How to get any job : life launch & relaunch for everyone under 30 (or how to avoid living in your parents' basement

 by Donald Asher. Career guru Donald Asher has updated his job search bible How to Get Any Job: Life Launch and Re-Launch for Everyone Under 30, now available in a new second edition. Target audience: Perfect for every soon-to-be college grad who hasn’t thought beyond finding paid employment in order to get out of his parents’ house. The author, who has made more than $1 million rewriting executive resumes, has some unexpected advice: Stop working on your resume and start by figuring out your passion. He advises college students to quit worrying about just getting a job and instead focus on life planning.
Best advice: Finding the right career is a process of self-discovery. Asher takes the reader through a series of activities, including listing the top five world issues you’re concerned about and every job ever held by everyone in your extended family, to help you discover your values, interests and potential career areas. He advocates going beyond choosing a college major by contemplating what will make you happy.
Biggest surprise: Asher’s advice can seem pushy. He recommends calling leads once a day for 100 days and says the biggest problem for job seekers is not being aggressive enough.  --BookPage Reviews. (Check Catalog)

Good value : reflections on money, morality, and an uncertain world

 by Stephen Green. Beginning with the recent financial crisis, Green, the former CEO of HSBC and an ordained Anglican priest, launches into a deeply reflective examination of globalization, urbanization, and the market economy. Drawing on a diverse range of sources-from the Koran to The Wealth of Nations, T.S. Eliot to Thomas Friedman-and placing market vicissitudes into a broad historical context, he contends that globalization has passed the point of no return and that, despite its flaws and failings, the market economy is the best economic arrangement available. Green pivots to consider the importance of corporate and personal responsibility in an increasingly interdependent world. Though the author does describe the Christian foundations for his own metaphysical and ethical views, he spends more time discussing Goethe's Faust than any Gospel. Green never calls for any particular reform; rather he makes an inspiring and erudite case for individuals to make moral sense of their lives and strive to make a better world despite the inherent imperfections in human nature and the globalized marketplace. --Publishers Weekly. (Check Catalog)

Use your head to get your foot in the door : job search secrets no one else will tell you

 by Harvey Mackay. This collection of job search tips by Mackay (Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive) follows the style of his previous best sellers, complete with humorous examples and "Quickie" one-page stories that illustrate his main points. Don't let the cover or any worry about his sense of humor dissuade you: this is a very useful book. The short chapters with descriptive titles make it easy to navigate, and Mackay offers tips-from changing your attitude to getting hired-both for those currently employed but wishing to position themselves better in their current companies and for those who are out of work. Highly recommended for job seekers and career changers at all experience levels. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

Conflict resolution at work for dummies

 by Vivian Scott. A practical workplace guide to handling conflict effectivelyManaging employees and encouraging them to work together toward a common goal is an essential skill that all leaders should possess. Conflict Resolution at Work For Dummies provides the tools and advice you need to restore peace, train your colleagues to get along better with others, prevent conflicts from ever starting, and maintain better productivity while boosting morale. One of the only trade publications that takes the manager's perspective on how to address conflicts, resolve disputes, and restore peace and productivity to the workplace Examines more positive means for resolving conflicts (other than arguing, surrendering, running away, filing a lawsuit, etc.) Helps managers and employees sort through problems and make the workplace a more rewarding place. --Publisher. (Check catalog)

The value of nothing : how to reshape market society and redefine democracy

Raj Patel. Expanding on his analysis and recommendations in Stuffed and Starved, which located the horrifying imbalance in the world's food system in its profit-driven framework, activist and academic Patel critiques "free market culture" at a moment of universal crisis, both economic and environmental. Beginning with a historically grounded account of market society's operative assumptions, "the way capitalism sets the terms of value," Patel takes aim at the notion of "Homo economicus": a vision of human beings as self-interested utility-maximizers integral to market society's dollar-valuation of everything. Through a shrewd and absorbing discussion, Patel exposes the flaws in the "model of the world in which people are... prepared to override their own better judgment in service of their selfish natures" and the nominal separation of the economy and the state, describing the relationship as compromised but also more "plastic" then we are often led to believe. With due attention to the developing world as well as Europe and North America, the author offers examples of the "countermovement" underway and urges us to build on a vision of ourselves far more extensive, generous and hopeful than that confined to market society's Homo economicus. --Publishers Weekly. (Check catalog)

IT Disaster Recovery Planning for Dummies

by Peter Gregory. This work in the popular series contains a common methodology that will help organizations prepare for and recover from different types of disasters. Part I describes the nature of disasters and their effects on business, and takes readers on an end-to-end tour of the entire disaster recovery planning process. Part II contains core components of the disaster recovery plan, with chapters on planning user recovery, facilities protection, system and network recovery, data recovery, and writing the disaster recovery plan. Part III focuses on what happens after the disaster recovery plans are written, with advice on plan testing and descriptions of five common types of tests. A final section (the "Part of Tens") describes 10 disaster recovery planning tools, 11 relevant Web sites, and 10 benefits of disaster recovery planning. Gregory is an information security consultant. (Check Catalog)

The AARP Retirement Survival Guide : how to make smart financial decisions in good times and bad

by Julie Jason. *Starred Review* The AARP brand works extraordinarily well in providing valuable and objective information that readers can put to good use immediately especially on the subjects of health care and finances. Case in point: author (The 401(k) Plan Handbook, 1997, among others) and investment counsel Jason thoroughly and accurately reviews the state of retirement 2009 with full consideration of our current economy. That state includes a solid grounding in the basics (such as the infamous What's your number? discussion), careful outlines of how to approach retirement income products as well as the stock market, and approaches to taxes and to potential advisors. What's unusual is her factual analysis of CDs (featuring a checklist), reverse mortgages, annuities in all shapes and forms (e.g., immediate, equity-indexed, fixed), and guaranteed minimum benefits (in the forms of withdrawal and income benefits). In fact, it's well worth the book's cover price to delve into these somewhat arcane financial instruments if only because the author posits, in plain English, the ups and downs: warnings (e.g., read the prospectus), the workings, the terms to know along with hints, the promises, and a clear statement of what you get for your money. If that isn't clear enough, she creates a fictional case study with numbers and charts, accompanied by a straightforward assessment on ease of understanding, complexity, risks, safety, costs and taxes, and the salesperson's motivation. That approach characterizes all of the chapters, whether on tax-deferred accounts or sales scams to avoid. Resources and research cinch the deal to consider this top of the borrower's pile. --Booklist. (Check Catalog)