Endorsements

Careers By the People should be on every guidance counselor’s desk—and in every student’s backpack. It’s crisp, honest, informed, and wonderfully entertaining. At last, a practical, accessible guide for anyone seriously committed to finding that ‘perfect’ job!

Don’t have time to test-drive 101 career paths to uncover what each one is really like? Thanks to Mike Wysocki, you won’t have to. Packed with thought-provoking and snackable wisdom, Careers By the People is like eavesdropping on others’ coffee chats, 101 times over.

Careers By the People is an invaluable resource for anyone pursuing the skills and educational credentials necessary for a rewarding career. Capitalizing on the wisdom and experience of professionals in a wide range of disciplines, this engaging and accessible guide is a must for students and graduates seeking a pathway toward professional fulfillment.

“I love this book! If you’re exploring career paths or hoping to manage or start a business, here’s the road map of how real people think and feel about what they do all day. Careers By the People goes beyond facts and statistics and reveals with scintillating candor: How does this job feel? How can my work create meaning and value? How can I have a good life?

While many books are interesting, and others make you think about your life, Mike Wysocki has written something that combines both these traits but also adds a helpful message about what one should do in life. Every young person should read this book before they decide on their career choice; older people, like myself, should read this book before they change jobs. One could also read Careers By the People just to get a sense of what people are doing in America today.

This is an outstanding book on navigating your way through job transitions. Wysocki and the plethora of professionals who provide their stories really help the reader understand the difference between jobs and careers and how to navigate this space. I wish I had read this book several years ago when I exited from the military into corporate America.

Careers By the People provides students with perspective into a vast array of career paths that cannot be learned in a classroom. As a college senior, this insight by professionals from various fields provides students with crucial insight to explore different careers that may be suitable for them.

Careers By the People catalogs 101 careers and lets the reader explore them through the voices and experiences of the folks who live them. Author Mike Wysocki uses a personal and authentic tone to help the next generation avoid getting stuck in a career they dislike; or worse, potentially missing out on the perfect career because they never even know about it. I can’t wait to use this resource with my own students as they explore their own post–high school paths and opportunities.

Careers By the People is a must-have for high school and college students unsure what to do with their careers. It should also be a must-read for those in their early careers who want to find more meaningful options to consider.

Careers By the People offers interesting answers to questions about career choices from a variety of different professions. When it comes to the details of day-to-day work life, this book holds jobs from customer service to CEOs in the same esteem. This is an essential resource of honest input to guide any young person’s career path.

The world of work is changing fast. Information about work in the digital age is plentiful yet hard to assess for accuracy. Careers by the People is a guidebook through some of the obstacles workers face as they navigate the twenty-first century world of work. The information comes straight from the source via interviews with 101 workers representing 101 different career experiences. The types of work represented span all social classes and geographies. The questions asked, and answered, are the kinds career-seekers wish they could ask employers outside the job interview setting. This book is an essential resource for teachers, counselors, academic advisors, coaches, and more. It is also an excellent tool to put in the hands of career-seekers young and mature as they embark on a journey of exploration and success.

We all have our own strengths and challenges, and finding a ‘good fit’ career takes exploration, experimentation, and sometimes time to find our way. Wysocki’s collection of interviews can provide a good step to expanding ones’ view of potential careers through the voices of others.

Careers By the People is a valuable resource for job-seekers of all ages that uses relatable language and diverse perspectives to explore the realities of a wide range of career fields. As a nonprofit focused on ensuring K-12 students are prepared to succeed in the careers of their dreams, HawaiiKidsCAN believes this book is a great complementary piece to efforts like Hawaii Career Pathways, where students can take assessments, view compensation data, and see the specific credentials needed to enter the field. We hope this book will be widely available to students as they consider their post–high school opportunities.

Careers By the People is a valuable resource for people who are considering their career options and want to get a glimpse into a wide range of occupations. Before you commit to a particular path, gain insight and save time by learning from people who have come before you.

I really enjoy the personal insights from varying careers in this book. All too often, people over-glorify and under-stress certain aspects of their career transition, and this serves as a good resource to dispel that.

In Careers By the People, Mike Wysocki does a wonderful job of showing all the possibilities out there to create a great life for yourself! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is charting a new path for their future.

