An Outsider's Guide to Shaking Hands, Shutting Up, Handling Jerks, and Other Crucial Skills in Business That No One Ever Teaches You
August 3, 2015
Esquire editor McCammon has written an entertaining but ultimately superficial guidebook to creating and navigating a career. Aimed at people who feel like outsiders in the workplace, the book advises readers on handling workplace anxiety, inexperience, and imposter syndrome with panache. McCammon frames his advice through the narrative of his own career path, from in-flight magazine writer to savvy, polished magazine editor, addressing how to master the small skills—soft and otherwise—that can help launch and nurture a career, such as interviewing, working with recruiters, managing intimidating people, pitching ideas, entering a room, smiling, and making small talk. While the presentation is funny and encouraging, and the suggestions about understanding and working through insecurities (and succeeding in spite of them) are helpful, McCammon’s survey-course approach is too scattershot to allow any real depth and is unlikely to be targeted enough for any individual reader.