Becoming You: The Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career

In this competent program, Welch (coauthor of The Real-Life MBA), a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, offers advice on how readers can pursue the career of their dreams. She provides diagnostic tools to help readers gain clarity on their priorities; her “Values Bridge,” for instance, asks readers to rate how much they care about such concerns as getting rich, helping others, and spending time with family. To determine one’s strengths, she encourages reflection on how adaptable, assured, grounded, or curious one is, suggesting that people with little nerve don’t thrive in managerial roles while those who love learning flourish as consultants. Urging readers to think about less obvious career paths, she recounts counseling a disgruntled banker with a hankering for adventure to network with people in the travel industry, which revealed there were more opportunities than the banker had initially believed and led him to return to school for hotel administration so he could land a job with more chances to travel. While the guidance sometimes risks devolving into a collection of lengthy questionnaires, it succeeds in providing structure for contemplating one’s priorities and which lines of work most closely align with them. This will best serve recent college graduates looking for a sense of direction. Agent: Robert Barnett, Williams & Connolly. (May)