View source for Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love by James Reed and Paul G Stoltz

{{infobox1
|title=Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love
|author=James Reed and Paul G Stoltz
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=Forget the jargon and concentrate on the fact that this advice is gold dust when it comes to applying for a job you really want.  Definitely recommended.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=288
|publisher=Penguin Portfolio
|date=August 2013
|isbn=978-0241003541
|website=http://www.3GMindset.com
|cover=0241003547
|aznuk=0241003547
|aznus=0241003547
}}

It's well over a decade since I was involved in hiring staff for an employer but over the last seven years I've been active in bringing reviewers to Bookbag.  Certain reactions stand out from both experiences.  The first is that skills rarely matter: if they're important for the job I can usually teach or polish them.  In fact ''well, this is how we did it at...'' can be a disadvantage not least because the temptation to throttle someone can become quite overwhelming on a bad day.  Paper qualifications are not really that important either: for the most part the bare minimum will suffice and I've often found that the more highly-qualified applicants can find it quite difficult to adapt themselves to the job I'm offering.  At the other end of the scale I've taken people on and after a while thought that if I had half a dozen people of this calibre I could send the rest home.  What marks these people out is their attitude.  Nowadays it's called mindset.

As chairman of REED, the recruitment specialists, James Reed has vast experience in the employment sector.  Paul G Stoltz is an expert on measuring and strengthening human resilience.  Between them they've set out to tell us the secret of successful job hunting - and by extension, give a few little nuggets to employers.  Despite all that the politicians tell us, the stunning fact is that it's not ''skills'' which employers are lamenting the lack of but candidates with specific mindsets.

''Mindset'' has been analysed into 3G (bear with me: I thought it was something else I had to master about my mobile phone, but all will become clear)  which encompasses the various attributes which make up  the whole.  It's broken down into three main headings: global, good and grit.  For me it's a bit contrived, but then I'm not of the main target generation and I have to admit that Morality, Universality and Tenacity wouldn't have made quite such a workable acronym...

Each of the main headings is further broken down into various attributes which are analysed in some detail and how you rate - along with how you can improve - is considered in some depth.  I'm not going to give you the headings - Reed and Stoltz do a far better job than I could do - but they require you to be honest with yourself and work at making the improvements.  This is no quick fix, but a way in which you can improve the way you live rather than just the way you work.  They're telling you what employers want.  Whilst I read I was nodding in agreement but I struggled to see how candidates could demonstrate the attributes to employers who flick through CVs looking for ways to eliminate job applicants.  It's all there though, including ways in which you can demonstrate your mindset and a new version of a CV.

The book is very readable if occasionally heavy on jargon and cliché and I was surprised by how much of it I absorbed.  It's useful throughout your working life with explicit acknowledgement that it will apply differently depending on where you are in your career.  I appreciated the chapter on measuring your value as an employee which - if you're honest with yourself - is particularly thought-provoking.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

We've also seen [[How to Write an Impressive CV and Cover Letter: A Comprehensive Guide for the UK Job Seeker by Tracey Whitmore]] - but our experienced reviewer suggests that it's best avoided.  It's not specifically about CVs but we feel that most employees will benefit from reading [[Managing Yourself (The Checklist Series: Step by step guides to getting it right) by The Chartered Management Institute]].

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[[Category:James Reed]]
[[Category:Paul G Stoltz]]