Work Happy: Get the Job you Want; Love the Job you Have by Andrea Molloy, a personal coach from Auckland is a readable, information packed resource for those wishing to know how to assess and improve their career prospects. Suitable for the school leaver or the mid-lifer seeking new direction, 20 practical strategies are set out to assist in the process.
Work Happy: Get the Job you Want - Love the Job you Have
By Andrea Molloy
Work Happy is a readable, information packed resource for those wishing to know how to assess and improve their career prospects. Suitable for the school leaver or the mid-lifer seeking new direction, 20 practical strategies are set out to assist in the process.
Andrea Molloy is a successful Auckland personal coach and this is one of a number of books she has written on the subject. She uses a mix of information, anecdotes, action tasks and self-coaching questions. These allow the reader to work through the step by step process of analysing their skills, interests and values; setting their own career goals; and putting together resources to enable them to work towards them.
It is a practical and down to earth approach which makes it easy for the reader to choose which information and activities are suitable for their own situation. Andrea encourages the reader to return to the book regularly and use it as a tool to measure progress towards attaining career goals as well as achieving greater job satisfaction.
She asserts that we are responsible for our own happiness and that we can ensure that our career is the right one for us, utilising our best skills and aligned to our deepest values. In this way, she says, we will find true job satisfaction.
She alerts the reader to the possibility that their lack of satisfaction at work may not be just to do with the job itself, but possibly more to do with stereotypes and misconceptions about particular types of work. Flexibility, adaptability and a commitment to lifelong learning are tactics which will help us all to weather the ongoing changes in the world of work. Investing in ourselves will increase our enjoyment in our work and our ability to gain new employment or advance in the job we already have.
As well as providing advice on finding a first job, there is also a section on seeing the positive possibilities afforded by redundancy. Seeing redundancy as a time to take stock and reassess goals and plans rather than the end of the road, allows people to gain a sense of control and move forward in a more purposeful manner.
Practical tools are set out for using in the job search process – information on the hidden job market, how to write CVs and the interview process are all given in an easy to follow format.
Andrea also looks at building good attitudes to team work, managing your career and injecting fun into your working life. Strategies for work-life balance are also covered, as is the importance of self-care and a healthy lifestyle.
This book is a useful resource, full of tools to use when looking for a job or trying to find greater satisfaction and direction in your career. It is a means of self-coaching which many will find extremely useful. Others will find it leads on to seeing a coach – an interaction which can further facilitate the use of the tools set out in the book.
