Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads: Finding a Path to Your Perfect Career

by Sheila J. Curran, Suzanne Greenwald

Most people would love to have 20/20 hindsight on their careers. In Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads, college career experts Sheila Curran and Suzanne Greenwald have assembled the next best thing: the collective wisdom of a diverse and inspiring cast of success stories—twenty-three liberal arts graduates who have gone on to all manner of fascinating and satisfying professions. The authors have combined lessons from the stories with their own hands-on experience with thousands of students and graduates to outline a framework for finding a perfect career. What makes Smart Moves different is that it provides essential career advice while being fun to read. Readers will be struck by the frankness of the biographies of real graduates whose careers have taken twists and turns. Todd turned his passion into a living as the founder and CEO of several small businesses and a professional cellist; Thad's path took him from English major to a dream job in the front office of a major league baseball team; and a subway ride helped Sharon speed her intended career leap from a luxury department store to journalism. What binds them together is that they have all made smart moves on the way to career success—both during their liberal arts education and in the real world.Smart Moves not only champions the value of a liberal arts education, it also embraces the complexity of careers, and the notion that many different factors contribute to success: education, experience, attitude, personal characteristics, and a good dose of luck. Smart Moves is an inspiration to all those who are seeking proven strategies to follow their passion—no matter what their age.The quarter million liberal arts students who receive diplomas each year will truly benefit from the insights of Smart Moves. But this book is equally helpful for high school students (and their guidance counselors) looking at colleges, for graduates still looking for their life's work, and for parents who want to understand career realities for their children. An innovative career guide for our stressful, fast-paced world, Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads illuminates valuable career lessons with sharp advice and an unparalleled framework for success.

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2006

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another book I read for a class this semester about looking for jobs as a liberal arts major. This book contains some good anecdotes, but what I found again and again was the same simple advice: talk to everyone around you in your field, take risks, write thank-you notes to everyone that interviews you, intern, and stay relaxed. Most of the personal stories here relate to someone finding a management or business type job in spite of studying a foreign language or english in college. If you learn to argue well, make a good case for yourself, and convince a potential employer that you’re capable of learning the skills to get a specific job, then you're qualified and will eventually reach success. Makes sense to me.

[lys · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are nice stories, but do nothing to concretely describe paths that the new liberal arts graduate should take towards a satisfying career. Nor does it do well explaining what, exactly, liberal arts grads have that students from big research universities do not. Not worth the read.

[David]

Truly an eye-opener: A college sophomore at Duke University, NC, I received a copy of 'Smart Moves' over the summer, at a time when I was extremely confused over which major I should choose, which career path I should follow etc. That was, until I received this book.
Through the stories of 23 other students, all ranging in a wide variety of careers and fields, I have realized that the next 3 years of my life will be about finding out what my passions are and where my interests for the future lie, rather than about working my way towards a preordained career goal on a predetermined path which I might regret later on in life. Several of my course selections and internship plans are now being reinforced after reading this book.
Smart moves has been a really useful eye-opener and myth buster for me, and I highly recommended to all students in liberal arts colleges, regardless of whether they were in a similar position as I was in or not. Read this book, and you would have made your first of many smart moves.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the case study approach to this topic. For a long time, I felt stuck looking for the easily mapped-out English major careers. This book helped me understand how varied my options are and what I still can/need to do to follow my passions in a logical career path. It's not that this book had the answers, but it did force me to come up with answers that made sense for me...if that makes sense.

[Danica is Booked · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful book for Liberal Arts grads.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know.... For work and stuff.