A Success Guide for New Graduates
Crossroads: A Success Guide for New Graduates features the lessons, revelations and even the myths when one steps into the landscape between academia and career exploration. Through a series of personal recollections and anecdotes, this book highlights the author’s extensive experience over the years, providing captivating yet philosophical angles or even questions on various topics such as education, life, and career.
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In Crossroads: A Success Guide for New Graduates, the lines between academic and professional choices are blurred. From the author’s extensive experience over the years, this book reveals the lessons, moments of revelations, and even the myths when one steps into that meshed landscape of academia and career exploration. Befitting any reader, every page offers captivating yet philosophical angles, or even questions, on a spectrum of topics—from education and life, to career.
As you reach this book’s end, the choice to decide will be in your own hands.
“Philosophy tells us that the true objective of humans is the pursuit of happiness. We were born to suffer and life is a continual struggle against the slings and arrows of unpredictable luck.”
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Preface
Abbreviations
CHAPTER 1 Introduction
What is Success?
From the Beginning
Success ≠ Happiness
Materialism and Its Hazards
Roles in Life
Internship
CHAPTER 2 The Postgraduate Dilemma
A Drought of Market Opportunities
The Gap Year
Building Your Network
How Valuable is a Postgraduate Degree?
Changing Discipline
Conversion Degrees
The McKinsey Key Attributes for the 21st Century
Advice for Your Younger Sibling
Bonus: My Experience with an MBA
CHAPTER 3 Career Planning
Your First Job
Salary is Irrelevant!
Flexible Career Planning
Working in Multicultural Teams
The Gig Economy
Contingency and Scenario Planning
Your Personal Brand Map
Culture Kills
CHAPTER 4 Lifelong Learning
Adaptability and Flexibility
Utilising Social Media
Never Say No to Studying
Employer-Funded Training
AI Will Not Help You!
If at First You Don’t Succeed, Give Up!
Make Friends Before You Need Them
Get a Mentor Early
Failure and Coping with the Sack
King Herod and Machiavelli
CHAPTER 5 (In)valuable Experience
Qualifications
Learn from Your Boss
The Seven-Year Itch
The Gently Phenomenon
The Benefits of a Reflective Journal
Serendipity aka the Science of Being Lucky
“Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste”
Avoiding Risky Situations
Stress and the Internet
Attractiveness as a Weapon
Scapegoats and Backstabs
CHAPTER 6 Curtain Call
Have a Clear Career Plan
References
Michael M. Dent is a Professorial Teaching Fellow at the Department of Marketing Strategy and Innovation here at Sunway University. With expertise in strategic marketing, international project management, team building, and cross-cultural communication, he has taught Marketing Management at various universities globally.
Basic Information
- 978-629-7646-09-1 (Paperback)
- 978-629-7646-12-1 (E-book)
