The Best Resources For Career Development
15 years ago when I started my career, I was lost and unsure of what to do, or what it took in order for me to be successful in my career. I was willing to work hard and put in the effort, but I had no idea about what steps to take or moves to make.
Fortunately, a less than stellar performance review served as a good wake up call to me to get some support. I reached out to others, read every book, and tried out new approaches. Through trial, error, learning, and a lot of support, I was able to turn it around, so much so that in addition to getting strong performance ratings, I started getting asked by my peers to mentor them and teach them how they could manage their own careers. Over time, this led to becoming a career coach, starting multiple blogs on career and leadership development, starting multiple podcasts, writing a book, and spending my time now as a career and leadership development consultant.
Today, I spend a lot of time talking with organizations about how to help their leaders develop and grow to achieve their potential, primarily through leadership development programs and speaking on these topics. Inevitably in these programs, questions about career come up all the time, and I thoroughly enjoy these conversations.
As a writer, speaker, podcast host and researcher, I’m constantly talking with people each week about their work and careers, and I thoroughly enjoy listening to discussions, questions and paradoxes that people face when it comes to managing their career. Without fail, I always get questions around what books, frameworks, podcasts, or people that I recommend people check out. Over the years, I’ve shared this with hundreds of people, and I finally decided that it was time to put all my recommendations together in one place.
A word of caution: No career advice is perfect, and all careers are unique
As someone who has read tons of career advice over the years, one of my biggest frustrations is that often context is lacking when advice is delivered. For example, telling someone they should network to grow their career is not bad advice, nor is it wrong, but without context, it isn’t really that helpful.
The statistician George Box once said, all models are wrong, but some are useful. I like to think of career advice the same way. All of it is good, none of it is perfect, and it may not be a fit for you, and that’s okay!
To help solve this, I’ve done my best to categorize the resources I recommend based on a common career question or challenge. That way, if you are facing that challenge, you know what resource might be best for you. This is not perfect, so please keep me honest and give me feedback on this.
#1: When you’re just starting your career, and want to navigate the workplace
These are the books and resources that I often share with people just entering the workforce. They are your friendly guide to helping you succeed when you just start off and need to know the lay of the land
Gorick Ng – Gorick’s book The Unspoken Rules teaches you all the things you should know about the workplace that nobody will tell you. It’s a must read, if you want to hear how to navigate the workplace and grow your career, especially if you are earlier in your career. Check out my interview with Gorick
Lindsey Pollak – Lindsey’s book from College to Career was one of the first books I read when I was in the workforce, and it changed my life. This book is getting republished this year, but all of her work is relevant to early career professionals.
Check out my interview with Lindsey
#2:When you want to grow in your career in a thoughtful and intentional way
If you’re playing the long game on your career and want to be intentional about career choices and are committed to small habits and practices, these are experts and resources for you
Me – Over the past fifteen years, I’ve taught many leaders and advised numerous organizations around talent and career development. A lot of my reflections, insights and perspectives are featured in the hundreds of articles as well as my podcasts, MBA Insider, and The Edge of Work. My work centers around how in a world of change, leaders can unlock the talent, skills, and potential in their employees through career growth.
#3)When you are looking for more diverse approaches to career development and growth
If the current and common career development ideas and advice don’t seem to be landing, or you’re someone with a lot of interests and passions that you’d like to be a part of your career, these are great books and resources to check out
Christina Wallace – Christina’s book The Portfolio Life offers us a more expansive way to think about how we associate our interests within our life and careers using the principles of modern portfolio theory. Much like we would look at a financial/stock portfolio, we can treat our life like a portfolio, and think creatively about how we want to allocate certain aspects (ex: interests, skills, talents) into our career and life.
Listen to my interview with Christina
Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis – Helen and Sarah are hosts of the Squiggly Career Podcast as well as the co-authors of The Squiggly Career. Their work is especially helpful in helping employees think about how they can choose creative and non-linear paths to grow a career in actionable and practical ways.
Julie Winkle Giuiloni – Julie is the author of a number of books, including Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go, and Promotions Are So Yesterday. Her books provide tactical guidance for how to approach career development opportunities, conversations and plans.
Andy Storch – Andy is a career development keynote speaker and author. His book Own Your Career Own Your Life is an inspiring read that can help you when you’re trying to identify your own unique career aspirations and goals.
Listen to my interview with Andy
#4) When you are pondering what to do next, or thinking about a transition
Whether you are thinking of a change or have been asked to make one without warning, these thinkers provide strategic guidance and tactics towards making a career change.
