For anyone looking at the road – or the crossroad—leading to a job search or career change, there hovers the question “Now what?”
Career expert Paul Carpino, M.A., endeavors to answer that by providing guidance in an innovative form. In his unique book “Now, Launch Your Career”, he has researched, compiled and edited personal advice letters from top names in business, education, science, entertainment, arts/design, finance, real estate and many more. This collective wisdom has been synthesized into a book by “career curator” Carpino.
Readers will be especially familiar with, real estate mogul, Donald Trump, comedian Jeff Foxworthy, fitness guru Richard Simmons, Titanic explorer, Dr. Robert Ballard and Las Vegas showman, Danny Gans. Their stories are in the company of others whose careers range from monastic abbot to pastry chef, from hypnotherapist to funeral director. Other careers explored are in the fields of retail, design, health, securities, art, photography, and geology, to name just a few in this wide span of 42 responses.
“Now, Launch Your Career” began as a research project for graduate school, when Carpino was a student at Chapman University. Seeking real world research, he sent letters to very successful people asking them how they broke into or launched their careers?
As Carpino received responses, the project took on a 5-year life of its own- and his thesis was finished with a full-range of enlightening, impactful responses.
Something about Carpino’s message spoke to people at high levels, causing them to respond. He humbly asked for support and it worked! The answers came back in many forms – some were hand-written letters (Thomas W. Dibblee Jr., credited with mapping the geology of California). Some were meditative in tone while others were briskly businesslike. But all of the responses had something beneficial to say.
“This is not theory, this is not motivational,”
Among the notable entrepreneurs is Cordia Harrington, self-described as “the Bun Lady.” Harrington was a McDonald’s franchisee who discovered a need to streamline the bun-baking process. Now she is CEO of the Tennessee Bun Company, supplying McDonalds and other restaurants.
Robert B. McKnight, Jr, founder of Quiksilver athletic apparel, was at heart a surfer, selling board shorts out of the back of his Volkswagen on the California coast. He rode that wave, making a living from the surfing culture lifestyle with Quiksilver. Now he is the Chairman of the Board (and, it could be said, Chairman of the Surfboard!)
Carpino, who included himself in his interviews, worked for ten years in corporate marketing before his aptitude for helping others was applied to career counseling. In the past eight years of doing that he has seen a lot of people in the job search mode. Surveying the guidance given by the contributors in his book, he says, “It worked for them. Is it going to work for you? It could. What’s in this book is do-able.”
Readers of “Now, Launch Your Career” can learn effective and successful job search techniques through personal advice from those who have created outstanding careers. These people have been propelled – by fate, family, or even by fluke – toward something that has been the making of them. They are now in a position of success, and in many cases they are also famous. There is wisdom in reading letters from household names who share job search techniques, through highly illuminating questions posed by Paul Carpino.