Winning the Rat Race at Work

Louise Karch is a career consultant with Carswell Partners in London, Ontario.

Winning the Rat Race at Work provides readers with the tools they need
to better navigate the work maze. The author emphasizes the importance
of getting off to a good start, noting that “[r]etirement planning
should begin on the first day and be part of everything you do during
your career.” He uses career mapping to encourage readers to define
their destination and reflective questions to improve their ongoing
career-related decision making. Some of the career advice he offers is
simplistic and vague (e.g., “You may even have to stop along the way
and ask for directions”).

Elsewhere Garber explains how to deconstruct workplace jargon and
dynamics, introduces a career planning matrix and a “Personality
Styles at Work” model, and provides tips on networking and workplace
etiquette. He concludes the book with a review of the factors that
constitute vocational success.

The cover illustration may be off-putting (sweating cartoon male rats
in suits push their co-workers aside while racing down a busy street),
but the book itself provides a thoughtful look at careers.