Careers Books

I've read and shared many ideas in this book with my colleagues. Worth the money.

This book helped me get referrals when I was operating my own business. As the author of Don't Wait Get in S.H.A.P.E. - Drop Fat Fast and Get Fit Quick this book allowed me to attract people to purchase my services and help me sell my book. This book is awesome.

I decided to review the library's copy before I bought it and I could not get enough info out of it! I found myself taking notes and almost writing in the library's copy! I rushed and bought the book. Now it's covered in pink and yellow highlighter. I feel like I'm back in college preparing for an exam -- except this time, my studying is going to directly contribute to my bank account! Truly valuable!

This is a wonderful book. It is very well written and an easy read. Furthermore, it is full of great content. I highly recommend you take a look at the online listing of this book's Table of Contents and see for yourself what specifically is covered.

This book reminds us to not look too far astray for customers or clients. It's easier to cultivate an existing customer for a new sale than to convince a non-customer to buy from you. And it's easier to have a satisfied customer convince a non-customer to buy from you than you doing it yourself.

Focusing on getting referrals is probably the least expensive way to build a customer-base and sales. Keep in mind that there are at least two methodologies to getting referrals. One is the do-good-work for your customers and clients and to get them to refer you to their family and friends. The other is B2B where you get other businesses that compliment yours to refer work to you. You can pay a referral fee or send them an equal amount of referrals.

Some people are not comfortable with using referrals to build their customer-base. But then some people are not comfortable being self-employed either. If you are one of those people who want to be successful at being self-employed, then take advantage of referrals as much as possible. And a good way to start is probably by getting this book and reading it cover to cover. 5 stars!

Referrals now is an excellent book that explains how to obtain more business by asking for referrals. Most friends and existing clients are more than willing to recommend your product or sevices if you just ask for it. Sales people sometimes view asking for referrals as a sign of weakness or problems in the business. This is not true.

If you want to build up a business very quickly without a lot of overhead, this is the best method. It would be adviseable to first read the book "Masters of Networking" by Ivan R. Misner. Referral business has a lot to do with networking, so you must be ready to do favors for other people who help you out. Forgetting to help somebody else who has helped you will be very detrimental to your business.

Just asking somebody for a referral is not really good enough but asking the person for a personal introduction increases your chances dramatically for closing the deal.

Don't read the book all in one go. Read a chapter, think about how you can apply it, write down what you think is best for you and experiment with it.

I can't encourage you enough to know the information in this book. There are even forms in the back for you to use when billing people. The last time I brought my invoice to someone they responded about how professional it was. Read this before you start making mistakes that will become very costly to you and your business!

This book was invaluable in the pricing process. It includes guides that most other books of this kind do not. For example, guides for how to calculate your annual overhead in order to take it into account with the pricing of every job. Great book, and I'm sure it will come in handy when it comes to pricing stock images.

I'm a professional photographer so I have experience in pricing, but until I read this book I didn't realize how much more there was to learn. I have picked up a lot of subtleties in negotiating techniques which has given me increased confidence in dealing with clients. Another plus for me was the language rights section. By using the careful, precise language when writing an invoice I am now avoiding some pitfalls in the permissions I grant to clients. The pricing charts are a great reference so I can see where my rates fall in comparison to the national average. Sometimes I even show the price charts to my clients so they can see what a good deal I'm giving them! The book is a gold mine of information -- all spelled out in photographer-friendly language.

The only book you may ever need in general stock & assignment photography pricing. This is my conclusion after buying several books. Other books discuss the business but left the pricing. So this topic become "mysterious" for most photographers starting their business. Well thought and the authors are not afraid explaining their ideas in details. Very useful and serves as reference whenever you need it.

For specific subject combine with other book. E.g for nature photography business, combine this book with John Shaw's Nature Photography Business.

An invaluable guide for photographers providing information on pricing, negotiation and business behavior with clients, A very good book

This study guide covers a vast amount of information. However, additional resources are needed along with the study guide. Practice test help define weak area so that studying in more productive.

Sample Test are good problem is there are around 50 sample test. Some questions were on the actual Dante's exam. Need plenty of time to review exams

Study guide was not what i thought it would be. Just hunreds of questions with the answers. Will not be purchasing these types of books in the future.

I don't recommend this book at all, I found out later that this books is NOT endorsed by DSST.

When I purchased this book I thought it was a study guide that included practice tests for each topic. I was not aware that it was just tests. This book did not have sections for review; therefore, in order to answer the questions I was pulling data from the internet. The questions in the book were by far the most difficult questions to answer unless you are a medical science major or nursing student In my opinion this book was not geared toward undergraduate level credits. I do not believe that this book should be sold separately without being advised of the content, and reference a textbook to retrieve the information from. While this book is a great tool along with study material, in my opinion it cannot stand alone.

