George Anders

George Anders explains the remarkable power of a liberal arts education, and the ways it can open the door to cutting-edge jobs. The curiosity, creativity, and empathy that are hallmarks of a liberal arts education aren't unruly traits that must be reined in. You can be yourself, as an English major, and thrive in sales. You can segue from anthropology into the booming new field of user research; from classics into management consulting, and from philosophy into high-stakes investing. At any stage of your career, you can bring a humanist's grace to our rapidly evolving high-tech future. In this book, you will learn why resume-writing is fading in importance and why "telling your story" is taking its place. You will learn how to create jobs that don't exist yet, and to translate your campus achievements into a new style of expression that will make employers' eyes light up.

the surprising power of a "useless" liberal arts education

You can do anything

First published in 1992 (by Basic Books), this reprint is timely now in the wake of Enron and WorldCom. Anders tells the story of how Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) took advantage of Wall Street's tolerance of debt to finagle massive corporate takeovers of companies that included Safeway, Drexel, and

KKR and the Mortgaging of American Business

Merchants of Debt

One of the nation's biggest music labels briefly signed Taylor Swift to a contract but let her go because she didn't seem worth more than $15,000 a year. At least four book publishers passed on the first Harry Potter novel rather than pay J. K. Rowling a $5,000 advance. And the same pattern happens in nearly every business. Anyone who recruits talent faces the same basic challenge, whether we work for a big company, a new start-up, a Hollywood studio, a hospital, or the Green Berets. We all wonder how to tell the really outstanding prospects from the ones who look great on paper but then fail on the job. Or, equally important, how to spot the ones who don't look so good on paper but might still deliver extraordinary performance. Over the past few decades, technology has made recruiting in all fields vastly more sophisticated. Gut instincts have yielded to benchmarks. If we want elaborate dossiers on candidates, we can gather facts (and video) by the gigabyte. And yet the results are just as spotty as they were in the age of the rotary phone. George Anders sought out the world's savviest talent judges to see what they do differently from the rest of us. He reveals how the U.S. Army finds soldiers with the character to be in Special Forces without asking them to fire a single bullet. He takes us to an elite basketball tournament in South Carolina, where the best scouts watch the game in a radically different way from the casual fan. He talks to researchers who are reinventing the process of hiring Fortune 500 CEOs. Drawing on the best advice of these and other talent masters, Anders reveals powerful ideas you can apply to your own hiring. For instance: Don't ignore "the jagged résumé"-people whose background appears to teeter on the edge between success and failure. Such people can do spectacular work in the right settings, where their strengths dramatically outweigh their flaws. Look extra hard for "talent that whispers"- the obscure, out-of-the- way candidates who most scouting systems overlook. Be careful with "talent that shouts"-the spectacular but brash candidates who might have trouble with loyalty, motivation, and team spirit. Each field that Anders explores has its own lingo, customs, and history. But the specific stories fit together into a bigger mosaic. In any field, there's an art to clearing away the clutter and focusing on what matters most. It's not necessarily hard, but it requires the courage to take a different approach in pursuit of the rare find.

How Great Talent Stands Out

The Rare Find

With borrowed money, borrowed management, and great nerve, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquired one Fortune 500 company after another--and changed the face of American business. Excerpted in the Wall Street Journal.

Kkr And The Mortgaging Of American Business

Merchants Of Debt

In a tech-dominated world, the most needed degrees are the most surprising: the liberal arts Did you take the right classes in college? Will your major help you get the right job offers? For more than a decade, the national spotlight has focused on science and engineering as the only reliable choice for finding a successful post-grad career. Our destinies have been reduced to a caricature: learn to write computer code or end up behind a counter, pouring coffee. Quietly, though, a different path to success has been taking shape. In YOU CAN DO ANYTHING, George Anders explains the remarkable power of a liberal arts education - and the ways it can open the door to thousands of cutting-edge jobs every week. The key insight: curiosity, creativity, and empathy aren't unruly traits that must be reined in. You can be yourself, as an English major, and thrive in sales. You can segue from anthropology into the booming new field of user research; from classics into management consulting, and from philosophy into high-stakes investing. At any stage of your career, you can bring a humanist's grace to our rapidly evolving high-tech future. And if you know how to attack the job market, your opportunities will be vast. In this book, you will learn why resume-writing is fading in importance and why "telling your story" is taking its place. You will learn how to create jobs that don't exist yet, and to translate your campus achievements into a new style of expression that will make employers' eyes light up. You will discover why people who start in eccentric first jobs - and then make their own luck - so often race ahead of peers whose post-college hunt focuses only on security and starting pay. You will be ready for anything.

The Surprising Power of a "Useless" Liberal Arts Education

You Can Do Anything

Alfredo Vaccaro

Electrical grids are, in general, among the most reliable systems in the world. These large interconnected systems, however, are subject to a host of challenges - aging infrastructure, transmission expansion to meet growing demand, distributed resources, and congestion management, among others. Innovations in Power Systems Reliability aims to provide a vision for a comprehensive and systematic approach to meet the challenges of modern power systems. Innovations in Power Systems Reliability is focused on the emerging technologies and methodologies for the enhancement of electrical power systems reliability. It addresses many relevant topics in this area, ranging from methods for balancing resources to various reliability and security aspects. Innovations in Power Systems Reliability not only discusses technological breakthroughs and sets out roadmaps in implementing the technology, but it also informs the reader about current best practice. It is a valuable source of information for academic researchers, as well as those working in industrial research and development.

Innovations in Power Systems Reliability

Anyone who recruits talent faces the same basic challenge, whether we work for a big company, a new start-up, a Hollywood studio, a hospital, or the Green Berets. We all wonder how to tell the really outstanding prospects from the ones who look great on paper but then fail on the job. Or, equally important, how to spot the ones who don’t look so good on paper but might still deliver extraordinary performance. In a tough economy, it’s more important than ever to make every talent decision count. George Anders sought out the world’s savviest talent judges to see what they do differently from the rest of us. He reveals how the U.S. Army finds soldiers with the character to be in Special Forces without asking them to fire a single bullet. He takes us to an elite basketball tournament where the best scouts are watching the players who don’t have the ball. He talks to researchers who are reinventing the process of hiring Fortune 500 CEOs. Anders reveals powerful ideas you can apply to your own hiring. And in a new chapter for the paperback, “Becoming a Rare Find,” he explains how to flip these strategies and make sure your talent isn’t missed.

The HMO system is supposed to stop greedy doctors and hospitals from viewing patients as sources of profit. But Health Against Wealth reveals that when you are confronting a medical emergency, the HMO system's cost-saving rules can jeopardize your life. This book, said the Cleveland Plain Dealer, is a "chilling portrait of the many ways in which HMOs can be hazardous to your health."

George Anders

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