Risk/Reward
Why Intelligent Leaps and Daring Choices Are The Best Career Moves You Can Make
“Thinking about changing jobs, perhaps even your entire career? Apparently you’re not alone. Kreamer’s (It’s Always Personal) book is based on the results of three annual surveys done from 2012 to 2014 looking at 650-850 peoples’ work lives and their attitudes and predictions for the future...Well-written with intriguing findings, this quick and relevant read is recommended for public libraries and career collections.”
Candid stories of professional risk-taking from Sheryl Sandberg, Jim Cramer, Jane Pauley, Po Bronson, Rosanne Cash, Sallie Krawcheck, Anna Quindlen, David Carr, Seth Godin, John Eyler and many more talk about what it takes to get ahead in today’s workplace. Anne reveals vital facts that will help readers understand the pros and cons of their approaches to job and career risk, and offers specific strategies that can help everyone flourish in the fluid new workplace. Risk/Reward is a practical navigation guide for making your way through uncharted territory at this unprecedented economic and cultural moment.
What does it really take to get ahead and achieve satisfaction in today’s unpredictable new workscape? Highly developed emotional intelligence? Crack technological skills? Formal training and the right degree? Living in the right place? A personal wellspring of creativity? When 40 million Americans will soon be “solo-preneurs” and another 20 million want to work part-time, this is a major set questions.
It turns out that most Americans haven’t really come to grips with the transformed conditions of the 21st century, and don’t have a clue about how to design a career strategy adaptable to today’s rapidly evolving and uncharted new conditions. In three national surveys Anne conducted with J. Walter Thompson she discovered that:
- More than half of Americans are contemplating changing not just their jobs but their careers.
- Of those 78 million Americans who crave change, 46% say they don’t know how to go about making it happen.
Risk/Reward is a user’s manual explaining how to bridge the gap between thinking and doing. Through survey research as well as in-depth interviews with scores of Americans (and my own successful, multi-career working life), Anne discovered that one’s tolerance for smart risk-taking is a critical and under-appreciated determinant in occupational fulfillment and success today.
From an analysis of the survey data based on a total of almost 1,000 respondents, four clusters emerged, and thus a Risk/Reward Matrix consisting four distinct occupational types:
- Pioneers
- Thinkers
- Defenders
- Drifters
The Risk/Reward Matrix questionnaire above is a more basic version of a much larger one that Anne's team fielded in 2014 as research for the book. For the official national survey, the team asked a random sample of 650 people 63 questions concerning their attitudes about work, career, ambition, security and so on.
From an analysis of the resulting data four basic risk/reward types emerged. Once you take the survey you’ll discover the primary and secondary risk types into which you probably fall. And after you've read the book, that information can help you develop a proactive, everyday practice for improving your ability to manage occupational risk.
Anne with Jim “Mad Money” Cramer at Random House's Big Ideas Night