Bulletproof Your Job

September 1, 2008
For office workers fearful of the next headcount reduction, Viscusi offers a sound strategy for surviving to work another day. A workplace and career specialist and executive headhunter, Viscusi explains with authority how executives facing staff reductions make their decisions. The 50 tactics he offers are intended to bulletproof a job, but they are also the same tactics that make one a valuable employee and enhance one's attractiveness to prospective headhunters and new employers-keeping resumes current, stashing away cash and knowing how to interview well. Viscusi groups his strategies into four categories: being more visible, being easy to work with, being useful and being ready, and his tips stick close to the tried-and-true (dress for success, spell-check emails, keep friends close and enemies closer). While those new to the working world will benefit the most from the advice, office veterans will receive a useful reminder that the little things-like body language and elevator pleasantries-go a long way to generating well-regard from higher ups intent on cutting staff.

September 15, 2008
For office workers fearful of the next headcount reduction, Viscusi offers a sound strategy for surviving to work another day. A workplace and career specialist and executive headhunter, Viscusi explains with authority how executives facing staff reductions make their decisions. The 50 tactics he offers are intended to bulletproof a job, but they are also the same tactics that make one a valuable employee and enhance one's attractiveness to prospective headhunters and new employers-keeping resumes current, stashing away cash and knowing how to interview well. Viscusi groups his strategies into four categories: being more visible, being easy to work with, being useful and being ready, and his tips stick close to the tried-and-true (dress for success, spell-check emails, keep friends close and enemies closer). While those new to the working world will benefit the most from the advice, office veterans will receive a useful reminder that the little things-like body language and elevator pleasantries-go a long way to generating well-regard from higher ups intent on cutting staff.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2008
Theres a tendency to scoff at all the work advice being offered, whether to recent college grads or to seasoned executives, including look the part, details are important, and dont make waves. In this age of economic turbulence, headhunter-author (On the Job: How to Make It in the Real World of Work, 2001) Viscusi puts truth behind those clich'sand turns his four bulletproof strategies into a memorable mantra: be visible, be easy, be useful, be ready. Of course, in back of each of the four are a series of 50 tactics in total, all with proof-positive facts delivered via sidebars, such asjust so you know and true story examples. Eat at your desk? Not a chancemove to the dining area. Unclear about the how-tos of a new task or position? Pick a mentor. Common sense infuses every chapter, as does the authors extraordinary attention to readability, including short paragraphs, millennial language, headlines that grab you, bullets, and final summaries. Your job is your most valuable asset, he says. So, too, might be this book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)