January 2011-30 Minutes to Improve you Networking Skills
December 2010-The Student's Guide to Exam Success
November 2010-What Can You Do With a Major in Business
October 2010-Whistle While You Work
September 2010-Ethics in a Business Society
The Ashesi Career Centre has a large number of books with vast wealth of information and knowledge, a large number of which remain unread. For this reason, book reviews were started to draw the attention to them them and entreat members of the Ashesi community to make use of the information available to them.
I read a book I borrowed from the career services library; the book talks about “A clear, simple, and effective method to help you identify your core passions so you can create the fulfilling life you deserve.”-John Gray. I believe that it will be useful to share it with you. Below is the picture of the book:
The title of the book is “The Passion Test” by Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood.
I want to encourage everyone to get this book either from the career service library or by purchase. You can pass by the office and pick up a copy though I think it’s better to have your own copy.
THE SEVEN KEYS TO LIVING LIFE ALIGNED WITH PASSION
1. Be committed to your passions.
2. Clarity. When you are clear, what you want will show up in your life, and only to the extent that you are clear. Fuzzy desires give fuzzy results.
3. Attention. What you put your attention on grows stronger in your life; therefore put your attention on what you want to create in your life.
4. Stay open. Your greatest good may not be what you think.
5. Integrity. Be as true to yourself as you are to others and be as true to others as you are to yourself.
6. Persistence.
7. Follow your heart.
Please do read this book and give yourself the gift of living a passionate life. Thanks for reading to this point.
Book Review by:
Winifred Quartey-Papafio (2015)
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Bibliography
Attwood, Janet B and Chris Attwood. The Passion Test. New York: Penguin Group, 2008.
January 2011-30 Minutes to Improve you Networking Skills
Catt, Hilton, and Patricia Scudamore. 30 Minutes…To Improve Your Networking Skills. London: Kogan Page, 2000.
Your degree may improve your chances of getting a job and shaping your career path but without effective networking, your career growth and development will be stagnant. Catt and Scudamore in their book, 30 Minutes…To Improve Your Networking Skills, illustrate how projecting the right personal image can make you become successful at networking. They give you tips on how to start networking professionally right after college.
By reading this book, you will learn that;
Proactive networking and reactive networking are interdependent and the constant switching between them is what makes networks thrive (p. 13).
You should manage and control your networking relationships so that they can perform effectively for you (p. 15).
In professional networking, know what you are looking for and choose only the people who can influence career outcomes for you (p. 18).
You are in a lifelong interview and you need to master your lifelong interview skills in order to project a person-perfect and work-perfect image to those who you network with (p. 58).
Ashesi’s Career Center has a copy of this important book, 30 Minutes…To Improve Your Networking Skills. Feel free to visit the career services library and patronize the available books and/ or recommend some more.
Book review by:
Diana Dayaka Osei
Career Peer Advisor (C2012)
December 2010-The Student's Guide to Exam Success
Tracy, Eileen. The Student’s Guide to Exam Success. 2nd ed. England: Open University Press, 2006.
According to Eileen, “if you’re a student in further or higher education …, this book is for you” (p. vii). “At higher levels, you can never know everything about your subject” but you can score points when you utilize the knowledge about states of mind and techniques for success that The Student’s Guide to Exam Success offers (p. 144).
Reading this book, you will learn the following:
- Success isn’t a limited commodity; there’s enough to go around if you pursue it (p. 21).
- How to revise at strategic points (p. 85).
- Essay-writing tips and practice (p. 128-138).
I have a major essay due today and the essay tips provided in Eileen’s book helped me to write an effective conclusion to my essay.
- Exam success boils down to 20% innate ability, 30% good knowledge of the subject and 50% strong exam technique (p. 147).
What’s more?
- Detailed answers to FAQs by students concerning exams, managing stress, maintaining healthy living and etc, throughout the book
- Effective time-tabling tips (p. 64)
- Techniques to improve your memory (p. 82-108)
- A list of your top four study guides (p. 112)
- Testimonials on overcoming learning difficulties (p. 200)
- And so much more!!
This book is a must-read! I highly recommend it.
Where you can get this book: Ashesi’s Career Center Library
Book review by:
Diana Dayaka Osei
Career Peer Advisor (Class of 2012)
November 2010-What Can You Do With a Major in Business
Welsh, Kate S. What Can You Do with a Major in Business? New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2005.
