Career Change: Planned or Accidental

CareerCast - Life-long Career Development

Benny Ho

 

 

Are the best career changes clearly mapped out and planned in great detail? Former McKinsey consultant and author of The Accidental Career Benny Ho believes that long, successful, and satisfying careers don’t necessarily have to be deliberate or intentional. In this CareerCast, Benny will share his research on career changers who fell into their careers along with insights, surprising information, and practical tips on how to succeed in a career change.

Aired February 15, 2013

The Accidental Career by Benny Ho (2013)

The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success, revised and updated edition, by Nicholas Lore (2012)

Coach Yourself to a New Career: 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life by Talane Miedaner (2010)

This Is Not the Career I Ordered: Empowering Strategies from Women Who Recharged, Reignited, and Reinvented Their Careers by Caroline Dowd-Higgins (2010)

The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention: Essential Survival Skills for Any Economy by Pamela Mitchell (2009)

Getting Unstuck: A Guide to Discovering Your Next Career Path by Timothy Butler (2009)

Strategies for Successful Career Change: Finding Your Very Best Next Work Life by Martha E. Mangelsdorf (2009)

Your Next Move: The Leader’s Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions by Michael D. Watkins (2009)

The Career Change Handbook: How to Find Out What You’re Good At and Enjoy—Then Get Someone to Pay You for It by Graham Green (2008)

Turning Points: Managing Career Transitions with Meaning and Purpose by Lisa Severy, Phoebe Ballard, and Jack Ballard (2008)

Over-40 Job Search Guide: 10 Strategies for Making Your Age an Advantage in Your Career by Gail Geary (2005)

Benny Ho’s extensive research on career changers became the core of his book The Accidental Career. Early in his career, he worked in architecture in the United States, Europe, and China. Subsequent to that, Benny became a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and later the Hong Kong managing director of Rocket Internet. He is deeply interested in questions around the human potential beyond one’s formal training. He received his BA in architecture (highest honors) from UC Berkeley and his master’s in architecture from Harvard University. He resides in Hong Kong.

Benny Ho The Accidental Career

Read an excerpt of The Accidental Career by Benny Ho.

Read the Excerpt