The BEST career prep book (in my opinion)!

I received the following question:

"Can you recommend a good career preparedness book or youtube video?"

There are a lot of different resources I could recommend, but if I'm going to boil it down to one it would be this:

"So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport. I feel like this book is essential. I actually spend a whole week of my 4-week Career Prep Challenge based around the ideas in this book to help students build a framework around how they will approach the career pursuit decision.

So much of our focus in America is on passion. What are you passionate about, what do you enjoy, what are your interests, etc. When it comes time for teens to explore career paths those questions usually play the lions share in their decision. 

Only problem with this is if most teens make their decisions based solely on what they are "passionate" about, we'll end up with the majority of the workforce being YouTube personalities, video game developers, LEGO set designers, etc.

Just because we are passionate about a subject doesn't mean it makes sense as a career path, and this book makes an awesome case for focusing on skills, rather than passions, in determining career direction. 

While not specifically directed at teens, this book is built around the premise that understanding, developing, and leveraging your own set of valuable skills is the best route to work you love, and I feel sets a much more realistic (and helpful) framework for teens to explore career paths.

Want some more resources on career exploration for your teen? I would recommend checking out our FREE Personality Test Guide or enrolling in our $39 4-week Career Prep Challenge (details here).