For some of us, a job is just a means to an end; for others, a job is the crux of our lives. No matter which one you are, Careers By the People is a valuable resource for anyone questioning where to place their professional skill and worth. As author Mike Wysocki reminds us, our careers fill up at least forty years of our lives—this book will help you determine how to spend that time wisely so you don’t look back on it with regret.

This is a fun book because you get to hear what real people think about their jobs and what it took to get there.

“This book is the perfect starting point for anyone seeking to explore new professional opportunities. As a career counselor with interest in hearing others’ career stories, this is a collection of mini biographies written in a conversational way that makes it easy and enjoyable to read. As someone who works with job seekers who want to learn about different roles, organizations and industries, this book makes this step much easier. Each person’s story provides candid answers to questions job seekers would be asking in informational interviews. This is an incredibly valuable resource that offers job seekers a glimpse of so many different jobs and careers while also providing them with both information and context that they can use as a starting point for further research.”

“Students thrive when provided with straightforward, honest advice, and Careers By the People is like having candid conversations with dozens of experienced professionals about what works (and doesn’t) when making important career decisions. An excellent resource for anyone getting started in the workforce or diving deeper into their goals.” 

“Reading Careers By the People is like speed-networking with 101 different careers at a time. You’ll come away from this book with a strong understanding of the entire landscape of careers available to you, as well as the peaks and pitfalls hidden within each and every field.”

“Careers By The People: Candid Career Advice from 101 Experienced Professionals” is exactly the kind of book I wish I had when I was first thinking about what to do with my life a few decades ago. It would have saved me a lot of time and effort in sorting out the various options available to me – many of which I had no idea even existed. Mike Wysocki has assembled an invaluable resource that anyone at any point in their work life can consult when considering pursuing a particular line of work – or moving into a completely new occupational arena. Finally, we get to hear sound advice and recommendations from those who are actually in the careers they are describing. This kinds of first-hand insights are hard to come by these days as most of the books written in this genre involve second-hand perspectives and interpretations. But Wysocki takes you directly to the source. In fact, I plan to use “Careers By The People” in my graduate class on Career Development. I highly recommend this exquisite little primer for anyone who has ever wondered if they are in the “right” field for them – and what alternatives might be possible.”

“At CareerSpring, we recognize that information and advice from real world professionals are critical components of career access and success.  Careers by the People presents an array of first-person accounts of career experiences grouped by personality type, making it easy for the reader to navigate toward the careers they’re interested in-as well as ones they’d never before considered.”

“While profoundly unveiling the curtain, Careers By the People does more than exemplify what it means to join the workforce but furthermore introduces scenarios and ideologies of which prove to be conducive to understanding realities and fiction within differentiating industries”

“Having hope for the future is a key characteristic a young person can have to help them persevere through adversity. Careers by the People is a practical, insightful tool that can help teens and young adults create a vision for the future and believe they can achieve it. This book should be required reading in high schools, career centers, and college orientations.

“Careers By the People” provides an accessible way for job seekers, new and returning, to gain valuable insight on 101 careers. Wysocki’s collection of interviews will change the way universities advise students on career planning, by allowing students to match their level of education with possible career paths. This text will allow job seekers to see the best and the worst of job options, so they can make informed decisions regarding their career planning.

Careers By the People helps to bring clarity to the messiness of career development by personalizing stories that offer unique perspective and valuable insight.

The arc of Mike Wysocki’s career reminds one of the best in the business when it comes to technology sales. Most of the evidence that Mike presents in the book “Careers By The People,” are exciting and his writing style is easy to understand without talking down to the reader. Most of the evidence that is presented in the book gives us real world experience, which is my favorite kind to read. As an experienced Career Counselor, I can speak to how valid it is, and it sure makes for fascinating reading. For example, students and people in general believe that our success depends more on circumstances that are out of our control. It is normal to believe that if we just try that much harder and develop our talent that much further, it will be enough to become increasingly successful, despite one’s beginnings or background. This is not the formula for success say Wysocki. According to Mike and I would agree, success starts with hard work along with challenging internships while in undergraduate or graduate school as well as networking. The old saying; “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” If you work hard (in school or on the job) and no one notices, will it lead to an excellent job, a promotion or success?

Careers By The People is a must read for anyone entering the workforce or someone looking to challenge themselves and their career. This book is about that life changing journey that can help anyone become successful in their career and lead a happy work/life balance.