The Top Career Development Resources To Grow Your Career

Over the past few weeks, a number of my friends (looking at you, Jenni, Chris, and James) and colleagues have posted some great threads on LinkedIn and Twitter crowdsourcing for the best career development resources that are out there. The great thing about the internet is that it’s relatively easy to find just about anything, which is also what makes it so difficult - how do you cut through the noise to find the information that you need in a sea full of content?

Over the years, I’ve (for better or worse) read, listened to, and consumed lots of resources related to career development. Furthermore, I’ve had the privilege and good fortune with connecting with and building relationships with some incredible career development experts & creators out there right now. Before I forget all of this information, I wanted to put together a guide of resources and experts that can help people find the career resources they need to achieve their career goals.?

Note: this list is not exhaustive, so I welcome any missing feedback or links!

Use Case #1: Improving on Your Current Path

These resources are for professionals who are looking to continue developing their skills and craft on their current path. Think of it as jetfuel to improve what you are already doing or to get there at a faster pace

Podcast: How to Be Awesome at Your job (Pete Mockatis)

Pete is a former Bain Consultant turned Corporate Trainer and Podcast Host. The name of his podcast kind of explains it all, but in his catalogue of 700+ episodes he has episodes on literally any topic you could think of that could help you be better at work

Podcast: Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

Jessi is a former technology writer for Wired and other publications but is now an Editor and Podcast host at LinkedIn. In her podcast, she explores various aspects of the changing nature of work, covering everything from The Great Resignation to How to better negotiate.

Articles: HBR: Managing Yourself

HBR’s Managing Yourself Tag has plenty of short articles with tactical and actionable advice for various workplace issues.?

Podcast: The Workplace Therapist (Brandon Smith)

Brandon is an Executive Coach, Blogger, and Consultant on all issues related to the workplace. Each episode Brandon tackles common workplace questions and interviews guests to provide advice on workplace issues ranging from how to manage up to how to navigate the return to work

Use Case #2: Exploring New Career Options

Are you thinking of making a career change but aren’t sure what or how to get started? These resources are for folks who want to explore options in a sensible and digestible way

Book: Designing Your Life (Bill Burnett and Dave Evans)

This book, written by Bill and Dave (two well known Professors and Executives from Stanford’s D-School) is a great resource for those of you who believe you need a change but aren’t sure where to start. They apply their principles of design thinking to help you design a new career path and go out and get it

Podcast: Dr. Dawn on Careers

While this show just recently stopped, Dr. Dawn Graham is an Executive and Career Coach who works at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business. There are over 6 seasons of episodes that cover the various aspects of switching careers

Podcast: How to Happen Your Career (Scott Anthony Barlow)

When it comes to longevity and career search podcasts, How to Happen Your Careers takes the cake. Scott Anthony Barlow is a longtime career coach and has over 340 episodes on career switches from over 8 years of podcasting (pretty impressive if you ask me!)

Book: Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career (Herminia Ibarra)

Written in 2004 but still withholding the test of time, this book has some great research and principles for building and executing a career transition. When I was a career coach I often recommended this book to my clients, and if you are looking for a teaser on it, check out this article

Use Case #3: Job and Career Search

These resources are for people who are starting or in the middle of a job or career search, and who are looking for guidance and best practices to successfully navigate the search, whether it’s landing an interview, finding the right opportunity or negotiating a great salary.

Podcast: Find Your Dreamjob (Mac Pritchard)

Mac is the host of the Find Your DreamJob podcast and is also the Founder of Macs List, a jbo board and career advice blog. Each episode covers various aspects of the job and career search to help job seekers navigate the process.?

Podcast: The Dream Job System Podcast with Austin Belcak

I’ve gotten to know Austin over the years, and I think his career and job search advice is spot on. This podcast has episodes on every aspect of the job search process from preparing your resume to landing a job offer. I also had the chance to interview Austin on my own podcast

Podcast: Your Next Move with Kimberly Cummings

This podcast is hosted by Kimberly Cummings, a career coach and author of the book: Next Move Best Move. This podcast covers all the aspects of the job and career search podcast drawing from Kimberly's time as a career coach and previous stints at American Express in HR/Talent.

Use Case 4: Improving Your Management Skills

Whether you are a newly appointed people manager or a longtime manager looking to get better at your craft, these resources are here to help you improve your people manager skills and get the most out of your team.?

Book: The Making of a Manager Julie Zhuo

Julie was thrust into the role of people manager at a young age while working as a designer at Facebook. Since then, she’s gone on to manage managers and managers of managers before leaving Facebook as a VP to pursue her own pursuits. This is a great book for anyone who was thrust into the manager role without really having a sense of what it was, and has plenty of real and practical advice to pull from.?

