THE CAREER TOOLKIT

A multifaceted guide focuses on career considerations.

With experience developing learning tools at MIT and Harvard Business School, Herschberg uses this debut to impart his knowledge of the working world, highlighting critical “firm skills” he believes are rarely taught in educational institutions. The book, which the author likens to a “career success accelerator,” encompasses three areas: “Career,” “Leadership & Management,” and “Interpersonal Dynamics.” The “Career” section covers how to develop a career plan, how to work effectively in a company setting, and interviewing skills, both from the candidate’s and company’s perspectives. The first chapter is the most expansive in the volume; it offers a useful road map for a career plan with key questions to answer, a discussion of various options, and suggestions for developing the blueprint. The three examples Herschberg offers for a “Career Decision Tree” helpfully depict the kinds of preparation and experience needed to progress in certain fields. This chapter also addresses the value of collaborating with a mentor and the differences between working for a startup and a large corporation. “Working Effectively” is an insightful overview of the role of the individual in an organization; it includes valuable guidance for navigating departments, reading signals from company management, and comprehending corporate politics. “Interviewing” serves a dual purpose: This chapter gives the job candidate solid advice on how to interview for a position as well as actionable criteria for a team tasked with hiring a candidate. Here, the author provides a plethora of interview questions divided into such categories as “Values,” “Situational Questions,” and “Analysis.”

The book’s second part examines leadership and management skills, which are extensively covered in other guides. Still, Herschberg manages to deliver some new, engaging material. For example, he draws a perceptive distinction between “positional” and “influential” leadership, presents the intriguing “myth of the alpha male,” and sensitively calls attention to the “double bind” of the female leader: “The more a woman exhibits the traits often associated with being a good leader, such as being direct, confident, unemotional, and ambitious, the more she violates the societal expectations we have of a ‘good woman,’ meaning gentle, self-deprecating, emotional, and supportive.” The portion on being an effective manager is equally illuminating. The author emphasizes the manager’s four roles (“Strategist,” “Translator,” “Planner,” “Coach”), shares several intriguing theories about employee motivation, and provides a solid discussion of teamwork. The final part of the guide is perhaps the most meaningful; it addresses interacting with others, concentrating on communication, networking, negotiation, and ethics. In this section, Herschberg furnishes numerous beneficial and insightful tips. Concerning networking, for example, he supplies specific, useful examples of the wrong and right ways to network. The chapter on negotiation may be one of the most pertinent in the volume. Herschberg identifies stages and types of negotiations, again using excellent, relevant illustrations, and suggests how to deal with a job offer. A closing chapter on business and personal ethics is laudable.

A valuable manual deftly shows that certain success skills can’t be learned in the classroom.