Best books for changing careers

What motivates a popular talk show host to quit his career and become an auctioneer? Why does an ambitious advertising exec abandon her successful business to become a healing coach? How does a Police Officer end up as an Adjunct Professor? 

If you are considering a career change you will want to read these books to understand what motivations people have to change careers and more importantly, how to go about it.

The appropriate book can change your perspective, inspire you, or teach you something new. Fortunately, the field of self-help business books has extensively covered how to negotiate and advocate for oneself in the workplace. 

Since the idea of abandoning all the effort put in for years and moving on to something new can be so challenging, you could feel tempted to give up and remain put. Avoid falling for that trap! 

A short course here and some training there can be worthwhile and occasionally, even modest advancements might result in significant changes in life for the better. 

So here are some of the best books on finding your career path.

You may also like: 7 Books That Transform Careers

1. The Art of Possibility

Transforming professional and personal life

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Author: Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

Publication Date: March 1, 2022

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

Amazon Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

Link: The Art of Possibility

The updated paperback edition of The Art of Possibility, which was first released in 2000, presents 12 ground-breaking techniques for infusing creativity into all areas of human effort.

The Art of Possibility is the dynamic result of an incredible partnership and offers twelve ground-breaking techniques for fostering creativity in all human pursuits. 

The book unites Rosamund Stone Zander, a psychotherapist, and Benjamin Zander, a conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, with their expertise in creating novel paradigms for both personal and professional fulfillment. 

A deep understanding of the power that the idea of potential can play in every element of life is given by the authors' harmoniously connected perspectives.

The Zanders invite us to become passionate communicators, leaders, and entertainers whose lives radiate promise into the world through inspirational stories, parables, and personal anecdotes.

The book teaches us to evaluate our lives and improve them for the better whether from a personal perspective or career-wise.
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2. What Color Is Your Parachute?

2022: Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success

Author: Richard N. Bolles with Katharine Brooks

Publication Date: December 14, 2021

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Amazon Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars

Link: What Color Is Your Parachute?

The world's most well-known and best-selling career guide is completely reworked and enlarged for 2022 with timeless wisdom, current insights, and more than ten million copies sold over fifty years.

"One of the first job-hunting books on the market. It is still arguably the best. And it is indisputably the most popular.” Rapid Company

What Color Is Your Parachute? is the most widely used job-search manual in the world. This newly revised edition includes the most recent tools, methods, and viewpoints on the job market today. It offers unexpected guidance on what strategies actually work—and don't—so you can concentrate your efforts on those.

The legendary Flower Exercise by Richard N. Bolles, a special self-inventory that enables you to construct your career—and your life—around your most important passions, transferrable abilities, qualities, and more—is at the heart of this book.

This helpful guide also offers important advice on how to create compelling applications and cover letters, network successfully, interview with assurance, and negotiate the highest potential wage.

What Color Is Your Parachute? will help you whether you're looking for your first job, were just laid off, or want to change careers. It will direct you toward a successful and fulfilling life's job.

Suggested reading: The ultimate step-by-step guide to successfully changing careers

3. Courageous Career Change

Fearlessly Earn the Executive Role You Deserve

Author: Amy L. Adler 

Publication Date: November 27, 2020

Publisher: Independently published

Amazon Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars

Link: Courageous Career Change

Transform your fears around career change. Even if your career path has taken you all the way to the C-suite, you could be concerned about your next step. You can undoubtedly get over your anxieties and start a productive executive job search with the appropriate preparation. 

Courageous Career Change lists the exact steps you need to

• Transform your job search dread into courage
• Recognize the significance of your accomplishments
• And market your compelling worth to your new hiring team

This book is for executives who are looking to advance in their careers. 

Amy L. Adler helps you conquer your job search anxieties before guiding you through the process of creating your entire career portfolio, including an executive resume, cover letter, engaging LinkedIn profile, and executive biography. 

