Leaders are readers! Here are a few good books for you to check out. If you have any recommendations to add, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me.
The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel Pink
Be Great: The Five Foundations of an Extraordinary Life by Peter Thomas
Delivering Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion & Purpose by Tony Hsieh
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff — and it’s all small stuff by Richard Carlson
Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership by Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris
GET HIRED! A Recruiter’s Formula to Land Your First Job After College by John W. Lepley
Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath
Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation by Frans Johansson
Oh! The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Suess
Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, and Annie McKee
Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton and John Huey
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Campus To Career 
The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey is one of my favorites!
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Excellent recommendation, Steve. I just finished that one via podcast. I’ll have to add it to the list!
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I recently read “Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives” which has some interesting concepts. Its probably for more “non-traditional” career paths (whatever that means) and those who want to simultaneously pursue purpose and work.
Chip and Dan’s second book Switch is quite good too. I’m not sure how it works in the career setting, beyond self motivation (to change one’s habits which inhibit successful career transitions and search)
Goldman’s work in Primal Leadership is pretty interesting as well.
The five things I wish I had done in my early career search:
1) Hustle (there is an HBR article about this thats popular in business school)
2) Listen (interview hr people in my field to find our what experiences and skill sets they were looking for)
3) Try. Sometimes you don’t know until you try. Its pretty much the only scientific way to find out (besides asking others and using your intuition)
4) Volunteer (doing actual work in your chosen field is a lot more exciting than reading job announcements)
5)Network (where to network….how to network)
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Nathan,
Thanks for the great recommendations and insight on some of the books above. I love the five things you wish you had done early in your career search. Great list! Have you considered doing a blog post on this? Interested in guest blogging on Campus to Career? Let me know!
Kirk
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How to Argue and Win Every Time by Gerry Spence. Disregard the title, it’s actually about increasing communication skills in general – excellent pointers though.
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I haven’t read that one, but will certainly look it up! Thanks for the recommendation.
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You should review “GETTING FROM COLLEGE TO CAREER”, 2nd Edition by Lindsey Pollak (https://www.lindseypollak.com/). The author specializes in millennials.
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