Hello, Old Friend: A Resource Guide For Career Development

Although not searching for a job myself, Hello, Old Friend gave me plenty to consider. What is my story? What is important to me? What do I want to be? Each of those whats leads to a deeper why. The questions and worksheets in this book encourage you to discover your whys behind your whats.The questions go beyond job search. Knowing every interaction makes some sort of impact, what impact do you leave? Are you satisfied with your impacts? If yes, great. If not, what are you willing to do to improve your impacts? Remember the impacts are not just about you. How can you help others achieve their goals?Seemingly by design, Hello, Old Friend delivers more questions than answers. For the book to be valuable, you need to provide your own honest answers. “The only voice that matters is your own.” Make your story yours.At times I found my answers comforting. Other times I found my answers disappointing. Read this book to yourself so you can be brutally honest with the reader.Hello, Old Friend is not about making you that person someone else wants you to be. It is about helping you find that person you are and realize that person just might appeal to the people with whom you would like to work.

"If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one." - Dolly PartonDuring the recent financial crisis many people suddenly found themselves out of work and searching for new jobs. Many who thought their jobs with large corporations were safe, stable, and long-term realized that this wasn't the case. In our community in Richmond, we were very fortunate to have people like Mike Jones who took the time to connect with those impacted by the crisis, listen to them, and coach them through career change. As Mike's reputation for this talent grew, he connected with more and more people, developing a process, recommendations and wise counsel that he included in his book.Hello, Old Friend is an invaluable resource for anyone experiencing the simultaneously exciting and terrifying process of career and job change, and I highly recommend it. The book comes at a time when it is very much needed. The average lifespan of companies on the S&P 500 has decreased from over 60 years during the 1950s to 18 years today--and the trend is heading lower. This means that people will be much more likely to change jobs and careers more frequently in the future. And, Mike's book will be there to help them through the process.

Many of us spend hundreds of dollars on professional coaching to cover just a fraction of the topics and exercises outlined in the text and worksheets of this book. The author's easy-to-follow framework for introspection and reflection, goal definition and execution is a tremendously valuable tool for those that are unemployed, contemplating a career change or experiencing a void between their values and day-to-day business routines. I highly recommend writing in the pages of the book on the worksheets provided - after completing the book I looked back through the worksheets and was pleasantly surprised at the insights gained as a result of the framework.In my network, I frequently encounter individuals new to the work force, re-entering after taking time off to raise a family or in the midst of career re-evaluation. As such, I plan to always keep a few copies of this book on hand to pass on!

Reading Hello, Old Friend is like sitting down for a series of coffee meetings with author Mike Jones. He gives you a framework, tells you a bit about how he has used it successfully in his own career or coached others, and then challenges you to find your own answers. The book includes places to pause and write your answers for current and future reflection. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for career advancement or trying to improve in place. Enjoy!

Author provides proven techniques for professional development that are easy to understand and implement. Techniques are explained in such a way that it all makes very logical sense. Then, it personalizes the process for you allowing you to provide what is needed very specifically for your situation.I strongly recommend this to anyone at any stage in your career. The sincerity and authenticity of the techniques explained by Mike are well worth the time investment.

One of the best and most common sense books on career development that I've ever read. I bought a dozen copies to hand out to all my employees. If you know anyone who is looking for a job, or is unhappy in their current position, give them this book!

I think this book is an extremely helpful read for career-minded folks. This book provides the insight one should consider as they go through the journey of their career.

Mike Jones has prepared an extremely pragmatic, extremely useful guide to help you move from one professional chapter to the next. It is written in an easy to read, easy to work-through way, interlaced with anecdotes and personal stories to bring the concepts to life. With workpages at the end of each section, it is a book to be written in, highlighted, marked up, and dogeared. I am working through it a second time now, benefiting from the previous personal notes I took before. Highly recommend this tool for anyone who is preparing to pivot their career, whether by choice or by force. It helps you think though who you are and what matters to you, then smoothly guides you through the planning and action phases.