The Best Books to Help You Build a Great Career

Whether you want to switch careers or enter the workforce for the first time, there’s so much advice on how to figure out what you want to do, get a company’s attention, and pass an interview. But you may want longform advice from an expert, and these are some of the best books to read as you set out to get a job.

The best books to help figure out your career

For a little self-discovery and motivation, turn to career books on learning more about yourself to determine what your next chapter should even be.

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One by Jenny Blake ($18.21) is written by a former career development specialist for Google and is all about using your interests and talents to figure out what you should do next. One reviewer said it “offers an excellent and well-organized set of tools and systems for self-assessment.” What Color Is Your Parachute?: Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success by Richard N. Bolles ($17.99) is an often-recommended classic for a reason: It can help you find fulfillment and identify what you need from a career to feel like you’re doing something meaningful.Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans ($15.32) is broadly—as the title states—about crafting an enjoyable life, but it has a strong career focus. It differentiates between your workview and lifeview, ultimately helping you align them both to find meaning in and outside of work. The Stuck Book: Pick This Up When You Don’t Know What to Do Next by Chris McAlister ($22.47) is all about how to move forward when you feel like you’re in a rut. Reviewers particularly like how easy it is to understand, how McAlister uses real-life examples to relate to readers, and how applicable those examples are to everyday career and life struggles.

The best books for finding a new job

Knowing what you want to do is half the battle, but finding the right job is a battle itself. As you set about sending cover letters, setting your LinkedIn job alerts, and scrolling Indeed, set aside some time to read these:

Knock ‘em Dead: The Ultimate Job Search Guide by Martin Yate ($10.99) has 4.6 stars out of 5 on Amazon, where digital-age readers have discovered the decades-old (and updated) classic. It features advice on how to get more interviews—plus a section of practice questions to think over before you ever sit face-to-face with a hiring manager. Never Search Alone: The Job Seeker’s Playbook by Phyl Terry ($19.17) lays out a plan for using your established network to access the “hidden” job market and generally turning your job hunt into a group project. It’s a guidebook to the human approach to what can often be a clinical, impersonal process. The Job Closer: Time-Saving Techniques for Acing Resumes, Interviews, Negotiations, and More by Steve Dalton ($12.99) respects the value of your time. After all, you’re not getting paid to look for a job, so speed is kind of important here. Dalton delves into a variety of models and techniques you can practice to breeze through interview questions or the tedious writing of cover letters, turning the job hunt into a manageable sequence of well-practiced steps.