She doesn't stop there; she goes on to list her top tips for how you can use these resources to be successful in your executive job search. 
In contrast to a normal how-to job search book, this one structures concrete actions to help you reach your ideal job search objectives by changing your perspective from stress to success. 

4. Career Handbook for Working Professionals

Author: Next Step Partners

Publication Date: November 5, 2020

Publisher: SF Press

Amazon Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

Link: Career Handbook for Working Professionals

The Career Handbook for Working Professionals, Third Edition is a thorough, self-directed resource for helping job seekers at all levels and from all industries navigate the career transition process. 

Whether you are trying to change careers or are looking for a new position in your existing sector, the handbook's more than 235 pages of content and exercises are designed to make this transition more fruitful and satisfying. 

The manual offers fresh frameworks, suggestions, and viewpoints in an effort to help you focus and gain momentum toward your objectives. 

This handbook includes the information you need to take the next step in your career, whether you are unclear about your next step, contemplating a few different career options, or are intensely focused on a particular vocation. 

The information is divided into sections that correspond to the various stages of the job search process: a Career Transition Roadmap, Introspection and Self-Assessment, Career Exploration, Job Search Execution, and a newly added section on The First 90 Days to help you prepare for a successful start at your new job. 

5. Clocking Out

A Stress-Free Guide to Career Transitions

Author: Raymond Lee

Publication Date: October 21, 2020

Publisher: Society For Human Resource Management

Amazon Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars

Link: Clocking Out

Clocking Out: A Stress-Free Guide to Career Transitions offers readers a fresh perspective on their professions and offers helpful guidance for making deliberate, meaningful changes and decisions for a smooth transition. 

The essential elements of a successful career transition—choice, mindset, agility, and trust—are brought to life in ten engrossing tales that demonstrate how they interact during a career move.

If you have ambitions to become an entrepreneur then you may also want to read this blog: 10 Essential Career Change Tips to Becoming an Entrepreneur

6. Invaluable

Master the 10 Skills You Need to Skyrocket Your Career

Author: Maya Grossman

Publication Date: September 9, 2020

Publisher: Maya Grossman

Amazon Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

Link: Invaluable

Do you find it difficult to advance your career? Do you desire a rewarding job that enables you to fully realize your potential? Do you feel as though everyone else is moving forward while you are trapped where you are?

If "Yes," then Invaluable is the book you've been looking for!

Maya Grossman, a career coach, and marketing expert reveals the ten skills that have guided her career and helped her advance from an individual contributor to a vice president while earning accolades.

She has worked for companies like Microsoft and Google, receiving ten promotions in fifteen years, and leading a successful and fulfilling career which she shares in this engrossing and helpful career development book.

This book is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step career guide filled with examples from real-world situations and practical activities so you can quickly learn and put the 10 skills you need to advance your career into practice. 

You'll learn these essential abilities rapidly with the aid of Invaluable, which will hasten your progress and enable you to see results right away.

7. Ikigai

How to Choose your Career Path and Discover Your Strengths

Author: Clement Harrison

Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Publisher: Muze Publishing

Amazon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Link: Ikigai

When you're leaving behind years or even decades of financially successful work with a clear path to the top for an uncertain future, it can be especially intimidating. Before you know it, you've devoted a significant portion of your life to a pursuit that you're actually not all that interested in.

You will learn a lot including the following from Ikigai, How to Choose Your Career Path and Discover Your Strengths:

• Finding the right careers for you based on your abilities and temperament may be enjoyable and simple.
• The essential knowledge you require about potential new employment so that you don't find yourself back in the scenario you set out to leave
• A quick exercise to better your understanding of who you are and what you value in a work
• Inspirational tales of job changes that demonstrate that anything is possible, even in your 40s and in a field that is completely unrelated to your current one
• How to increase your knowledge and skills without obtaining another degree and why you might be a stronger candidate than those with more experience
• How to investigate and gain a sense of a new job's intricacies without committing right away… plus a lot more.

Incidentally, if you are in the Northern Kentucky - Cincinnati area you may want to read our extensive career change resources guide.