Website: Ask a Manager

Ask a Manager is like your "Dear Prudence" column but for management. Each week, Allison answers questions that managers face and provides actionable advice that all managers can learn from.

Podcast: Modern Manager with Mamie Kanfer Stewart

This podcast hosted by Mamie Kanfer Stewart covers all the various aspects of today’s modern manager. She tries to provide a combination of her own management advice as well as bringing guests on the show to talk about specific topics they are experts in.

Blog: 15 Five

15 Five is a HR Software platform which specializes in performance management and employee development. Their blog and their subsequent community has plenty of resources and advice on how to become an effective manager.

Book: Radical Candor (Kim Scott)

Kim’s Book is a must-read for anyone who is a manager and wants to know how to communicate effectively and lead with empathy. Drawing on her lessons from leading and managing teams at companies like Google and Apple, Kim shares her lessons for how to manage in a way where you care for people while driving results.

Use Case 5: Big Picture Career Strategy

Are you looking for some bigger picture/philosophical but pragmatic thoughts about your career and how it plays a role in your life? Here are some resources to help you do some long-term planning while looking at your job and career in the context of your life.

Newsletter: Jungle Gym (Nick de Wilde)

Nick is someone I “met on the internet” through his work at Tradecraft who has be writing and thinking about career strategy for years. His Substack is a great resource for career strategy, as are his tweets

Newsletter: Perspective (Deb Liu)

Deb Liu is the CEO of Ancestry.com and a former PM leader at Facebook. She is currently working on a book (believe it is related to careers) but in the meantime is writing a newsletter chock full of great lessons and learnings from her own career.

Newsletter: Al’s Newsletter

Shameless plug: this is my newsletter where I talk about advice, learnings and ideas related to how humans can develop and form a great career and life.?If you want some advice and lessons on how to build a great career and life, this is a newsletter for you.

Book: Disrupt Yourself: Whitney Johnson

Whitney’s book and podcast are great resources for those of you who are thinking about longer term career strategy and the role that transitions, iterations and continuous learning play within your career.?

Use Case 6: Ongoing Voices in Career Development

Here are some of my favorite people who write, think, post, or share regularly on Linkedin with respect to various topics and content about career development

• Shyvee Shi – Shyvee Shi is a PM at Linkedin and former management consultant. She posts regularly about career development and productivity tools to improve the way you work and life
• Lizzie Jones –? Lizzie is an MBA Student at Rice University, aspiring producer, and a career coach for emerging and early in career professionals. She cut her teeth recruiting at tech companies like Expedia and Amazon, and writes and posts regularly on career and job search advice.
• Shivani Berry – Advice for new female managers, Shivani also has a leadership coaching program (cohort based) for emerging female managers
• Jenni Fink - Jenni Fink is a Career and Leadership Coach as well as the Founder of Fink Development, a Career Development Firm. Jenni posts regularly on all topics related to career strategy, such as job and career transitions, resume and LinkedIn profile tips, and other topics related to career development.
• James Raybould - James is a Senior Director of Product at LinkedIn, with a vested interest in career development. James also has a newsletter where he shares learnings and summaries from the career development books he reads, which are awesome cliff notes?
• Nathan Tanner - Nathan is Head of People at a startup but previously did stints in HR at LinkedIn and Doordash. Nathan is also an author of Not Your Parents Workplace, and someone who I actually featured in my book about his career journey. Nathan has a newsletter and often writes and shares his thoughts on career development
• Derek Pando - Derek is a current graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School, but has previously worked at LinkedIn and Zoom. Derek has written extensively in the past about career development, and I had the chance to interview him on my podcast
• Rohan Rajiv - Rohan is a Product Manager at LinkedIn, and has written extensively on his ideas, thoughts and learings related to his career on his blog as well as on LinkedIn
• Daniel Liu - Daniel is the Managing Director of Career Education at the Texas McCombs Business School. In addition to thinking about careers and the intersection of learning and the future of work, Daniel advises hundreds of students each year on how to set and achieve their career goals
• Julia Wuench - Julia is a Career and Leadership Coach for emerging leaders, and the Founder of The Authenticity Guide. Julia writes and posts regularly on career and leadership advice and has a regular column on Forbes.
• Jonathan Javier and Jerry Lee - Jonathan and Jerry are the Founders behind Wonsulting, a career coaching program that specializes in helping underrepresented students and professionals land their dream careers. Jonathan and Jerry have a ton of content on LinkedIn but they also post on TikTok and Instagram on various career related topics.

Conclusion

I am sure I am missing out on some resources or links so if you have any to add please feel free to comment or drop the links in. My hope is that there is something for everyone out there who is thinking about how to achieve their career goals. Best of luck!