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| Category: How To | |
| About the Book | |
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Are
you looking for a new career? Are you just out of high school, the
military, college --- or are you about to be laid off? Are you bored
with your job and looking for something new, something better? Then
this book is written for you. Everyone reaches critical decision-making points in their lives. Studies show Americans now switch careers an average of seven times during their lives. Seven times, they will make a fateful choice about how they will spend the majority of their waking hours. If it's your turn this year, if your number has finally come up, then this book is for you. Why? Because this book examines technical careers. That covers a lot of ground. Recent studies by the University of California indicate that over half of the new jobs created nationwide in the nineties were classified as technical jobs. At the dawn of the next century, this huge slice of the employment pie will continue to grow dramatically. New jobs are where the opportunities exist for those without experience. New techie jobs aren't the first on the chopping block when management mouths evil words like ?down-sizing" and "cost-cutting?. On that grim day, it is those who stand in the way of technology who fall first. I'm sure you've already brushed up against technology. Maybe you don't like it. Maybe it scares and intrigues you at the same time. Maybe an ATM ate your bankcard. Or maybe a machine eliminated your last job. We live in a gizmo-driven world of digital wonders. Most of us come to at least consider a technical career. How could we not consider it? The richest man on the planet runs a software company. Internet and cellular phone ads bombard our senses. Medical discoveries are on the news nightly. Technology screams in our faces, and we now take it for granted that our children will mature into a radically different world. Whether technology in the workplace thrills, frightens or annoys you, it's time that you knew more about it. Part I - Breaking into Technical Careers This section explains what technical jobs are all about. It will help you decide if a technical career is for you. Don't be one of the thousands that train for years for something they don't enjoy. Part II - Getting the Right Job Part II will help you find the right technical job. It will lead you through the job-hunt, the interview process and finding the right company. You'll also learn how to size up a company offering you a job, and how to interview them. Part III - Keeping Your Job and Moving Up Once you have the right job, you need to keep it. Part III will help you keep what you've gained and move your career forward. It focuses on how to snatch up the next opportunity to advance and teaches you how to build your skills so you will be ready to jump when the time comes. GET INSIDE ADVICE from a Hi-Tech Entrepreneur: Brian Larson has helped the Russians refine aluminum in the vast forests surrounding St. Petersburg, developed realtime control networks for several fortune-500 companies and worked in top-secret facilities for the U.S. Government at Los Alamos National Laboratory, designing nuclear weapons dismantlement systems. Brian Larson holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science, both in Computer Science. He has hired, fired, trained and advised hundreds of individuals. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Part I : Breaking into a Technical Career 1 Chaos Breeds Opportunity 2 The College Degree Excuse 3 The Self-Confidence to Leave School 4 Types of Jobs and What You'll Really Do Part II : Getting the Right Job 5 Job-Hunting 6 Using the Internet 7 The Hiring Process 8 Fast-tracks and Backwaters: Finding Your Niche 9 How Close Are You to the Money? 10 Management Cultures 11 Family Kingdoms 12 Self-Employment 13 Job-Hopping Part III : Keeping Your Job and Moving Up 14 Surviving Your New Job 15 The Work Bitching Circle and How to Stay Out of It 16 Stress-Management 17 How NOT to Make Enemies 18 Travel, Opportunity and Your Family 19 How to Manage Techies 20 Take-Overs and Lay-offs 21 Resigning, Going Broke and Getting Fired Appendix: Bibliography of Suggested Reading
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| About the Author | |
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Brian Larson is a systems specialist in factory automation, a college professor and an author. In the last two decades he has worked for more than seventy-five companies in nine countries abroad and the majority of our fifty United States. |