How to Get Any Job with Any Major: A New Look at Career Launch

by Donald Asher

Philosophy majors and GPA-challenged students, rejoice! According to career guru Donald Asher, what you major in or how well you do in college are not indicators of future career success. In HOW TO GET ANY JOB WITH ANY MAJOR, Asher debunks the myth that only brainy students with specialized majors find high-paying, visible careers after college. The truth is that plenty of average folks with general, liberal arts majors have gone on to find lucrative and fulfilling careers—and anyone can do it by following Asher'¬?s advice. If you'¬?re just graduating, you'¬?ll learn to promote the skills you already have, recognize how employers hire and what skills they value most, and get influential people to help you. Or, if you'¬?re already in the work world, you'¬?ll learn to use internships, credential programs, post-baccalaureates, and grad school to jump-start a stalled career. Offering innovative ideas to help launch the perfect career, HOW TO GET ANY JOB WITH ANY MAJOR is the new job-hunter'¬?s handbook to success.

Genres: Nonfiction, How To, Business, Self Help

336 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

Reviews

[Dottie Parish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book with much wisdom, knowledge and advice about how to find just the right job for you. The book details a plan to help you discover your interests and talents. Implementing this plan will take time and thought on the part of the student/young person but will save you from many mistakes and from landing in a dead end job that doesn’t fit you.

Part 1 will teach you to examine your employment interests and develop a plan for your life.
Part 2 takes this further in helping you explore your interests in “the real world.”
Part 3 will teach you how to get a job.

Throughout the book there are case studies that flesh out the issues being taught. These are very helpful. Any student who is uncertain about his/her career direction should study this book and follow every suggestion in order to discover the type of career that will best suit you. Do the homework first and you will be able to find what you want and will be ready to do well in job interviews.

In the last chapter on the Job Interview Asher explains much about the hidden job market – how many jobs are filled from within or from a friend of a friend. And many jobs are filled with a persistent job searcher who doesn’t take no for answer.

To whet your appetite a bit here are some interesting thoughts from the book:
Prior generations needed to find 9 jobs between college and retirement. Asher believes the current generation will need to find 20-30 jobs! Pg4
40-60% of CEOs are liberal arts majors. pg 7
Don’t compound a poor choice of major with a poor career choice. Pg 8
You will be fired through no fault of your own. Pg 14

A little failure is part of every successful life. Walt Disney’s first cartoon production company went bankrupt. Elvis Presley got a C in high school music, and his teacher told him he couldn’t sing. Edgar Allen Poe was expelled from college. Einstein dropped out of school without finishing his degree.” 133

I highly recommend this book.

[Barry Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subtitled Life Launch and Re-Launch for Everyone Under 30, and sub-subtitled Or How to Avoid Living in Your Parents’ Basement, this entertaining and quite comprehensive book is directed primarily to new graduates, although there is much to be gleaned for any job seeker. I have seen Mr. Asher “in person,” and much of his whimsy and many of his practical examples are recounted in this book.

Starting with what he describes will be a rather intense and comprehensive approach to Life Planning, not merely career development, he provides resources and exercises to assist the reader in some Vision Engineering, then moves on to investigating how these interests can translate into the real world, closing with very specific, pragmatic advice on the steps to take to find that job. Much real-world advice is offered around researching, networking, using technology, attending job fairs, planning the search campaign, even negotiating the offer. Mr. Asher provides numerous stories of successes and failures, recounting some searches that were very unusual (One student handed out resumes with his cell number to everyone entering the building of his company of interest, noting that he would be in the parking lot waiting for a call. He got the interview, by the way).

Topics include internships, summer jobs, use of career centers, high risk occupations, considering advanced degrees, troubleshooting the job search, and much more. Asher even includes some scripts for communication as well as pointed advice on actions to take to work around the traditional job market, a market that is almost guaranteed to provide candidates who have better qualifications than you!

I consider this book a Must Read for any new graduate, and a very useful guide for anyone whose job search has stalled or is on life support.

[Ashley Dufault · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasn't going to write this review, but it might help save someone some valuable time. This book is NOT about how to get any job with any degree. It's just for young people and how to get a job and find out what career you want. His advice on communicating with everyone you know about your search is solid, but this book was written in 2004. At one point he says to call a company multiple times a day. Just pages later, he says to do it once. In 2016, companies do NOT want you calling them at all. The worst job will get hundreds of applicants and with management doing the jobs of multiple people, they don't have the patience to deal with that kind of call volume. In fact, many employers tell you that if you call, you will be taken out of the running. This book needs major updates. As it stands, the title is misleading and major advice is out of touch.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is one that I should have read when I was still in college, not after I graduated (the title of this book lies to you,only college juniors will benefit from this book. Furthermore, it never addressed my specific employment-related concerns and is best suited to traditional students on the traditional 4-year college right after high school rather than transfer students or students who need to switch majors out of necessity. I hope that what little I could apply to my own situation from this book will help my job search

[Joey Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geared more towards college students but filled with wonderful knowledge about the job world and the situations you will get into related to that job world.

[Mills College Library]

650.14 A8251 2009

[Paula Brand]

Saw him speak at MACCA 2009

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the information about career exploration, however I wished that the job search section would be revised to current statistics since the recession.