Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams
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Product Description
Does your corporate career leave you stressed out, burned out, or just plain bummed out? You’re not alone. The good news is that there’s a way out–and you’re holding it. Written by career expert and corporate escapee Pamela Skillings, Escape from Corporate America inspires the cubicle-bound and the corner-office-cornered to break free and create the career of their dreams–without going broke. With no-nonsense advice and unflagging humor, Skillings shows you how to
• assess your job’s “suck” factor–from terminal boredom to boss from hell
• identify your true calling–brainstorm fantasy careers and test-drive your dream jobs
• develop your Escape Plan–set goals, figure out your timing, and evaluate your finances and health insurance options
• find jobs that don’t bite–entrepreneurial corporate environments, energetic start-ups, the nonprofit sector, and flexible work options
• be your own boss–explore entrepreneurship and freelancing, assemble an advisory team, and start a business while you collect a paycheck
• follow your creative dreams–learn how to make time for your artistic passion and develop a plan to quit your day job
• overcome any obstacle–deal with fear, doubt, negative people, and other bumps along the road
Plus, Skillings shares success stories from dozens of corporate escape artists, including celebrity TV chef Andrea Beaman, Cranium CEO Richard Tait, and many others.
Full of practical strategies and fun-to-follow exercises, Escape from Corporate America will help disgruntled office workers everywhere find more meaningful, fulfilling careers.
Praise for Escape from Corporate America
"With insight and humor, Skillings enumerates the stages of “Corporate Disillusionment” and the features of the “toxic workplace”—the bullying bosses, moronic co-workers, “terminal boredom” and rampant racism and sexism. A multitude of questionnaires, exercises and worksheets helps readers determine their dream job, assess expenses and assets, and plot an escape plan to break free of corporate life without going bankrupt....Vignettes of successful fugitives from the corporate world populate the book and an extremely useful “Escape Tool Kit” supplies information on where and how to find career coaches, health insurance, job listings and a wealth of other much needed resources when embarking on career change. Comprehensive, informative and witty, this book will be indispensable to those looking to start new careers with concrete plans and well-defined goals." –Publishers Weekly
“Escape from Corporate America isn’t just the best book ever written on creating the career of your dreams -- it is the most stirring and useful book on careers that I’ve ever read. Pam Skillings inspired me first with her own story and then with stories who successfully escaped dreary, heartless, and sometimes nasty workplaces. This masterpiece will give you the skills to make the leap from a mind-numbing job to a great career and the courage to follow your heart.” –Robert Sutton, Stanford Professor and author of The No Asshole Rule
“This book might just change your life!”
–Barbara Sher
“Pamela Skillings gives you the tools you need to take control of your career and have a more fulfilling life.”
–Beth Schoenfeldt, founder of Ladies Who Launch
www.escapefromcorporate.com
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
A Breath of Fresh Air for the Future Entrepreneur!
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Comment:
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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Summary:
Excellent career-changing advice with good humor
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Comment:
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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Summary:
This book covers all the basic options available to someone who is tired of the rat race and wants something different.
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Comment:
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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Summary:
Well done
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Comment:
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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Summary:
Are you serving twenty-to-life in a cube farm?
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Comment:
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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