HEADHUNTER CONFIDENTIAL: How to Get the Best Jobs and the Best People—Exclusive Tips from One of the Top Headhunters in the Business

Christian, a headhunter who is perhaps best known for placing Carly Fiorina in the CEO position at Hewlett-Packard, offers a book that is part memoir and part advice tome for job seekers and employers. He begins by describing his first headhunting job, which involved making cold calls to place people in the chemicals and plastics field. Though inexperienced, Christian had a talent for sizing up people and quickly became a success; he did so well that he soon launched his own company. Christian readily admits it was the early 1980s, a time when there were available jobs for almost anyone who wanted to work at the levels he placed. The subsequent boom and bust of the tech field and the dot-coms provided him with more experience; he believes that the lessons he's learned as a headhunter apply to both employees and employers. For example, he identifies five key traits shared by all effective leaders: they're honest, smart, passionate about their work, humble and possess the ability to surround themselves with other smart, capable people. Christian offers suggestions for interviewers and would-be employees, such as looking outside their specialties, preparing themselves for all job opportunities and learning to read body language. Christian's writing style is engaging and his advice is sound. However, since he attempts to cover several topics—interviewing, recruiting and retaining—the book ends up as an overview of the broad subject of employment rather than a specific how-to guide. Agent, Jim Levine. (Sept.)