Actually, as its name implies.. This book is the ultimate guide in the process of choosing a specialty.
Other books that come after it are anita tylor's "how choose a medical specialty", which is more to the point but gives little detail about each specialty. After is "So You Want to Be a Brain Surgeon" which has much less in each specialty than the previous two.

This book was really helpful in giving me the general insights into different specialities that I ought to keep in mind as I enter med school. Moreover, the book is excellent in preparing you for what you have to do to be a competitive applicant for residency.

Very helpful in reviewing the different specialties in the medical field. Great for helping that medical student get an early jump on what area to consider.

If you're having trouble deciding what particular path of medicine to follow, this guide could be very beneficial. With all of the studying/reading/slaving one does as a medical student, it's easy to forget that you quickly need to decide what you want to be when you grow up. Written by a collection of very talented people who seemingly all studying or trained in Chicago, this book delves into all major specialties, the application basics, and even how personality might play a role.

For 95% or more of all US medical students this is something they SHOULD peruse through if they have the slightest hesitation about what specialty to choose. However, my minor critiques are for the small margins the book glosses over. The author mentions how the possibilities are nearly endless with an medical degree, but it leaves it at that. A few examples of a MD/JD lawyer or MD/MBA executive would help. Also some of the very small niche residencies are completely omitted (e.g. prevmed and occhealth). Also, despite the OB/GYN chapter being written by a Navy physician, he completely forgot to mention the possibilities the military can present. [He mentions the public health service but not the military?] Hopefully these holes can be filled in for the next edition.

I would recommend this book to the undecided medical students in their 3rd year- I bought this early in my 4th year after having read Anita's book on Choosing a Medical Specialty, and still being uncertain. I was trying to talk myself out of Gen Surg... Ultimately, a book is not going to make the decision for you, but it is good to be informed and it helps to either reinforce what your gut instinct is telling you. Try to borrow a friends or buy a used copy- but it's definitely worth a read!

As an IT student, I occasionally run into material that I find stale, boring, and overwhelming. This book isn't like that. I am able to review study material that is not only useful, but fun to read! You can't go wrong with this book, it is a valuable resource to learning OSs and what makes them tick.

Looking for the A+ certification? As you know this certification has 2 exams, I for hardware and 1 for the Operating systems. This book is a great prep tool for the OS section as it covers several key operating systems and few that aren't on the exam.

The book starts off with a hardware overview, which is very helpful in the understanding of software. Then you deal with the older operating systems like Windows 3.X and DOS, this is a nice foundation to learn the roots of the operating system.

Then comes NT, 2000, XP and there is even section for the MAC OS and Linux group. What I liked about this book was the exercises and labs; they would prove to very helpful in understanding certain concepts.

About the only thing missing is cds with evaluation copies of the operating system(s), in case you don't have access to them. Overall this book is a great compliment to the Mike Meyers All in One A+ Study Guide. As an Instructor, this book becomes a valuable add on to the curriculum.

This book is great for students who want to become IT professionals. It's more than just learning how to use client-side operating systems. In this book, you learn how to install, configure and troubleshoot, and includes coverage of networking. Read this and you're on your way to an A+ certfication not to mention a desktop support or help desk position. It's a beautifully designed book.

In this book the author states that "having a child is now the single best predictor that a woman will end up in financial collapse," and this is true for both married as well as single women. In fact, the author boldly, and correctly, suggests that people avoid having children as a financial planning technique.

The author also shows that the dual-income family of the early 2000s is no better off than the single-income family of the 1970s. The second income is eaten up by increases in housing, education, child care, health insurance, auto costs, and taxes. There are structural changes in our economy that account for this, but the author avoids this topic.

The fact that our America is not the same as our parents' America is not our fault. But we've all got to adapt and make decisions, just like our parents and grandparents did when they went through the Great Depression.

My wife and I are in our mid-fifties now (2008). When we started out, we knew there was no way we could accomplish financially what our parents did. So we decided not to have kids, we stayed together, we moved several times to find jobs, we both obtained Masters Degrees, and we both went back to school to change careers. We've never purchased a new vehicle. We've rented most of our lives, but in 2002 we bought a small condo. Looking back, we struggled, but our current financial security is due to the decisions we made, and our willingness to adapt.

Likewise, the people we know who are less financially secure also made decisions - bad decisions - and they refuse to adapt. For example, an acquaintance got divorced after fathering a child, made a career change, is not making lots of money but refuses to go back to school, tried unsuccessfully to avoid making child support payments, and lives at home with his mother. He is self-employed, and works about 20 hours a week, which is fine with him. He says he is "a second class citizen," and wants socialized health care because he fears cancer and has no insurance, yet he doesn't want to go to the county hospital when he has chest pain because of the long waiting time.

