50 Ways to Get a Job Lib/E: An Unconventional Guide to Finding Work on Your Terms

by Dev Aujla (Reader)

Based on the popular website of the same name, a guide to finding the right job while maintaining your sanity in the processIn today's endlessly fluctuating job market, it's becoming more and more difficult to get hired. 50 Ways to Get a Job aims to fix that. Job search expert Dev Aujla created 50WaysToGetAJob.com as a way to offer practical, tangible steps to finding (and getting) the right job for you. Within only a few months, over 400,000 people used the site, and Aujla was able to gather data from thousands of individual job searches. In this cleverly constructed guide, Aujla presents the tried-and-tested steps to not only getting hired, but also the secrets to staying motivated and energized throughout the job-hunting process. Filled with practical quick-step exercises, this book is designed so you can pick your path through the process, starting where it feels the most natural: Feeling stuck? Start by sending a "looking for a job" email to five close friends. Not sure what sort of job you want? Write some creative nonfiction about yourself.Feeling overwhelmed? Learn the benefits of forty-five minutes of unplugged bliss. Going to an interview? Practice with a conversation guide.Whether you've just decided to start the hunt or you're gearing up for a big interview, 50 Ways to Get a Job will keep you poised, on-track, and motivated right up to landing your dream career

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Self Help

Audio CD

Published April 3, 2018

Reviews

[Adeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read. Brilliant

[Liz Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe the title just should've been An Unconventional Guide to Finding Work on Your Terms. On its own, 50 Ways to Get a Job is wildly misleading in some respects, because sitting in silence for 45 minutes is not, under any circumstances, straightforward job-hunting advice. It is, however, a great exercise in introspection, as are lots of the other tasks in this book. The point is to be non-linear. As such, you can start the book with any exercise that strikes your fancy in the table of contents then, in the style of a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, trek off to another related one recommended at the end of it.

The tasks range from practical ("Make a List of Your Skills," "Make a Company List," Organize Your Job Search in a Spreadsheet") to more esoteric approaches ("Write Fiction about Yourself," "Make Structural Changes to Your Living Space," and the innocuous-seeming "Change Your Decision-Making Method" that features holding a dialog with your body parts to see how they feel about your life choices).

I listened to the book straight through without doing any exercises, and now plan to dig into the contents to pick and choose what feels right for where I am in my career. I'd recommend doing this for anyone interested in this book, just to get a lay of the land before leaping into the tasks. Doing the exercises sequentially may not be the best approach.

[Olwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some innovative approaches in this book.

[Rajiv Moté · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a choose-your-own-adventure style book on job hunting, though that broke down for me quickly quickly out of impatience and the clumsiness of flipping back and forth on an eReader. This book's structure is a metaphor, in a way. One of its goals is to ease the reader into a non-linear career path, and is targeted at people who have followed a linear path and have reached what feels like a dead end. Judging from how quickly I switched to reading this book linearly, I didn't learn the lesson.

The book is a set of exercises -- various forms of introspection, guided ways of acquiring information or making contacts, a few tools and templates. The book encourages you to actually do the exercises, even if they're uncomfortable. And I found value in a few of them before I got impatient.

The text in the chapter/exercises is a bit thin. The few examples the author uses didn't resonate with me. I don't expect a book to hold my hand and lead me to the magical world of professional Purpose, but I'd hoped for a little more theoretical backing to the exercises, some more inspiring anecdotes.

[Frieda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author gives some good insight when it comes to changing your overall mindset in how you approach work, the job search and your life overall. Although the material focuses on individuals who have had "nonlinear" careers, this book is also suitable for individuals undergoing a career change or who are crafting a new life path for themselves.

A few takeaways:
1. The act of finding a job should feel the same as the job itself - an engaging experience that has purpose and direction. Who says that looking for a job should be a drag?

2. Stress is the resisting of reality of what is happening. The world is what it is, whether we acknowledge it or not. The act of resisting is what causes anxiety.

3. Update your LinkedIn profile as your future self. Goal is to find a version of you that is one step forward from where you are today.

4. Go to a job board and then leave. Jobs come from meeting with people, learning new things and being engaged and in pursuit of ideas that excite you.

