Career Comeback: Repackage Yourself to Get the Job You Want [Hardcover]

I had the priviledge to receive a copy of Lisa's book to help me in my job search. What helped me tremendously was the section she calls "botoxing your resume." I had paid a well-known job search company a significant amount of money to write my resume -- I received no call backs for interviews using that resume. But, with Lisa's advice I redesigned my resume and I started getting calls. In fact, I was told by a recruiter that I had an EXCELLENT resume. The other pieces of advice that helped were the suggestions about ATTITUDE, such as interviewing like a "rock star" and "looking the part." Being out of work is overwhelming and at times demoralizing, but Lisa's encouraging advice made a tremendous difference. I could not afford to let my emotions negatively influence a potential employer -- or my motivation to find the RIGHT job. She reminded me that if I didn't behave like a dynamic professional...why would anyone believe me? Career Comeback also helped to reinforce that I was also doing some things right -- and helped to show me many ways I could do them better. I kept Lisa's book closeby and reread sections again and again as I went through my job search -- I call her my personal job coach. I would greatly recommend this book to anyone in today's challenging job market -- and even to those who are not in the job market but want to remain viable. The job market has changed dramatically in the last few years, and Lisa provides a lot of advice so professionals can remain competitive.

Unemployment abounds for all job seekers, but those over 40 face additional age related barriers. In Career Comeback, author Lisa Johnson Mandell, a 49 year old entertainment journalist, shares how she successfully "botoxed her resume" to a new job. As Johnson Mandell confesses, "my own career comeback plan involved finding my niche, branding myself, freshening up my image from head to toe, rabid social networking, and age proofing my resume so that my over-forty status would not be readily apparent."

Career Comeback walks the reader through the necessary steps to become an "ageless" job seeker. Johnson Mandell is a talented writer who makes a serious subject fun such as including a "How Hip Are You" quiz (hint if you don't know what Huffpo and DS are you probably need a pop culture refresher course) and "12 Items You Need to Throw Away Now" (who knew that nude panty hose was passé?) . And for the short of cash job seekers, she details a "One-Day Career Comeback for $50 or Less."

Career Comeback is an informative and surprisingly fun read!

Publisher: Springboard Press (January 7, 2010), 256 pages.
Advance Review Copy Provided Courtesy of the Publisher.

If you're really out of the loop with current trends, technology and culture, and don't know too many Gen-Y or Gen-X workers, this book likely has information that will help you with your job search.

However, if you're accustomed to working with new technology and people from these generations (or even if you're an older Gex-X person yourself), you're probably not "out of the loop" enough to learn a lot from this book. For example, if you didn't know that Gen-Y wants to communicate by text even if they're across the room from you, you haven't been watching what's been going on in the world around you for the past 5 or more years. That tidbit isn't exactly news to many of us.

Also, the fashion advice in this book is decided biased toward America. Those seeking work in Canada, the UK, New Zealand or Australia would do well to ignore it and follow the norms that apply in their countries. For example, in America, hose = dowdy, but elsewhere, no hose = unfinished and not well put together. I did greatly appreciate the author bucking the Clint Kelly "the best hemline for every woman is right at the bend of the knee" advice trend on skirts, and recommending that each woman should choose the skirt length that is most flattering to them, not what is the current trend. And do workers over 40 really need to know that a casual dress code does not mean that jeans that show one's butt cleavage and muffin top are OK? I think that's more likely to be advice useful to the Gen-Y set.

One piece of advice is to invite a 20-something to peruse your closet and toss anything not current-style. If I did that, I'd end up with nothing but hiphuggers, ugly patterned maternity tops (going out of trend, but still popular after they came into style during the celebrity baby boom a few years ago) and shrugs in my closet! No thanks, I'll keep my Lafayette 148 modern-but-classy blazers and dark skirts in cuts that look good on me until I see someone at my professional level in my industry dressing like a 20-something. ;-) It's decent advice if you want to land a position on a department store sales floor (even then, you'd risk being seen as trying to look much younger than you are), but not necessarily spot-on for the professional services industry.

The book spent entirely too much time on "how to make yourself look younger" via cosmetic procedures, surgical and otherwise. While certainly this is often vital for on-camera "talent" type work where people are "cast" as much as "hired", I don't think it should be as big a part of most job search activities as the author seems to think it should be, given the amount of space dedicated to this and other appearance-related content in the book. Given that the writer has spent most or all of her career in the industry, it's the world she knows. Just don't assume that you, a reader of the book, necessarily inhabit a world with the same values.

The book also includes a couple resume "before and after" examples. I found the "after"s too busy with multiple fonts and full of graphic design for design's sake, making it harder to identify the content rather than easier. But there likely is a happy medium between the two, like using the format suggested for the "new and improved" resumes, but without the visual noise.

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