Kick Off Your Career

Nationally syndicated career columnist Kate Wendleton founded the Five O'Clock Club in 1978 to help job hunters, career changers and consultants. She's written books on targeting jobs, landing interviews and building resumes, and now offers Kick Off Your Career: Write a Winning Resume, Ace Your Interview, Negotiate a Great Salary to help recent college graduates find not just a job, but a career. With a 5.9% national unemployment rate for July of this year, job seekers need all the advice they can get, and Wendleton delivers stark, realistic tips and loads of case studies to illustrate her points. For example, her counsel ""expect to be paid fairly"" is fleshed out with the story of a man who, after being laid off, took a job that offered considerably more money than he was previously making, only to be fired within four months. Wendleton's point: the man wasn't worth such a high salary and should've realized that. She also thoroughly explains how to change careers, efficiently use job posting Web sites and follow up after an interview, even if there is no immediate job available.