Books on finding your career path
We all long for that career that will bring us joy and satisfaction and while at it, earn a comfortable living. Some people are lucky they discover what they want to do with their lives early enough, for some of us, well, not so lucky.
Finding a career does not have to be a one-time event. You can be in your twenties starting at a new career, or in your 40s trying to start a whole new career. All the same, finding a career can be quite a challenge.
Some of us struggle because we have too many interests or because we are not interested in any single career.
As I searched my way to find the career I wanted, here are some of the books I found useful and I still refer to them now and then.
Here are some books on finding your career path.
I found this to be one of the most useful books when searching for a career in your twenties. We have been made to believe that you should spend your twenties partying and having fun before responsibilities catch up with you.
While this is partly true, your twenties define the rest of your life significantly. In this book, Meg Jay discusses why you should use your twenties to discover and plant seeds for the rest of your life career-wise.
If you are in your twenties, get yourself a copy of this book and take control of your life early enough.
2. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
I can never rave enough about this book! This book changed my life I am happy to recommend it over and over! In Grit, Angela Duckworth discusses how through passion and persistence, we can know what we want to do and do it so well that we make a career out of it.
Often, we think what we want will fall right on our laps. Not! Angela Duckworth helps us discover that we have to work hard, persist on our passion for it to serve us. We have to develop grit to succeed in our areas of choice.
I have summarized the book here, you can read the short version so you can decide if it will help you find your career path.
3. Now, Discover Your Strengths: The revolutionary Gallup program that shows you how to develop your unique talents and strengths
For you to find a career that you love, most importantly, you should be good at it. Now, Discover Your Strengths helps you discover what you are good at so you can select a career in line with your strengths. I found this book useful in helping you do an audit on my strengths, SWOT and apply my findings in my career.
I also found this wonderful course that helped me plan my career move which I used to plan my career using my strengths. I highly recommend that you use this book to find out what you are good at so you can choose a career that will help you thrive.
4. Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life
Finding a career is one thing, finding one that you love and fulfils your life is another. When you are searching for a career, remember it will define a significant portion of your life. This book by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans will help you design a career that will enrich your life.
I found it useful since it helped me find joy in what I do. Getting a career that you don’t enjoy makes your life miserable and we don’t want that at all.
5. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
This is one of the books on my bookshelf that I read and reread over and over. The lessons in this book will help you design your life, get insight into your career, and dare to be yourself even more.
My biggest lesson from Originals is about finding persistence in my career as a creator. Adam Grant says often, creators expect our every work to be a masterpiece but forget that even people who created masterpieces in the past had created whole other stuff that was probably never recognized.
This helped me take my career as a creative a bit more easily, reduce self doubt, not to be so hard on myself when I procrastinated and most importantly, be myself proudly. Check out my summary and review on Originals here. I highly recommend this for everyone, if you are creative, self-employed, an employee in a corporate and basically anyone that is creating a career.
6. So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
Cal Newport writes about how you need to master your skills so well that they can’t ignore you. While finding your career and probably what you will be doing for the rest of your life, it’s important that you become GREAT at it.
So Good They Can’t Ignore You is one of the most important books in finding your career path. Cal Newport’s advice is well researched and as you check out this book, also read Deep Work to help you become excellent in the career that you choose.
7. Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
One of our biggest hindrances in finding the right career path is inaction. Often, we know what we need to do to get what we want but we don’t take action. We are either crippled by self-doubt, lack of discipline, procrastination, among other issues.
In this book, Marie Forleo reminds us that we don’t have to know all the answers in the beginning. We can figure it out as we go along. When finding our career path, we will often feel inadequate. We want to try out a certain career, but we feel we are not good enough.
Check out this book to help you figure out what you want in your career as you go along.
8. The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success
This is another gem when it comes to books on finding your career path. In this book, Nicholas Lore advises not only on choosing your career but making a career change. Some of us have to change careers later in life and through this guide, we can find a career that makes us successful and gratifying.
If you are making a career change, check out this awesome course on Making a Career Change that I found super useful!
Related posts:
