The Strategic Career

A comprehensive guide to planning your career using sound business strategy concepts.
We often hear that finding the work we are meant for will multiply our accomplishments and enable us to attain new levels of personal satisfaction. Yet, many who are planning their careers find that the job market has shifted to the advantage of employers, whether because of the recession, globalization, IT-driven productivity, or other changes in the business landscape. Faced with these tough circumstances, it is more critical than ever for professionals to create a plan of attack and make sound decisions as they navigate their careers.
The Strategic Career provides readers with the ultimate guide to career choices—both short-term and long. While other authors approach career development from the perspective of psychology and counseling, Bill Barnett demonstrates how business strategy concepts can successfully guide us as we chart our careers. Drawing on two decades of experience leading McKinsey & Company’s Strategy Practice, as well as his popular Career Strategy courses at Yale and Rice University, he approaches the construction of a long-term career plan by looking at the main challenges professionals will face: developing and reaching long-term targets, surfacing opportunities, assessing career decisions, and staying on track. Underpinning his advice with research and illustrating it with vivid stories from others’ successes, Barnett lays out practical, step-by-step processes to help readers realize their goals.
Complete with a program to help you develop your own plan and over 100 specific activities to guide you, The Strategic Career is the ideal companion on your professional pathway.
Praise for The Strategic Career
“If you want more from your career—not just more money, but more satisfaction, more engagement, and more control—read Bill’s book. Career success is not a matter of luck; it’s a matter of strategy. And who better to demonstrate the application of business strategy to careers than this long-time leader at the world’s top strategic consulting firm.” —Scott Uhrig, Founder and Managing Partner, Whiterock Partners
“Barnett’s book fills a major gap in both strategic and career thinking, namely how to apply strategic principles to find a true “calling” in one’s work. Through thoughtful integration of his own strategic experience and the extensive research he draws on, Barnett provides invaluable insights to those facing career choices.” —Jon R. Katzenbach; Senior Executive Advisor, Strategy&; and co-author of The Wisdom of Teams
“This insightful book will empower the reader to navigate what can sometimes feel like a daunting and overwhelming experience.” —Michelle Jarrard, Director of Firm Personnel, McKinsey & Company