Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
 Depraved April 21, 2010
Mark Youngkin (Pickerington, Ohio, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had this book for a grad school class, and it's one of the program's only clunkers. An especially surprising choice for a Christian college, it posits a trend away from traditional employment that may or may not exists, and asks the reader to buy into it wholeheartedly or get left behind. It also asks the reader to narcissistically pursue happiness in one's career to the exclusion of other considerations. Bad, bad, bad.
 A Useful Take on Turning Your Capabilities into a Business January 5, 2010
Passionman
This is a distinctive take on the bottom-up approach to career change. Bill Bridges suggests that you should find and then mine your DATA, an acronym that refers to your desires, abilities, temperament, and assets. It is a thought-provoking take by a leading academic in organizational and individual transitions. The final part of the book is a useful look at turning your DATA into a business--finding an opportunity (where Bridges is good on where top look for "unmet needs"), creating a product, and running a micro-business.
Vaughan Evans, business and career strategist
Author, BACKING U! A Business-Oriented Approach to Backing Your Passion and Achieving Career Success
 Great book! April 6, 2006
J. Stutzman (Pennsylvania)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an incredible inspiration and manual for taking charge of your own career. I'm afraid to let the word get out because the fewer people applying the principles, the less competition I will have. This is a must read!
A fascinating read January 25, 2006
Louise McCauley (Chicago, IL)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The traditional organization of work, since the age of the Industrial Revolution, in which work is parceled out into permanent jobs is coming to an end, says the author. More and more, people today work on temporary projects in teams, either as part-time workers or as contractors from outside organizations. There are six fundamental forces today that are changing the way people work, says the author.
1. Knowledge work: This work is hard to divide into distinct, repetitive tasks, and usually ad-hoc project teams are more effective.
2. Technology: Information technology is making it easier for people to do their work anywhere, anytime.
3. The rapid pace of change: Traditional jobs aren't flexible enough to keep up with the rapid pace of change in today's business climate.
4. Management initiatives: New management initiatives from reengineering to TQM have created greater flexibility in companies and eroded the rigid, job-based structure.
5. Unbundled organizations: To enhance organizational flexibility, management has been breaking up the traditional, integrated organization into its component activities.
6. The baby boomers: The individualism of the baby boom generation, currently dominating the work force, has led them to seek work outside of traditional job roles.
In this changing business climate, you must find work, not a job. To find work, it is necessary to seek unmet needs and create solutions for them. Companies aren't looking for a resume anymore. Instead they are looking for a new set of criteria, that Bridges has grouped under the acronym DATA: Desires, Abilities, Temperament and Assets. In this new workplace you must position yourself as someone whose "DATA" enables you to solve problems and get things done.
If you don't create your own job, who will? September 7, 2005
L. Cusumano
William Bridges branches out from his work on transitions to state another fact that is so obvious, that we often overlook it. In Creating You & Co, he notes that we are each individually in charge of identifying the product our client - whether our boss, employees, or customers - need, and then providing it. If you want to feel secure about your ability to earn a living, read this and then act on it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
|