5. People get hired when the story of their life connects with other people's and matches the skills of the job they are looking for.

[Daniel Spaulding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this book up when I was job hunting after hearing an interview with the author on NPR.

Great book from an author with a background in recruiting. This books gives really good advice on deciding a career path and pursuing it. The book address how everyone's path is different and is not meant to be read linearly. Instead, once you've finished one step you are provided options for your next step - somewhat like the old Choose You Own Adventure books.

However, this is not something I'd recommend for a young person someone fresh out of school. If you do not have a career in mind, the steps this book recommends to get there are inapplicable.

Overall, great book. It helped when I was changing careers and I've recommended it to friends since.

[Cecilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A non linear book on non linear career paths. I read the book straight through instead of skipping around because that was annoying. The exercises were generally fine. This has some application for people who just want a job that they don’t hate. While it talks about non linear career paths, it seems like this book is more for people who know what they want to do, and that job or career path is decidedly not “working class.”

[Kathyanngallagher · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not practical, time consuming, and NO, I cannot go off for 3 days at a time to find myself when I already know who/where I am. Emphasizing Buddhism & meditation throughout this book isn't what I was searching for.

[Marcela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of an overall explore yourself rather than specifically focused on job search. Claims that only 3% of jobs are found of job boards which I’m skeptical about.

[Katy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book's introduction about the author and how he managed to drum up a non-linear career (code for not working at the same time from the time you get out of college until retirement) with a portfolio and gigs all over the map made me think the guide would be full of unique ideas in contrast to the typical image of job searching - endlessly applying on indeed and linkedin. A lot of the advice puts into perspective different ways of finding yourself and figuring out what you want, a choose your own adventure of chapters you can jump to when you feel like doing one step or another. There's a laid-back energy on how to explore the book and go through the different steps, but it puts perspective how emotionally and mentally strong you have to be to find not just a job to pay the bills, but a career you can get something out of as much as you put in. If you want something that will satisfy your purpose to your core, you have to know your core inside and out in order to make headway in the real world and not just settle for something. However, 75% of the chapters start with a tidbit on why it's important to know yourself and have a sense of inner peace while job searching, and culminates in an exercise to make a list of people, skills, past jobs, and experiences; research said chosen people, skills, past jobs, and experiences; then put yourself out there, or make a even more concise list consisting of A list of people, skills, past jobs, and experiences; to B) list of people, skills, past jobs, and experiences; then research and put yourself out there. By the end of the book, the overall experiment feels like motivating readers to get out of their comfort zone, on the off chance doing one thing different might land them the job they want. It wants to push for a different way of job searching rather than endlessly applying to linked in or indeed but ends up feeling like that exact same method when most of the exercises are about just emailing and writing to potential prospects and hope to get your foot in the door.

[PaulC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I realize this book wasn't intended as a job search "manual" but I felt it wondered too much. Offers a sort of philosophical approach to job hunting / finding a career which is ok but the problem I have with this and many other books is memory. You read a self help book and forget most of what you have read a month later. Suggestion like go camping to break out of your normal routine are a good idea but often job hunters are already struggling with keeping themselves in the hear and now and focused on something that will produce actual results. Spending time alone - something that many job seekers are already doing to much of. Finally, taking way to long to make basic points. For example, look at your bank account and figure out out how long you can go before returning to work. Not a bad idea but should take an entire chapter and also that chapter like most of the chapters wanders all over the place and off topic before coming back to the point it is supposed to be making.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

The suggestions in here are good ones, akin to Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, but used for the purpose of finding a job.

If I am looking for a job I will definitely review this book again, but the general thrust of the book seems to be that finding a job has a lot to do with maintaining relationships as well as understanding yourself. That is an ongoing project for us all.

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

According to this book, one of the ways to get a job is to take a vacation so you can break your mental patterns, or so you can do research for your future job. Take a year if you need to. This assumes that you have the time, money, and other resources to do this. In other words, this book is for people who already have a good job but don't like it very much and wish they were doing something else, and they already know what that something else is. Which sounds like they're well on their way to getting that job so why would they need this book?

