November is National Career Development Month. These titles offer stories of people who took remarkable and sudden turns with their trade! Looking for a change of your own? Our Library offers many resources to help you with your job search!


Compiled by:
Christine F.

Tim Young
630.9758 You

In your next career you could leave the rat race. Read how a self-made businessman with little college education who developed a Fortune 500 company and jet-set across the globe only to one day quit the fast-paced life. He become a farmer, having no experience and jumping in just because the land was calling.


The Accidental Mayor

Tomilea & James Allison
921 Allison All

In your next career you could run a city. Tomilea Allison didn't set out to be mayor but found a place for her talents with political activism and to solve problems in Bloomington, Indiana. This memoir profiles the trial, trenches, and victories as well as her inner compass.


The Accidental Veterinarian: Tales from a Pet Practice

Philipp Schott
- DVM
636.089 Sch

In your next career you talk to the animals. He wanted to be a geographer, a historian, a professor but for sure not a dentist, doctor ("sick people are gross") and only pursued Veterinarian because all the other career choices on the menu, displayed alphabetically, were nonstarters and this last option started with a "V". 


The Career Manifesto: Discover Your Calling and Create an Extraordinary Life

Mike Steib
650.1 Ste

In your next job search you could not get discouraged. Like just don't. Just to set the best tone from the start. The author shows his class by dedicating the book to the reader. He says, believably, that "the world needs you." Nice job setting up this timeless formula of selecting a way to make money that you can more than live with. He actually ends with the cliche of "Don't worry, be happy" but by the end of the read, your pulse is regular again and the urgency subsided so you are not stymied but level again to start the real work with optimism.


Coming Back: How to Win the Job You Want When You've Lost the Job You Need

Fawn Germer
650.14 Ger

Your next job could be better. Career upsets are more common than people think. This writer says experience in an industry or trade just doesn't drive success like it used to. If 47% if today's jobs will be gone due to automation or artificial intelligence, then worker's background has a half-life anyway. The author directs readers to be curious, bold, and up-skill and learn something new and then do that again, diversifying your resume to make career changes smooth because, odds are, you will do it again. That strategic pivoting might just be the thing that might get you hired.


Eat a Peach: A Memoir

David Chang
641.5092 Chang Cha

In your next job you could eat a peach. Noodle Bar chef-owner David Chang recounts his zig-zag path from chronic failure to aimless manic and out of the darkness through his trade and deep love for the kitchen and launching as a modern restaurateur.  


Lifeboat: Navigating Unexpected Career Change and Disruption

Maggie Craddock
650.1 Cra

Your next career change could be with friends. Using the true story of the lifeboats that survived after the sinking of the Titanic, the author poses a series of questions to help you determine if you are ready for a career pivot. Doing this workout may help you determine to stick with the industry you came from, although disturbed from the fall, or try something completely new but reminded you that you don't - and shouldn't - go it alone. 


Master of None How a Jack-of-All-Trades Can Still Reach the Top

Clifford Hudson
650.1 Hud

Your next job could be that thing you do on weekends. The former CEO of Sonic Corp challenges the notion that mastery of a trade, time-on-task with a career or process is not needed now that technological innovation is helping people onboard to new environments. Selecting a job that is completely new may prove to be the shot in the arm that will accelerate your career even further and with more interesting, surprising payoffs.


On Flowers: Lessons from an Accidental Florist

Amy Merrick
745.92 Mer

Your next job could be beautiful. Save this treat for the end as it shows off the author's skill with arranging flowers - even the weedy looking ones - and with appreciating what you have to work with. Watch how this accidental florist can take a trip with any "city flower" and "country flower" and also fancy, humble, and clover arrangements. Here is just an inspirational book to encourage you to work and love in the same time - and how to arrange things that bloom so that you might, too. 


Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian

Avi Steinberg
921 Steinberg Ste

In your next career you could be a jail librarian. Read about the adventures of a an obituary writer turned prison librarian who talked poetry with criminals for surprises galore, producing something to write - and read - about for an interesting life. 


Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success

Dawn Graham
650.14 Gra

You could get a job before the post goes live. Leading career coach outlines how interesting job openings don't even make it to the job postings as networking is the best path for these sought-after gigs. She lays out plan for dealing with gaps in employment history, layoffs, lack of college degree and being overqualified.


Where You Are is Not Who You Are : A Memoir

Ursula Burns

Your next career could surprise you - like the pandemic or a financial crisis - but also test your grit. Learn how the author elevated worked hard to get to "the highest echelons of the corporate world, crediting her rise to her single mother."  Promoting her engineering and leadership skills, she writes how she accepted the tests that helped her polish her these very skills. The author inspires others to pursue their dreams and break barriers that might hold you back.