REVIEW: Chris Fontanella — Tune Up Your Career (BOOK)
“Work has worked you over. You feel like a jack-in-the-box who can’t seem to get — or think — outside the box. Whether you like it or not, being employed means you are part of a capitalistic system (it’s the box ‘Jack’ lives in), and your survival depends on active, intelligent participation within it. Since ‘money makes the world go round’ — and you have to work to earn it — you might as well make the most of the time you spend inside that framework. For work to work for you, you must learn to function better within that structure.
That’s just the way it is,” writes Chris Fontanella in his new book, Tune Up Your Career: Tips & Cautions for Peak Performance in the Workplace. Arguably something of a nonfiction sequel equivalent, or follow-up to his previous work Jump-Start Your Career, Fontanella feels more comfortable and in top form here. He seems to have settled on a decidedly informal, distinctive, and conversational tonality for Tune Up Your Career — coming across concurrently not only as a great source of advice for advancing one’s business, but part and parcel being something of a professionalist’s life coach.
“To what can we compare the framework of work? To what is ‘work life’ analogous?” Fontanella writes, in aforementioned vein. “…Making your way through your work world can be like meandering through a maze. As a mouse scampers here and there in search of cheese, so you hasten through your labyrinth seeking payment (‘cheddar’) for your time and effort.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Tune-Your-Career-Performance-Workplace/dp/1959099078
Each day you enter and put your best paw forward, hoping the ‘rewards’ keep coming. But finding and obtaining those rewards is no easy task — navigating corporate corridors is challenging, and office halls are often strewn with ‘traps.’ You are sure to step on one if you wander in an aimless fashion; a relaxed ramble through your work maze is not advised…
Over time, if you are not careful — if you’re not conscientiously managing your career — the puzzling network of paths will disorient you, and the workplace machinery will strip you of your individuality… The second part of the book provides tips to improve your performance within that setting. It offers ‘maintenance’ suggestions to keep your ‘career engine’ in tip-top shape and pointers to ensure it performs well and has the power needed to get you where you want to go. Not all engines are the same, but all need power. In a conventional engine, a mixture of gasoline and air provide the explosiveness that moves the pistons, which then turns the crankshaft to which they are attached.
Alternatively, electric vehicles use rechargeable batteries to empower the motor. Regardless of the engine type — and each is complex in its own way — both need energy for the car to function as intended. Look at it this way: the engine is the heart of the car, the organ that pumps fuel for the car to do what it is capable of doing. Its functionality diminishes if problems develop, like oil leaks, worn-out bearings, dirty filters, bad serpentine belts, and timing issues. Left unaddressed, the problems only get worse.”
Colin Jordan
