Book mini review for AbsolutelyAbby's 101 Job Search Secrets: A Corporate Recruiter Hands You the Keys to YourJob Search Success
This blog is a special one. I am delighted to present the first book review for the Netiquette IQ blog. It was a decision inspired during a recent meeting of the Breakfast Club of NJ. Abby Kohut was the featured speaker and gave a great presentation. I learned she had authored a book and I left the meeting with one in hand. After a few days of enjoyable reading, I was impressed with the quality of her work. Since many of this blog readers are job seekers, I wanted to present it for those who are actively or may soon be seeking employment. It should be recommended to those you know who are seeking employment.
The book is a lucid, yet deep and rich, trove of information and inspiration for the job seeker. Her approach is not dogmatic, indeed, it is creative and direct. One of her core philosophies is simply put (in a Zen way). “The most important opinion that matters is YOURS.” This encouragement is to use the huge amount of tools she presents and the means of deploying them. While her detail is commendable and flexible, she makes a wonderful blend of wit, style, energy, empirical information and an underlying faith in her readers. Lastly, Abby maintains a true tone of empathy throughout her book, never losing sight of her reader’s needs.
She is a Florence Nightingale in the arena of job search.
In short, if you are looking for one of the best single book resources for your job-seeking, this is it!
-Paul Babicki
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Since we are on the subject of books, here is the trailer for my book "Netiquette IQ - A comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" Much of this blog is based upon the book and its content. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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The review below is from Kirkus.
A revealing primer on the art of effective emails and other communications.
Babicki, in his debut self-help guide, covers the many peculiarities of computerized messaging: How to shape an eye-catching subject line; how to troubleshoot error messages from a returned email; what the file-extension suffixes on attachments mean; what the email time stamp tells others about your personality (night owl vs. early riser); and how to craft a corporate email security policy. His advice on these sometimes-arcane topics is precise—“RTF format should only be used when it is certain that the recipient uses Outlook”—while also remaining intelligible to laypeople. The author also instructs readers on time-honored principles of proper English and clear expression. He delves with detailed lucidity into rules of grammar, punctuation and usage; prescribes the proper formatting of numbers and dates; and inveighs against the dangling participle. He also explores the tonal shadings of different kinds of salutations, crusades for concise and gracious style, warns against the gassy redundancy of such wordings as “final outcome” and “at an early time,” and appends a blacklist of “the most irritating phrases,” from “out of the box” to “team player.” Good writing grows from good thinking, so he instructs readers on the pitfalls of logical fallacies, from the ad hominem attack to the begged question, and on the distinctions between assumption, presumption and inference. Furthermore, since communication is the cornerstone of civilized life, he limns its legal and moral underpinnings in copyright and plagiarism strictures, codes of courteous Internet deportment and techniques for pacifying flame wars. (He recommends a “Zen” approach, for example, in replying to angry missives.) The result is a mashup of Strunk and White, Miss Manners, Aristotle and Microsoft Help, all laid out in a well-organized, very readable text sprinkled with amusing examples and phrased in the tart, aphoristic style of an exacting schoolmaster (“The better it sounds, the more it is trusted”). Overall, Babicki’s technical expertise and literary aplomb make this a fine manual for the everyday scribe.
A comprehensive, stimulating guide to getting the word out.
Babicki, in his debut self-help guide, covers the many peculiarities of computerized messaging: How to shape an eye-catching subject line; how to troubleshoot error messages from a returned email; what the file-extension suffixes on attachments mean; what the email time stamp tells others about your personality (night owl vs. early riser); and how to craft a corporate email security policy. His advice on these sometimes-arcane topics is precise—“RTF format should only be used when it is certain that the recipient uses Outlook”—while also remaining intelligible to laypeople. The author also instructs readers on time-honored principles of proper English and clear expression. He delves with detailed lucidity into rules of grammar, punctuation and usage; prescribes the proper formatting of numbers and dates; and inveighs against the dangling participle. He also explores the tonal shadings of different kinds of salutations, crusades for concise and gracious style, warns against the gassy redundancy of such wordings as “final outcome” and “at an early time,” and appends a blacklist of “the most irritating phrases,” from “out of the box” to “team player.” Good writing grows from good thinking, so he instructs readers on the pitfalls of logical fallacies, from the ad hominem attack to the begged question, and on the distinctions between assumption, presumption and inference. Furthermore, since communication is the cornerstone of civilized life, he limns its legal and moral underpinnings in copyright and plagiarism strictures, codes of courteous Internet deportment and techniques for pacifying flame wars. (He recommends a “Zen” approach, for example, in replying to angry missives.) The result is a mashup of Strunk and White, Miss Manners, Aristotle and Microsoft Help, all laid out in a well-organized, very readable text sprinkled with amusing examples and phrased in the tart, aphoristic style of an exacting schoolmaster (“The better it sounds, the more it is trusted”). Overall, Babicki’s technical expertise and literary aplomb make this a fine manual for the everyday scribe.
A comprehensive, stimulating guide to getting the word out.
You can view my new book page at www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki
Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com
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