My wife and I are supposed to feel sorry for him? We're supposed to get out the crying towel and ask our Congressman to increase our taxes so Uncle Government can help him out? I think not!

The author also contends that deregulation of the banking industry has resulted in unscrupulous lenders forcing debt upon naïve borrowers. She blames lenders for the fact that many families, including middle- and upper-income families, ended up with expensive subprime mortgages. Let's see, the lenders are at fault because these buyers didn't do a little reading and comparison shopping before they locked themselves into the biggest investment of their lives? Sorry, but I'm not buying it.

The author's solution to the credit problem is re-regulation. Unfortunately, that "solution" punishes the responsible borrower. Instead, I suggest that everyone who wants credit of any kind must first obtain a borrowers license. We don't let people drive cars without a drivers license. Likewise, we shouldn't let people take on credit without a borrowers license, because they can so easily harm themselves and others through debt mismanagement.

In fact, maybe we should also make people obtain a birthing license so they become aware of the author's major premise, that "having a child is now the single best predictor" of ending up in financial ruin. Of course, most people won't listen, but at least they can't complain that they weren't informed!

In closing, this book makes some excellent points, but it minimizes the importance of personal decision making by over-blaming "the system," and some of the suggested solutions are questionable. If you are interested in this topic, I highly recommend The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt, co-authored by Ms. Warren. That book points out that the huge increase in consumer debt has made Americans more vulnerable to all financial setbacks, including the top three reasons for bankruptcy: job loss, divorce, and medical problems.

There were a lot of interesting facts in this book, that really make you think about two-income families. However, while the author(s) are excellent at describing tear-inducing situations that tug at the heart, they are unfortunately unable to provide very much in the way of applicable help for the families who are struggling within the 'two income trap'. The changes that they do suggest would take monumental governmental intervention and a very large dose of time to fix.

...there are some serious problems, too.

First, the good points:

-We need our usury laws back!
It is stupid and reckless to expect an eighteen year old kid to suddenly possess a JD and be a CPA to accurately wade through the ten pages of fine print attached to a credit card application. That is where the trouble starts, on college campuses, under the guise of a free Tshirt or 2 liter of Coke if you fill out an application.

-Health care is disaster.
It is diabolically stupid to connect health care to employment. Medicare For ALL!

-Colleges are out of control.
We need to price cap state schools, point blank. The authors are dead on with this one. Not every college needs to be the best in every program, and they are all trying to be. Let them prioritize and specialize- not every college needs trades and sports and culinary arts and fine arts... blah blah blah. All the schools I know are pumping money into housing, too, which is really stupid in the midwest, where off campus is usually nicer and cheaper.

-The Financial Fire Drill.
Thinking like a family at war; protecting what you value most; acknowledging that your children are more important than your credit rating or the creditor that yells the loudest; explaining that the longest financial commitments are also the riskiest- this stuff is worth reading and worth knowing.

-Car Seats: All That Safety Comes a High Price.
When my parents were kids (in families of 7 and 8), each family had two cars: a station wagon and a pick up. The station wagons didn't have seat belts, little kids were lap riders, and you could ride as many people as could squeeze in. If the wagon went on the fritz, the family piled into the bed of the truck. No more.
Car seats themselves are expensive, they expire after five years (no, I am not making this up- look it up), and God help the family with three kids. Even if the oldest is out of his/her car seat, unless you have a third row vehicle (a minivan or a big SUV), chances are you can't all legally fit. Even in the backseat of a big sedan (or larger), there is not enough room between two car seats for a five or six year old, much less a seven or eight year old to ride. Bigger cars are more expensive cars, and it is a huge burden, especially with gas at $4 a gallon.

The Cons:

- Though the title is the Two Income Trap, the authors don't explain thouroughly enough how to live within your means either on one income or two.
For example, two full time, out of home workers are going to rely much more on meals out and packaged, more expensive groceries. This is not a failing on their part, its just the reality that cooking from scratch takes lots of time (and often, lots of time to learn). This is frequently one of the means by which couples "downshift" when they move from two incomes to one. When joined by losing extra taxes, daycare, car payments, insurance, and gas, and the other expenses associated with working, a new picture emerges for most families. They could have gone into this, and they didn't. It's too bad.

-Vouchers.
Okay, I haven't made up my mind on this concept yet. I think that tying schools to a zip code is at least as stupid as tying health care to employment, but, again, the authors don't really explore the variables here. Can kids go to school anywhere in the state under their ideal voucher program? If so, do the best schools become boarding schools, the way the schools for the blind/deaf are? What are the implications there?
Also, as a homeschool advocate, I was disappointed to not even see non-institutional education get so much as a mention.

