1. J. L. Tyler, Tyler's Guide: The Health Care Executive’s Job Search, Third Edition, Chicago: Health Administration Press, 2002.

This is a hands-on guide for anyone seeking a position or planning a job change in the healthcare field. Tyler offers “how to” examples using the basic tools of job search: cover letters, resumes, networking suggestions and aids, and frequently asked interview questions.

2. A. R. Kovner and A. H. Channing, A Career Guide for the Health Services Manager, Third Edition, Chicago: Health Administration Press, 1999. (Out of print)

This popular and comprehensive career guide clarifies the role and responsibilities of today’s healthcare executive. It also covers such topics as ethical issues, diversity in the workplace, and communications with staff. Also provided are sample employment agreements and guidelines on conflict of interest.

3. C. F. Dye, Executive Excellence: Protocols for Health Care Executive Leaders, Second Edition, Chicago: Health Administration Press, 2000.

Dye helps readers understand how their behavior affects relationships with others. Readers can gain a “sense of the appropriate” and become more confident and effective by understanding the unwritten rules that govern executive etiquette.

4. R. N. Bolles, What Color Is Your Parachute? Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press, 2003. Updated almost annually.

This well-known guide is considered by many a job searcher’s bible because of its veracity, length, and spiritual tone. It is an excellent resource for helping to identify career interests, analyzing one’s strengths, and preparing resumes and includes networking and interviewing tips. Although it is aimed at more than an executive audience, this resource does an excellent job of pulling together the various elements needed to conduct a successful job search campaign.

5. T. Besson, Resumes, Third Edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

This is an exhaustive guide to developing and using resumes. The author covers chronological, functional resumes and then delves into the elements of any resume. There are chapters to address first-time job seeker resumes, resumes for women returning to the workforce, resumes for job changers, and resumes for seasoned professionals. The reader will find dozens of sample resumes for reference.

6. C. Kleiman, The Career Coach: Carol Kleiman’s Inside Tips to Getting and Keeping the Job You Want, Chicago: Dearborn Financial Publishing, 1994.

The author, a newspaper columnist who covers career issues, provides career-long advice that starts immediately after a resume has been created. Topics covered include finding a job that fits and preparing for interviews, then the text covers keeping a job once in it, managing one’s career growth, and being a resource for others. It concludes with tips on preparing for a second career.

7. M. M. Kennedy, Kennedy’s Career Strategist: A Monthly Guide to Career Planning Success and Job Satisfaction, Wilmette, Ill.: Career Strategies.

This monthly subscription career newsletter combines reports on the trends in hiring, interviewing, compensation, and other career topics with information on the up and down sides of hot topics such as diversity, job sharing, seasoned executive employment, and dealing with bad bosses.

8. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

This assessment instrument provides individuals with feedback on their psychological type and temperament. The information reveals whether one prefers extroversion or introversion, how one prefers to take in information and make decisions, and how one prefers to live, planfully or more casually. The interaction of these preferences can influence how one will deal with organizational activities such as problem solving, conflict, communication, and the process of change. The MBTI is available through the Personality Type Assessment Workshop offered by ACHE’s Healthcare Executive Career Resource Center.

9. Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavioral (FIRO-B)

This assessment instrument provides individuals with feedback on how they characteristically approach relationships that are newly established or that are changing. The information reveals whether one is more or less open to including others or being included by others, whether one is inclined to seek control or to welcome direction by others, and whether one seeks personal warmth in relationships or prefers to maintain objective distance. The interaction of these characteristic behaviors can explain how one perceives colleagues and what kind of impression they, in turn, receive. The FIRO-B is available through the Workplace Relationships Workshop offered by ACHE’s Healthcare Executive Career Resource Center.

10. D. Helfand, Career Change: Everything You Need to Know to Meet New Challenges and Take Control of Your Career, Lincolnwood, Ill.: VGM Career Horizons, 1999.

11. C. F. Dye, Leadership in Healthcare: Values at the Top, Chicago: Health Administration Press, 2000.