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The exercises were helpful to frame and structure one's mindset of how to think about self-exploration. I'm not sure how some of the ideas or exercise are "unconventional". This book can be summed up as "soul search and communicate your skills", but it gives nice, easy instructions on how to start soul searching.

The most unconventional one was about thinking about the physical landscape around you. Wheeeeetttt??

The website pretty much covers the key posts from the book.

[Gemini · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a different type of book that actually has exercises in it for you to do, to help you along. There are things in here that are pretty unconventional but also interesting & really makes you think about how you go about your job search. Whether or not you take the author's advice is really up to you. This is a good reference book as you may not do all the suggested exercises but it's good to ponder the various options to move you forward. So get outside your comfort zone while job hunting.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is worth flipping through and finding some exercises that interest you. Many of the activities encourage mindfulness, learning, and self-exploration. However, when it comes to advice about applying and interviewing for jobs there are other job search books out there with more practical advice.

[Walter Herrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book doesn’t list 50 ways to get a job, but rather 50 exercises that will help the reader analyze themselves. A good book to finding a job. But not great. As some of the exercises don’t really involve actively looking for employment. (Ie. sitting quietly for 45 minutes.)

Worth a read yes and no. It really depends on your perspective.

[Isaac Crow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading this, a lot of good nuggets to be gleamed. Nothing is "easy" when it comes to looking for a new job/choosing a career, but this book offers a lot of different ways to approach thinking about it, which I found very helpful as I tend to hit an emotional dead wall after two days of job searching. Hoping to apply what I've read and see what I come up with.

[Kurt Zisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting guide with many tips and tricks. Intends for the reader to do all of the exercises but sometimes they seem to be more trouble then they are worth. Each individual reader will take something different from this book as there seems to be something for everybody within.

[Miss Doruntine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was awesome!!!!! I’d highly recommend it to anyone who has doubts about their path, doesn’t know how to tell their story or needs some help! It was more self-discovery than it was job related. Highly recommend it!!!!!!

[Meaghan Aylward · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the book!

this is how you ease your anxiety and learn your worth. I promise you this book will fill you with warmth, pride, and drive.

[Meghan Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for students or people making a career change.

[Georgia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not find most of it helpful.

[Norah Leighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

was ok but what i really need is a 50 ways to get a library job in a pandemic. so didn't work so well for me.

[Wojciech · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some useful information to develop soft skills and life anecdotes but also has plenty of fluff. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is serious about moving their career forward.

[Cara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm clearly not the target audience for this but I can see it being useful to people who ARE in that target audience

[Birsilah Bakar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not the target audience.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best that career development books can generally get.

[Saleha · Rating 4 out of 5]

listened to the audio book while driving. i was just curious about some alternate career options and this had a lot of interesting info about choosing a career path that works for you.

[QuakerMaid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate self-help books.
I've never read a self-help that actually helped.
There's nothing written in self-help that one doesn't already know. And in self-help, to fill character alotment, the writer will repeat her/hisself ad nauseum!
This one seems to be better suited for those wanting to learn how to write than how to find a job. And when I type 'learn how to write', I mean 'learn to be more creative-thinking'.
So far, I got nothing out of this as to how to find a job.
But really, let's admit: People write self-help books ONLY to make an income.
☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻
OK, so I finished now. Sept. 21, 2021. THis took me about a solid month to finish ~working off&on with other books I was reading for the Summer Reading Program.

I recently went to a Bullet Journeling class. The next time I read this book after, I realized this book would be a great book for that purpose. It would give someone who does such type of journeling a great way to fill their journal.
Things like: make a list of skills, what skills would you like to learn, make a company list, practice different ways of introducing yourself, describe your dream job (this could simply be lists of dream jobs)
Also, this would be great for those wanting to learn to write:
interview someone, write fiction about yourself, creat a company brief, write your job description

But this is a terrible book to utilize for one looking for a job. Some of the suggestions here are outright self-defeating (go on a vacation buffer, start working for a company before you get hired, 'research' ~a.k.a. cyberstalk~ the person you'll be interviewing for/with)

I truly believe this book's got a place in the Dewey Decimal System, just not in the 'career corner'.