Announcing: My first e-book

If you’re coming from Ramit’s site, welcome.  Here are a few posts that I think you will particularly enjoy:

• My e-book summarized in a few short paragraphs
• “What you’ll wish you’d known” – Paul Graham’s advice to graduates
• The fastest way to earn anyone’s trust

And if you really like reading advice on careers and entrepreneurship, you’ll want to subscribe to this blog.  I write about those topics pretty frequently.

To my current readers… Several of you have emailed me, saying, “I noticed you tag a lot of articles as ‘rpgrad’ in Delicious.  What does that mean?”  Well, here’s your answer: I’ve written an e-book called “Recession-Proof Graduate.” What started as a guest post turned into a 30-page tirade on how poorly most people approach their careers. The book is currently posted on Ramit’s site, but you can read it here.

You can also download it: Recession-Proof Graduate (right-click + ‘Save As’)

All the articles I’ve been tagging ‘rpgrad’ will be used in some way or another when I start writing the real book sometime next year.  The book will contain: case studies, interviews with some incredibly accomplished people, guest chapters, more in-depth explanations of the principles, email scripts, etc.  I’m going to work my ass off to make it really good.

So why did I release an incomplete precursor to the actual book?  A few reasons.

First off, it’s been depressing to see how many smart, ambitious, and capable graduates are basically lost right now.  A lot of them could be doing great things, but because they’re using conventional job-hunting methods, they’ve severely limited their options.  The recession only magnifies how outdated these methods are, and its forcing kids into terrible jobs or extended unemployment.  I wanted to present an alternative approach in a brief, palatable format.  And a single blog post just didn’t give me enough room to cover everything I wanted to talk about.

Second, as far as I know, there hasn’t been anyone who has explicitly addressed how graduates can get good jobs with a full book.  The only authors I know who have come close lack credibility in some way or another — they’re either way too old and thus far removed from what it’s like as a recent graduate in this climate, or they’re a weirdo who’s obsessed with Gen Y and social media.  Or, even worse, they lack credentials altogether and are spouting advice based on theory, not firsthand experience.

Finally, I wanted to gauge the demand for a book on this topic.  I’m pretty sure there’s plenty of it, based on the volume of stuff on blogs and in the news discussing this very issue, as well as a bunch of emails I’ve received from college students asking for advice.

Over the next several months, I’ll be looking for case studies to include in the book.  I’m looking for anyone who (1) was able to get a really cool job they wanted, and (2) doesn’t hate their life.  I don’t care how they did it, they just had to have done it.  If you know someone who fits the bill, email me.  I know a bunch of other people who meet those requirements, and have intentionally left them out of this version of the e-book.  This is because I want to give them a bigger role in the real thing, whatever that entails.

Anyways, this e-book is just one of several cool things I’ll be announcing over the next few months.  Keep your eyes peeled, there’s more to come.

—

Two more things.  First, I have to give a huge thanks to Susan Su, who designed the e-book.  In less than 24 hours, she turned a plain Word document into something that looks pretty damn sharp.  Thanks Susan, you are awesome.

Second, Alex recently did a great interview with PhilaLawyer that I highly recommend.  It covers many of the same topics I addressed in the e-book.