Book Review: What Really Matters For Young Professionals- Gary Ryan.

I was lucky enough to win one of the three books as part of the summer reading giveaway, please see my review and thoughts below. 

Ryan has written an easy to digest book that clearly outlines some great strategies that will assist young professionals to adjust to the professional world of work and maximise their performance in the workplace as an early career professional. In saying this, I believe many of these strategies apply not only to young or early career professionals, but are strategies to be a more effective, productive and happy employee/worker in general.

The introduction which outlines the not so new concept of employability skills sets the scene for the following practices. Ryan has used the employability skills framework which was research and developed in 2001by the Department of Education, Science and Training (now known as DEEWR), though has added the two additional skills sets of leadership and service excellence. I like the addition of both service excellence and leadership, even though some may argue that these would fit into the existing eight categories, as it highlights that these are also important skills to possess. You do not need to be a manager to demonstrate leadership, or even aspire to a “leadership” role, but it is the ability in small tasks, or leading a team even just for one small activity is still an important contribution to your team or division effective contributing to the strategic direction of your organisation. Additionally service orientation with both internal and external clients is important to enhancing and maintaining the organisations and sub divisions within the organisations reputation and hence future business.

Linking the employability skills to each practice helps the reader to understand the connection between various employability skills and the behaviours that one needs to consistently demonstrate in order to be an effective, satisfied and productive employee. The suggested activities at the end of each chapter clearly explain the steps one can take to become more self-aware of their professional behaviour and work practices as well as methods of implementing strategies to work to their optimal level and reach their potential.  

As I currently work in a university environment, academic integrity and appropriate referencing is of paramount importance, hence my only concern is the lack of referencing within the book, to back up the statistics and information provided. Otherwise I would recommend this book to all young professionals (and even not so young professionals) to assist in their continuing professional development and identifying strategies to increase their employability, which will enhance their chances of career progression and promotion, as well as work satisfaction. In my professional capacity as a Career Development Consultant, the activities provide some ideas for workshop and interactive group activities to assist university students to shift their  mindset to being a “professional in training” and enhance their employability skills, to make a successful transition to graduate employment.