10 books for any career first you may be experiencing right now

My favorite season is autumn. Especially autumn in New York.

Sweater weather. Fall foliage. Pumpkin spice lattes. And best of all, it’s a season of change.

It’s kinda the perfect moment to reflect on the past several months and think about what you want the remainder of your year to look like.

That’s why it’s not a shock that after the summer vacation ends and kids return to school, reality sets back in and it causes you to think about making a change. Specifically with your work situation.

I’m hearing this from my existing and prospective clients. They’re about to make a big change and working towards their career “first”.

For some, it’s their first time making a major change. For others, it’s about returning back to the workforce after taking time off to raise their kids. One client is managing a team for the very first time in her career.

If you’re going through your own career change, you’re not alone.

To help you get through your “first”, whatever that may be, I rounded up a list of 10 books you can check out as you prepare for your season of change.

For the first-time career changer who is still searching for what’s next

1.     “Embrace the Work, Love Your Career: A Guided Workbook for Realizing Your Career Goals with Clarity, Intention, and Confidence” by Fran Hauser

Must read if you’re still in the process of figuring out what you want to do next or where you want to take your career. Filled with practical tips, advice, and exercises. Whether you're someone who likes to take immediate action, prefers to self-reflect first, or jump straight into analysis before making a decision, Fran has you covered.

2.     “Designing Your Life: How to Build A Well-Lived, Joyful Life” by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans

This book will teach you how to use the design thinking framework to design a career or life that brings you fulfillment and purpose. It models the wildly popular course they teach at Stanford University and provides worksheets at the end of each chapter for you to immediately apply what you learned.

For the first-time entrepreneur who is identifying a product or service to sell

3.     “Blue Ocean Strategy” by Renée Mauborgne and Chan Kim

This book was given to me as a gift from a friend when I decided to quit my job to start my own business. I finished it shortly after leaving and still reference it from time to time. It’s filled with fantastic insights on what a blue ocean is (creating your own market) and case studies of companies that successfully created their own blue ocean (think Airbnb). Must read.

For the first-time you experience failure as a new entrepreneur

4.     “How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs” by Guy Raz

Ever since I listened to my first podcast episode of “How I Built This” on NPR, I was hooked! It’s filled with stories from founders of successful startups and companies you’re familiar with today. What makes these stories unique is that they don’t gloss over the ugly parts. They highlight the ‘trough of despair’ as Guy Raz calls it. The moment in an entrepreneur’s journey when things fall apart, they lose their most important customer and the rest start to follow down the same path, or they run themselves so deep into debt and desperately need a lifeline to save the company. If you’re looking for some inspiring stories of triumph, overcoming major setbacks and resilience as a new entrepreneur, this one is for you.

5.     “It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated Into Your Greatest Advantage” by Arlan Hamilton

If you follow news about investors, specifically investors who invest in underrepresented founders, you’re familiar with Arlan Hamilton. She’s the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital. Follow Arlan as she shares how she pursued a career in investing without any previous experience and went from being homeless to gracing the cover of Fast Company magazine after launching her VC. Inspiring read if you love rooting for the underdog to succeed.

For the first-time negotiator

6.     “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It” by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz

This one came highly recommended to me by a friend and it’s on my reading list for the year. She said that it helped her tremendously when she started working in sales and the tips are relevant to any negotiation situation – salary, promotion or a new business pitch.

For the first-time people manager

7.     “The Making of a Manager: What To Do When Everyone Looks At You” by Julie Zhou

Another recommendation that I have yet to read. Becoming a people manager for the first time is exciting and requires a big shift in skills. You’re now responsible for keeping your team motivated, delegating work to your team vs. doing the work yourself, making hiring decisions, managing team conflict and giving your team feedback. You’ll need a go-to resource for tips on how to handle any management situation effectively.

8.     “The Heart of Laser Focused Coaching: A Revolutionary Approach to Masterful Coaching” by

Marion Franklin

A skill that this new role will demand much from you is coaching. This is the practice of asking powerful questions and sharing insights drawn from your team’s behavior to help them improve or change. Even though I’ve been practicing coaching for 15+ years and got a refresher during graduate school, this book opened my eyes to numerous brilliant coaching tips that I’ve successfully applied to my practice.

9.     “The Art of Gathering: How we meet and why it matters” by Priya Parker

This is a great book if you’re looking to design meaningful team meetings or events. Priya explains why the details matter to the attendees at your next gathering. She shares how you can apply this knowledge to create productive and thoughtfully designed team meetings.

For the first-time you try to start AND maintain good habits

10.  “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” by James Clear

Love this one. The author speaks about how our systems or “habits” is what will help us achieve the goals we wish to achieve. When we fail to set up good systems, we fail to achieve our goals. He offers easy to execute tips and even designed his book in a way that makes it easy to finish (for the person who struggles to finish a book).

Are you preparing for a career change? Check out my coaching services to see how I can help you get started or DM me on LinkedIn to set up a free consultation call.