Reading this book, you will learn;
Challenges associated with a Business Major (p. 18)
How to increase your chances of gainful employment upon graduation by maximizing you time in Ashesi (pgs. 36, 39, 41)
Study tips and thesis-writing tips (p. 41-4)
Whether or not an MBA is right for you and how you can go about it, i.e. taking the GMAT, writing your essay, leveraging your work experience, getting recommendation letters and paying for your MBA (p. 47-61)
Jobs available to business major students, possible employers in the field, training requirements and salary (p. 64-72)
How working for a non-profit organization can benefit you (p. 73-4)
Case studies of how other business students fared on their jobs upon graduation including the challenges they faced (p. 93-112)
What’s more?
Websites for internship search, job search, periodicals, free career aptitude tests and honor societies for business administration majors, such as http://www.deltamudelta.org/
Steps for entrepreneurial endeavors
Recommended books for further reading
Where you can get this book: Ashesi’s Career Center Library
Book review by:
Diana Dayaka Osei
Career Peer Advisor (C2012)
October 2010-Whistle While You Work
Leider, Richard J., and Shapiro, David A. Whistle While You Work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2001.
Making a living is not the same as making a life, says Maya Angelou. A good life is one that is full of happiness and fulfillment. What brings about this sense of satisfaction in life, according to Leider and Shapiro, is the extent to which people feel they are doing the work they were “meant to do”. Whistle While You Work uses other people’s real life experiences to illustrate how we all have a purpose in life; how we are all like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.
By reading this book, you will learn that;
Happiness in life comes from doing work that employs our best-loved talents on projects we are passionate about (p. 14).
Responding to your life’s calling does not necessarily mean you have to quit your current “boring” job in order to pursue what you really love to do. Actually, it means finding creative ways to express our calling in our current work environments (p. 17).
Our childhood view of what we would want to be when we grow up is often brushed aside, as we grow older, in favour of landing a job that “pays the bills”. We therefore limit ourselves by doing what we think we should do and not what we love to do (p. 23).
A life lived in alignment with one’s calling is worth living because when you respond to your life’s calling, the work you do not only matters to you but to others (p. 30).
What’s more?
Whistle While You Work offers a comprehensive exercise to help you discover and/or fine-tune your calling, that inner urge to give your gifts away (p. 36 – p. 39).
Where you can get this book: Ashesi’s Career Services Library
Book review by:
Diana Dayaka Osei
Career Peer Advisor (C2012)
September 2010-Ethics in a Business Society
Childs, Marquis W., and Douglass Cater. Ethics in a business society. US: New American Library, 1963.
We often ask: is integrity valued in 21st century business practices? Absolutely! This book explains how and why and discusses how one can make the dilemma of practising ethical behaviour in a competitive business environment work for oneself.
From this book, you will learn that:
The era of liberalization and capitalism has clouded man’s notion of right and wrong (p.13). There is often conflict between social interest and self interest. Man has lost his values and has become more comfortable exploiting his neighbour.
The values of mankind have been evolving since the Middle Ages when man was primarily concerned with God-seeking (p. 36)
Some advertisers today have established a confusion of values among men; for example, they try to create a link between integrity and the quality of beer when there is no such link (p. 168)
In an attempt to be ethical, most businesses today have made corporate responsibility part of their normal operation (p. 98-99)
Ashesi’s Career Center has a copy of this important book, Ethics in a business society. Feel free to visit the career services library and patronize the available books and/ or recommend some more.
Book review by:
Diana Dayaka Osei
Career Peer Advisor (C2012)
Nathan, Robert, and Linda Hill. Career Counseling. London: SAGE Publications, 2006.
Have you ever thought that career counseling is all about getting advice on the best career path to follow? Then, you were mistaken. Career Counselling, by Nathan and Hill, paints a true picture about career counseling by expanding on the roles and responsibilities of the client and the counselor throughout the process; namely, exploration, understanding and action (p. 9).
By reading this book, you will learn about:
- Reasons why career counseling is more about you and less about the career counselor. Career counseling begins with an examination of “the client’s life as a whole” (p. 48).
- The common questions that clients bring to career counseling (p. 14, p. 16-18) and you may find your situation reflected in the examples provided throughout the book via client-counselor dialogue scenarios.
- What actions you could take if your career choice cannot be implemented for some reason (p. 24, p. 64-65, p. 83, p. 92, p. 102).
- Why career counseling is needed in any organization and what employers expect from their employees in terms of career development (p. 109-p.124).
Ashesi’s Career Center has a copy of this important book, Career Counseling. Feel free to visit the career services library and patronize the available books and/ or recommend some more.
Book review by:
Diana Dayaka Osei
Career Peer Advisor (C2012)