Book Review: Don't Bother with These Rags

After such a good run on job search and professionalization books, it shouldn't come as a surprise that I've hit a stretch of FAILS. But, I'm still disappointed and irritated. So to save you from similar headaches, let me recommend against the following books.

Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead...But Gutsy Girls Do: Nine Secrets Every Career Woman Must Know by Kate White (1996). My first clue of this book's merit might have been its lack of a table of contents. From what I can tell, this book would be better called "Why Kate White is Awesome." Anyway, its targeted audience seems to be women who want to be CEOs. Which is good and all, but us folks at the bottom of the ladder need more relevant advice beyond "give away grunt work" (p.95). Lois Frankel covers much of the same advice that Kate White offers, but Frankel's book is much easier to physically navigate and it offers real solutions. Read Frankel, not White, if you want help for being more assertive in the workplace or getting raises/promotions.

Job Notes: Networking (Princeton Review) by Meg Heenehan (1997). This book is pitched towards high schoolers and undergrads. It's okay, but is almost too simplistic. One problem I had with it is that I actually have real skills that I've been using for many years (writing academic and nonacademic text, doing analysis, conducting historical and qualitative research, writing grants, editing, organizing people for a shared goal, etc) and this book is really for undergrads whose biggest or only asset is a BA degree. Read quintcareers.com's material on networking and informational interviewing and you'll essentially get everything that Heenehan covers.

Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap--and What Women Can Do About It by Warren Farrell (2005). The rage I feel every time I open this book can not be put into words. A lot of his points may be correct (women tend to go into HR and not marketing jobs, marketing jobs deal with money, HR with office climate, jobs focusing on the company's "bottom line" are paid more), but dude misses so many "big picture" elements. Also, his book has very little practical advice. Essentially he says women should go into engineering. That's fine, but since I don't have an engineering degree, now what? He says to do our "woman" jobs in "high risk fields" (like combat military) to make more money. Plus, did I mention that his book works exclusively from the premise that women are heterosexual and want a man to protect them? He says we're responding to our biological impulses--that's why we want a strong man to make money while we stay at home with the kids. Steer clear of this book. Not worth it.

I found these books through references in other books, in the "career corner" at my university's undergraduate library, and in the career shelves (Dewey Decimal area 650.14). One reason they are all older books is because newer books are non-circulating at the library. The cooler and newer books were, of course, the non-circulating materials in the "career corner," but even that selection had some obvious duds. I picked up some other books from my library forays and am really hoping that they are more useful than the three above.

Still working on that "please give me a job" email... once I have it all set I'll show you the different drafts and explain the genre (I finally understand how it works!).