-Housing.
Yes, housing prices throughout much of the country got out of control. Yet there remained many areas where housing prices are low enough that it is possible to own a family size home on a single income. Our 3 bedroom, 150 year old house cost $31,000 in 2005. While it needs some updating, it isn't a shack, either.
(And no, low COL areas are not neccesarily low wage areas- rather, they are low COL because the cost of real estate is low relative to wages. Our mortgage is equal to about 18 months of my husband's net salary.)
My husband's coworker bought a 5 bedroom house on 2 acres last year, and while it's in need of some pretty serious remodeling, she only paid $17,000 for it. I think that's a bargain, considering you can't buy a new Honda Civic for that price.
I think there's a certain amount of choice at play here.

At the end of this book, I was left with the words of Amy Dacyzyn ringing in my ears: "If you are willing to live like a family did in 1960, you can survive and even thrive on a single income." Is this true in every area of the U.S.? No, but if you pick a place with a lower COL, it can be done. People just don't want to think about what this means- it means a more modest home; a single car payment at a time (if any at all), very few meals out; no paper towels or disposible dishrags, napkins, diapers, wipes, plates, cups, etc.; no cable or cellphone; no dishwasher or microwave. This is how people got ahead on a single income back then, and it's how people do it now.

(Oh, and for what it's worth, I am a dyed in the wool liberal.)

Back in the mid to late 60s, average real income in the U.S., which is just economic terminology for income adjusted for inflation, started to decline for the first time. Once that trend gets started in a country, for whatever reason, it's almost impossible to reverse, as any economic historian will tell you.

Now, forty years later, the impact of that dire trend is here for all to see. The American middle class is moribund and on the verge of extinction, if it isn't already. And in the last 15 years, the middle class has suffered through the worst of it, with job flight overseas in the late 90s, and the corporate restructurings of the early 90s. What is not well known is that most of the increase in profitability that drove the great bull market of the 90s was widespread and extensive corporate downsizings, restructurings, and layoffs during that period, which made companies leaner and and meaner. It wasn't that American companies were now better managed or were producing better products, although there were a few exceptions.

That's the sad macroeconomic backstory to the current situation. In this book, Prof. Warren examines the personal toll this economic sea change has produced, and how it has affected the families themselves. And her claims are backed up with massive amounts of data. And at this point, no one, even conservatives, denies it. Liberals and conservatives just disagree on the reasons for it.

Warren provides convincing evidence that it isn't frivolous spending that is driving most Americans into debt, which is the conservative view, but needed fixed expenses such as a mortgage, medical insurance, education, and so on, all of which have climbed precipitously in recent years, much more than the level of inflation, and more importantly, of average income.

Reckoned in these terms, I can't disagree with her conclusions. My only quip is that I'm sure that the millions of people who took out piggy-back loans were only too happy to take those cash payments, without the bank twisting their arms too much. There's the old saying about when a deal sounds too good, it probably is, but apparently no one was thinking in those terms. On the other hand, it was the mortgage lenders "loan to own" strategy that backfired on them, when interest rates went up. Word to the wise--no one can predict interest rates for very long, including economists--let alone your average citizen.

Also, Prof. Warren's data notwithstanding, which is very convincing, I should add, nevertheless, we've all seen people who have come into windfalls who've just frittered it away on frivolous consumption instead of doing the wise thing and saving and investing it. In fact, at my age, I've been around a while (I'm pushing 60) and I can't count the number of people I've seen do this.

Overall, though, I agree with almost all of what Warren has to say. But the likely cure for the current situation--balancing the budget, increasing taxes, ending the war in Iraq, creating better paying jobs and not simply more low paying ones, providing affordable medical insurance, buying smaller, more economical cars, eating out less often, and spending more responsibly when necessary--is probably more than Americans can stomach. Debt has simply become a way of life here, and that isn't going to change anytime soon. Not to mention the fact that creating more and better jobs would require some real creativity and rethinking of our whole work economy. Does anyone think our current crop of leaders (whether republican or democrat) is up to this task?

On the positive side, this book offers some interesting interpretations regarding why people are going broke, most notable is their belief that it can all be changed by reforming the public education system. This was an intriguing idea. However, I could not get past the fact that they argue AGAINST the fact that Americans over-consume on everything. In short, they say "it's not their fault" for living way beyond their means. I have a huge fundamental problem with this attitude. I don't know where Warren lives or who her friends are, but within my middle class community and everywhere around me, almost everyone I know or see has a sense of entitlement to have the latest and greatest, biggest and best. People are duped into thinking that every luxury (cable TV, SUVs, cell phones, etc.) are a necessity. NONSENSE. Just a generation ago people were much better at living within their means, doing without if necessary, and making do with what they have. I get so disgusted with today's attitudes. Dave Ramsey's philosophy is much much better and more practical. Eat beans and rice, take on extra jobs if you have to, and LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS. This book was not for me.