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Looking to Make a Midlife Career Change? First, Start Reading.

Submitted by Greg on February 23, 2007 - 2:02pm.

Looking to learn more about a midlife career change? We've pulled together book recommendations from outplacement firms, career development professionals, and twenty-plus years of our own reading. The links for each title take you to the book's Amazon.com page.

(If you haven't been there already, look at LifeTwo's Job and Career section too!)

	I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know It's Not This: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work by Julie Jansen. A well regarded mix of assessment quizzes, anecdotes, and advice.
	The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success - highly praised, but you have to do the work to find out what's right for you.
	Changing Careers for Dummies by Carol McClelland. The usual thorough, action-oriented "Dummies" approach.
	What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson. Want to learn by example? Journalist Bronson follows fifty people trying to figure out what they should do with their lives. Unlike many other titles, he shows failure as well as success. You won't find to-do lists here, but you may find insight and inspiration.
	The Ultimate Guide To Getting The Career You Want And What To Do Once You Have It by Karen Dowd and Sherrie Gong Taguchi. Dowd and Taguchi present a thorough process: understanding how you got to where you are, assessment what you need to do, and action.
	Whistle While You Work: Heeding Your Life's Calling by Richard Leider and David Shapiro. A philosophical, big-picture approach to "what do I want to do when I grow up?"
	Do What You Are : Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type -- Uses Myers-Briggs personality types to guide you to what you should be doing. Some say that it's a little hard to find your type using the books' descriptions (rather than, say, a test), but most praise the value of the exercise.

This next group of books isn't as focused on mid-life career change, but they may have some value:

(no cover image available)	In Transition by Mary Burton and Richard Wedemeyer. Developed out of long-running program for Harvard Business School graduates. Although it covers the entire career / job search process, the chapters on sussing out what's best for you are succinct and valuable. Out of print but available used at Amazon.
	The Challenger Guide: Job Hunting Success for Mid-Career Professionals by James Challenger. The founder of outplacement firm Challenger Gray provides a concise soup-to-nuts guide to mid-career job search. If you're looking for an entirely new career, this is not the book for you. If you want to stay in the same field or career, read this before engaging a headhunter.
	What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles. There's a reason it's in its' zillionth printing -- it's good. The one chapter on self-assessment is an extremely helpful list of alternative approaches and resources. See also the accompanying workbook.
	Change Your Job, Change Your Life, 9th Edition: Careering and Re-Careering in the New Boom/Bust Economy by Ronald L. Krannich - very list-y. Covers the entire job-search process, with not much emphasis on new careers.