From School to a Career: A Student's Guide to Success in the Real World (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: From School to a Career: A Student's Guide to Success in the Real World Scott C. Brown From School to a Career: A Student's Guide to Success in the Real World John R. Jell Lanham, MD: ScarecrowEducation, 2005, 96 pages. $10.95 (softcover) The stated objective of this book is to provide high school and college students with a practical roadmap to be successful in the real world. This slim volume is meant to be a guide to this journey, and is organized into seven chapters: "What do You Want to Do in the Future?"; "What Employers Are Looking For"; "The Importance of Balancing Formal and Informal Learning"; "The Role of Degrees, Grades, and Experience Come Graduation"; "Getting Relevant Experience by Investing Time"; "Getting Focused on Your Future"; and, "Going to College and Education Costs." Each chapter has a summary and a basic application piece, and Jell uses anecdotes and simple diagrams to keep things lively. He pitches this to all high school and college students, but this audience is too broad. There is much press about the anxieties of college-bound students of not just getting into college, but getting into the "right" college. These are the savvy students that have grown up in an environment with coaches and tutors providing ways to give advantage in the college process. This book is not for them. This book will be a bit too simplistic and obvious (e.g., internships are important), and some of the bromides and platitudes may seem a bit clichéd or cloying. [End Page 700] Jell does not say this outright, but this book is best suited for students who are most likely first-generation college students or are not in an educational environment that has a great deal of resources, expectations or systems in place that typically support college-bound students. For example, he makes the case why a college degree is important, which seems that the intended audience is not necessarily familiar with the benefits of a college education. He also identifies how the home or personal context can constrain the benefits of college, again hinting that the reader may not have a home environment that is necessarily supportive or understanding of the college experience. There are a number of books that have addressed students' transition to college and beyond. Other books treat the issues much more comprehensively. For example Career By Design: Communicating Your Way To Success (Hanna, 2005), and Job Hunting Guide: Transitioning from College to Career (Krannich & Krannich, 2003) both address self-assessment, the tools to obtain work (e.g., resumes, cover letters, networking, etc.), with a great deal more supporting research and resources, websites, involved personal exercises and are presented in a much more exhaustive and slick fashion. From College to Career is different because it is designed to help the tentative and the largely less-informed student navigate the basic steps of this uncertain process. It strips down the process to its most basic steps to help jump-start this path, removing all but the most essential information to get started. Its more no-frills look may be less attractive to some audiences, but this presentation may be less overwhelming and intimidating for the tentative student. The book's strength is its plucky, scrappy, boot-strapping spirit. It is hard not to like Jell's earnest and sincere interest in helping young people. It is hard to dissociate the book's content from the author. This book is an impassioned plea from an ardent believer, short on research but long on lessons learned from the School of Hard Knocks. He makes a clear case of why students need to buckle down and maximize their college years. Although the first person perspective is sometimes distracting, his intended audience will care a great deal about his personal story, which is a source of authority. Jell offers himself as the savvy, caring, straight-talking big brother you wish you had or a personal guidance counselor in your hands. He talks with great candor about his family difficulties in a way that sets an effective context as to how to transcend them. The tone is incessantly upbeat and empowering...