Jenny Blake – Jenny’s book (Pivot) and podcast covers people who are thinking about or making pivots and changes in their career. Her Pivot Framework is very helpful for those looking to be more intentional about their changes they are making in their career.
Listen to my interview with Jenny
Herminia Ibarra – Herminia has made significant contributions to the field of career development and career transitions. Her book, Working Identity is a must-read for anyone who is thinking about or going through a career transition
Listen to my interview with Herminia
Claire Harbour & Antoine Tirard
Claire and Antonine host a podcast called Disrupt your Career, which shares modern-day research and best practices for how to grow a career.
Listen to my interview with Claire
#5)When you want to advance in your career, and want to know what it takes to level up
If your goal is to stand out and advance and you want to do it now, these are great thinkers who provide clear-eyed guidance on achieving these goals
Jeffrey Pfeffer – Jeffrey has conducted three decades of research on power and influence inside organizations. He takes a clear-eyed researched based approach to understanding power, and then prescribing best practices for how leaders can use power effectively to advance in their career. His book, 7 Rules of Power is a must-read/
Ethan Evans – Ethan is a former VP at Amazon who writes a newsletter on career development. His writing, thinking and advice is grounded in what he has done himself and seen done successfully inside Amazon, a notoriously challenging environment to get promoted and advance in.
#6)When you’re having deep feelings and questions about the importance of work, and career in your life
If you’re someone who’s having some deeper thoughts about your work and career, or your identity and work, these are some incredibly thoughtful and deep thinkers about the intersection of careers and work.
Paul Millerd – Paul’s got some of the most thoughtful and original writing and ideas that is expanding our narrative and language around the intersection of work, life and careers. HIs book The Pathless Path has sold over 40K copies.
Listen to my interview with Paul
Simone Stolzoff – Simone’s book The Good Enough Job is great for re-thinking your fundamental relationship with work as well as taking a closer look around traditional definitions, achievement, and making the pursuit of career success central to your identity, and why those might not be the best things for us collectively.
Listen to my interview with Simone
Khe Hy –After a 15 year successful career on Wall Street, Khe quit, moved to California with his family, and started writing about work, productivity and careers. His newsletter and work centers around helping people examine their relationship with their job and career.
Listen to my interview with Khe
Bruce Feiler – Bruce is an award-winner author of numerous career books. His most recent book The Search, chronicles hundreds of interviews he conducted with people where he asked them about their work, job and careers and how they explore finding meaning in their work and lives.
#7)When you and your spouse both care deeply about your careers
This is a tough but important one – I wish there were more resources on this, but these are a good start.
Jennifer Petriglieri – Jennifer is an Associate Professor at INSEAD, and has conducted research on career decision making in dual career couples. Her HBR article and book (Couples that Work) chronicle her research on these topics.
Eve Rodsky – Eve is the author of the NY Times BestSeller, Fair Play. Her book and her work focuses on the unequal unpaid labor gap that exists within couples.
#8) When You Want to Build Relationships to Grow Your Career
Relationships are a critical enabler of career success in every industry, function, and role.. If you are someone who wants to get better at networking, or knows they lack the relationships they need to achieve their career goals, these books are great resources for how to do this effectively.
Keith Ferrazzi – Keith’s book Never Eat Alone is a NY Times BestSeller, and helped shift the paradigm around transactional networking to authentic relationship building. It’s a great read if you need some guidance around how to shift your thinking to approach relationship building in a more thoughtful and generous manner.
David Bradford and Carole Robin – David and Carole are instructors at Stanford’s Business School, and teach their award-winning course Interpersonal Dynamic (aka, touchy feely) This is one of (if not the) most popular course at Stanford, and is great for understanding some of the ways we go wrong with trying to build interpersonal relationships, as well as approaches for how to get it right.
Listen to my interview with David
Adam Grant – Adam’s first breakout book Give and Take provides incredible research-based evidence for how being generous and thoughtful with your peers and relationships translates to better business results.
While this is a comprehensive list, it is by no means exhaustive. If you have recommendations for what books and resources you often recommend or go to, I would love to hear them. And if you found this helpful, please share it with a friend.
Honorable Mention
These individuals did not necessarily fit in one specific category, but their work is important in the career development space:
- Nick de Wilde – Nick is the Author of The Jungle Gym, a newsletter about careers and the workplace. (Check out my conversation with Nick)
- Mita Mallick – Mita is the author of Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths to Transform Your Workplace and the Co-Host of the Brown Table Talk podcast. (Check Out my conversation with Mita)
By no means is this an exhaustive list. If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them!