Product Description

Are you taking long lunches? Ignoring sexual harassment? Do you keep your desk neat to the point of looking like you don't have enough to do? The answer to all three should be yes, if you want to succeed in your career on your own terms. Penelope Trunk, expert business advice columnist for the Boston Globe, gives anything but standard advice to help members of the X and Y generations succeed on their own terms in any industry. Trunk asserts that a take-charge attitude and thinking outside the box are the only ways to make it in today's job market. With 45 tips that will get you thinking bigger, acting bolder, and blazing trails you never thought possible, BRAZEN CAREERIST will forever change your career outlook.


Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start
"Take everything you think you 'know' about career strategies, throw them away, and read this book because the rules have changed. 'Brazen,''counter-intuitive,' and 'radical' are the best three descriptions of Trunk's work. Life is too short to be stuck in a rat hole..."

Robert I. Sutton, Ph.D, author of the New York Times Bestseller The No Asshole Rule
"A delightful book, with some edgy advice that made me squirm a bit at times. I agreed with 90% of it, found myself arguing with the other 10%, and was completely engaged from start to finish."

Paul D. Tieger, author of Do What You Are and CEO of SpeedReading People, LLC
"Penelope Trunk brings considerable savvy and a fresh new perspective to the business of career success. Bold and sometimes unconventional, BRAZEN CAREERIST gives readers much to think about as well as concrete, practical suggestions that will help them know what they want, and know how to get it."

Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
"BRAZEN CAREERIST has the street-smarts you need to make your career and life work for you from the start. Read it now, or you'll wish you had when you're 40!"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #216470 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start
"Take everything you think you 'know' about career strategies, throw them away, and read this book because the rules have changed. 'Brazen,' 'counter-intuitive,' and 'radical' are the best three descriptions of Trunk's work. Life is too short to be stuck in a rat hole..."

Robert I. Sutton, Ph.D, author of the New York Times Bestseller The No Asshole Rule
"A delightful book, with some edgy advice that made me squirm a bit at times. I agreed with 90% of it, found myself arguing with the other 10%, and was completely engaged from start to finish."

Paul D. Tieger, author of Do What You Are and CEO of SpeedReading People, LLC
"Penelope Trunk brings considerable savvy and a fresh new perspective to the business of career success. Bold and sometimes unconventional, BRAZEN CAREERIST gives readers much to think about as well as concrete, practical suggestions that will help them know what they want, and know how to get it."

Customer Reviews

Author undermines her own work.
I just heard Penelope Trunk on a public radio show (WNYC) and she managed to be insulting, narrow-minded, and ageist all at once in a short interview. If anyone attempted to turn me away from this book, or from taking her seriously, they couldn't have done a better job of it than she did herself. Imagine, she gets bored while driving, so uses her Blackberry. Take advice from this person? You'd have to be crazy.

Do I want to buy this?
I heard Penelope interviewed on NY Public Radio and found her so off-putting that it makes me not want to trust her advice or opinion much less buy her book. She came across not as brazen, but as cruel and obnoxious with no sense of civility. I sure wouldn't want to follow her example. So although the book once sounded interesting in theory, the author has now ruined its appeal.

Challenge yourself
I bought the book and value it for its insightful and practical advice. Penelope's advice will challenge you, resonate with you or be disagreeable with you which is quite evident when you look over the other reviews here. It will not bore you or put you to sleep. This book is thought provoking and made me reflect back on the decisions I made or didn't make in my career. I honestly believe it could have helped me in my career. Three themes in this book that most resonated with me were 1) the importance of knowing yourself, 2) being likeable matters more than being competent, and 3) understanding that control of your life comes from within yourself as opposed to making excuses or placing blame elsewhere. A topic as important as career advice needs more than one book or one author's point of view and this book should be one of them. She covers a lot of material (45 rules) in this book so it must have been an arduous undertaking to define all of them, give supporting statements and examples, and tie them all together. The rules are well explained and provide a good starting point for further exploration if necessary.
It's a book on a landscape that is changing and does have new rules. It doesn't mean some of the old rules don't still apply. It's also important to remember this is a self-help book and will only be as effective as the person who implements it. A book can provide a good starting point but it isn't an end all. I have self-help books on golf but it wasn't until I hit many balls at the range, played games with more experienced players, and got lessons from a golf pro (in that order) that I started to really feel confident about my swing and enjoy the game. My point is that the search for a satisfying and meaningful career will require preparation, practice with trial and error, and learning through feedback given by other players or a pro (career coach) if necessary.
This book was the first book I bought without reviewing it first in a bookstore, library, or whatever. [...] I agreed with much of it so I bought the book and I'm glad I did. The advice given in this book is to the point. It is illustrated with her own and other peoples' experiences (successes and failures). Her writing style makes this book easy to read. It is also well laid out which makes it easy to find what you're looking for in the book. There is no doubt the advice is brazen and hence the title. Here's the brazen last paragraph on a recent blog post (4/14/08) titled How to get a job that's way beyond your experience - "Tough part: Seeing your true self and believing in the person you see. This is actually the tough part of all of life. Which explains why I like writing about career advice so much." She challenges herself and is always looking for new and fresh perspectives from her readers. There are no sacred cows here so that's why I like to read and comment on her blog. I would recommend buying this book.