend this to anyone who isn't sure about their future.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-3.5 stars

I will quickly say I did not read ALL of the careers listed in this book (as there are a wide variety, and many of which I already am knowledgeable about). I got this book really to try and narrow down what career I want and I think this helped me open up my mind a little more. Even though I didn't read through all of them, some of these careers were otherwise foreign to me, and so it was interesting learning about them. I really like the set up of this book as it's organized and easy to locate careers but also visually attractive.

[Tanirika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book very interesting and creative. The graphic, text, and cover were all very appealing, and any kid or teenager would definitely pick up to read. The only part that I didn't like was that the number of stars to show the salaries, weren't too accurate. Overall the book was a great read.

[Deya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was quite good. There's a lot of info summarized about each career. If you don't quite know what career to go to this book could help. It tells what skills, education, and what interests go with a certain career.

[Anna Juline · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
I loved looking through this!

[Abraham Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

it's a ok book about careers & related material.

[Julie Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another gorgeous infographic guide. I cannot get enough of these.