Unemployable!: The Psychological Toll of Proving Your Worth - Paperback

by Leslie Barber (Author)

All Leslie Barber ever wanted was to change the world. She expected that hard work, meaningful contributions, and a long and satisfying career would bring her joy, financial security, and a comfortable retirement. That is not quite how it went.

Over the course of her working life, she collected job titles. These include social worker, organic farmer, coach, bartender, baker, snake lady, race director, grant writer, and dozens more in between. She worked hard, showed up and gave it everything she had, and what she could never quite seem to hold onto was a career.

This book will resonate with you if you are good at many things, a quick learner, always on the lookout for a new opportunity, disappointed in the status quo, an outside-of-the-box thinker, or if you have ever had a job, applied for a job, or been rejected for a job.

UNEMPLOYABLE! is her story, written with honesty and more than a little humor, for anyone who has ever felt overqualified, overlooked, or just a little out of place in the world they were trying so hard to enter. There is even a chapter written directly for the recruiters and HR professionals who have been on the other side of the table, because this story belongs to all of us, whether we want to admit it or not.

This book is about so much more than how to get a job. It is about what happens to you when the system cannot figure out what to do with you, and what it means to keep showing up anyway. She kept every rejection letter and even caused an actual explosion on her last day at one workplace. With practical insights into the job hunting process, sharp observations about what is broken in hiring culture, and the hard-won wisdom of someone who has been through it all, UNEMPLOYABLE! is proof that there are many paths to the top of the mountain, and every single one of them counts.