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Title: Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams
ISBN: 0345499743
Author:
Pamela Skillings
Publicate Date: 2008-05-13
Publish: 2008-05-13
List Price: $15.00
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $6.97
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $6.20
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.20
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| Customer Review: |
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1: A Breath of Fresh Air for the Future Entrepreneur!
This book not only provides stories on real people who have escaped, it is a wealth of on-line information. It definitely inspired me to consider hanging up my corporate hat. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt that they didn't belong in the corporate world but were too afraid to try something different.
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2: Excellent career-changing advice with good humor
Pam's approach to escaping corporate America is realistic, direct, and is almost as if she's walking you through the process while standing right next to you and making sure you tackle every step without any obstacles. Her approach is extremely practical and doesn't even need to be read by the corporate worker; anyone looking for some sort of job change (or even a book for leisure reading) will get ideas and inspiration from Skillings's detailed writeup of how you can take charge of your career, find happiness, and pursue your dreams.
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3: This book covers all the basic options available to someone who is tired of the rat race and wants something different.
This was a nice little book. I especially liked the cheery yellow cover. It is divided into three sections and 12 chapters as follows:
I. Plan your escape (1-4)
II. Exploring your escape routes (5-11)
III. Going over the wall (12)
1. This is not your father's job market
2. The trouble with the rat race
3. True callings and wrong numbers
4. Let's get practical
5. Corporate jobs that don't suck
6. Take a break
7. Swim in a smaller pond
8. Go solo
9. Build a business
10. Follow your creative dreams
11. Make a difference
12. Going over the wall
A. Have a nice escape
B. The escape toolkit
C. Meet the escape artists
I thought the book was well written and well organized. I liked the 5-page quiz entitled "Are you a corporate casualty? The author has invested 12 years in corporate America. And then she bailed. She now operates her own consulting shop. She says she spent 3 years talking to 200+ people in order to research this book. And it shows. The book's content makes sense, sounds like it has been well researched, and provides value to anyone who is thinking of following the author's lead and "escaping."
Since I am a SCORE (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) counselor who helps members of this book's target audience on a daily basis, my favorite chapters were 8, 9, and 12. Those are the topics I usually discuss with my SCORE clients. But this book covers all the basic options available to someone who is tired of the rat race and wants something different. 5 stars!
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4: Well done
A well-written, well-researched book with great personal stories. Escaping corporate America is a hot topic, and this is a hot book. Read it. Enjoy it.
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5: Are you serving twenty-to-life in a cube farm?
Skillings' book addresses a dream that many have and that many have made come true: getting out of that cube and into the best job in the world. She presents the case for and the means of escape in a variety of ways: sound advice, case studies in success, gradual approaches to leaving the rat race, and resources for the legal, tax, and other factors that go into creating a business. Through it all, she maintains a bouncy optimism that could well be contagious. Various chapters deal with the problems of the corporate world, the attraction of 'solopreneur' life, and the steps needed to bring the vision to life. Others deal with "corporate jobs that don't suck," careers in the nonprofit world, teaching, and other ways to find satisfaction without the many (and possibly under-represented) problems of going it alone.
One thing stands out in many of these success stories. So many of them start with person X leaving a six-figure (or higher) paycheck that it starts to sound like a pre-requisite. In many cases, starting your own business will go through a lean year or two or more, so any savings you start with will help a lot. In others, the costs of equipment, materials, trade shows, sales trips, and a gaillion other things have to be up-front money, before you see your first nickel of revenue. So, what about the man or woman who starts with less, maybe lots less? Some of the advice here, like starting the new thing months or years before leaving the old, will help the startup starting with less. Still, this book might not be ideal for those who haven't already made a pile elsewhere. This book's other weakness lies in near-zero mention of the publicity campaign you'll need for selling yourself. There are endless opportunities there, including writing reviews at Amazon! (My current job came because of an Amazon review, and my brother has been invited to add to a forthcoming book based on one of his reviews - it can happen.)
Despite minor flaws, Skillings does a great job of motivating the reader to get on with her (or maybe his) dreams. She acknowledges that change can be scary, especially when it means a dramatic down-sizing of income, possibly to zero or less, during the startup phase. Well, fear isn't all bad. The right kind has amazing power to focus your attention, and one message comes through consistently: focus and dedication are two things needed to live the life you dream, and might be the only things needed.
-- wiredweird, reviewing a complimentary copy
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