Grad Expectations: The essential guide for all graduates entering the workforce by Rob Cross

In these tough economic times, development expert Rob Cross provides invaluable advice to Britain’s desperate graduate workforce to help them achieve their true potential.

Never has the job climate felt so hostile as in this cruel recession, and never have graduates, both newly qualified and established in the workplace, had to fight so hard to win their jobs and then to keep them. In Grad Expectations (published by Ecademy Press), an entirely unique professional guide by business and talent development guru Rob Cross, constructive, inspirational pearls of wisdom are unveiled, enabling readers to recognise the tools and qualities they need to nurture within themselves in order to enjoy successful and rewarding careers.

Grad Expectations wittily combines fact with fiction, as Cross offers his sage instruction through the life experiences of five young university graduates who meet at the induction day of their two year development programme at World-Corp PLC, a company like any other real organisation. Cross allows us to follow their individual journeys, charting their highs and lows, their individual and collective challenges, how they manage the complex hierarchy of office relationships, while establishing a system for success which enables them to fulfil their true potential. Cross was horrified by the inadequacies of UK careers advice programmes which were failing to give students a tangible understanding of life at work. He was shocked to discover how many good graduates were ill-suited to the careers they had worked towards, and were now effectively suffering from a quarter-life crisis. Cross was motivated to write Grad Expectations by the thought that millions of ambitious, talented graduates were trapped in jobs they hated, and that employers were themselves saddled with lacklustre staff.

Grad Expectations enables all young graduates to feel empowered and better equipped to deal with the daunting professional world. It removes any notion of shame that might be attached to those who must chose to resign from it and follow another path of employment. Rob Cross’s priceless advice should be both a comfort and an inspiration for students on the cusp of employment, as well as acting as a brilliant guide for those talent managers who may need to fine tune their own working practices.

About the author: Rob Cross was born in Melton Mowbray but emigrated with his family to Melbourne, Australia as a toddler. He has degrees in both business and engineering. After an influential tenure with the Australian Air Force he returned to Britain in 2004, and was employed to deliver leadership courses to public, private and not-for-profit organisations. He currently works as a business and leadership development consultant focusing on developing tomorrow’s leaders through providing specialist coaching and consultancy, as well as running training seminars and motivational speaking assignments. Rob Cross lives in London.

To find out more about Rob Cross go to:
www.rob-cross.com
www.grad-expectations.com

You can buy the book for £12.99 (excluding delivery) from Ecademy Press or Amazon (UK site linked) on-line or by ordering using the information below at your local bookseller.

Bibliographic Information:
Grad Expectations
Rob Cross
ISBN 978-1-905823-61-1
Published by Ecademy Press Sept 09
Retail Price £12.99

Ecademy Press is a leading publisher of new authors writing on business and life-solutions based titles. Since its launch in December 2005, Ecademy Press has published a number of highly acclaimed titles including Amazon bestseller ‘BusinessWise’ and ‘Property Magic’ by property millionaire Simon Zutshi

For more information about the author or to arrange an interview please email :-info@authoright.com

In his blog today, Geert Conard explains why he published A Girlfriend in Every City with us and why we are working together again to produce Friends with Benefits, his new book on 21st Century Networking.

In general there are two options for publishing a book : Making a bookdeal with a mainstream publisher or self-publishing. For me both these options don’t really work. Getting a bookdeal with a mainstream publishing brand is close to winning the lottery. The odds are against you unless your name is Dan Brown and you have already published a million-selling book before.
If you go for self-publishing, you are choosing for publishing without any backup at all. In fact you have to become a publisher yourself to get your book on the market.
I have chosen for Ecademy Press which is a cooperative publisher, offering packages of services which makes you land somewhere in between both choices I mentioned before. When I wrote my first book in the summer of 2005, I didn’t even have a clue about the processes that were needed to transform my manuscript into a nice paperback book.

Friends with Benefits will be launched in Belgium on November 21st and will be available from Ecademy Press and Amazon before that.

Watch this space …

Financial advisers lacking the trust factor are being given the secrets to a long and successful career thanks to The Trusted Financial Adviser, a new book by leading independent financial adviser Lee Clarke.

Following a recent Which? Test which revealed that only 5 out of 40 advisers passed the ‘good advice’ test, Lee Clarke is a shining example of why trust is so critical in maintaining his longstanding career as a financial adviser. Lee’s primary motivation for writing The Trusted Financial Adviser was to help both existing and new advisers to develop more trusting relationships with their clients.

“Above everything else people are looking for an adviser they can trust. As a financial adviser you must act with integrity in every aspect of your life and especially in your business dealings. Especially in troubled times such as these, clients are looking for advisers who will demonstrate competence and integrity by only acting in their clients’ interest” says Lee.

Lee has been advising business-owners since 1974 and in 1981 discovered and developed his true calling of becoming a Financial Adviser. Having been a founding member of the Institute of Financial Planning and currently serving on the MDRT Ethics Committee, he is now celebrating his 28th year in the industry with the release of The Trusted Financial Adviser (£12.99, Ecademy Press) which Ecademy Press publisher Mindy Gibbins-Klein predicts will be a category bestseller.

“The Trusted Financial Adviser is aimed at people who want to work for themselves and Lee explains clearly how they can build their own business rather than build someone else’s capital value and future. In the current climate, Lee’s advice on how to have a successful career as a financial adviser and how to protect yourself from possible scandal and danger is immensely valuable and a must read for any financial adviser,” says Ms Gibbins-Klein.

Last month, the Financial Services Authority banned and fined two directors of a Yorkshire-based financial group for their misleading promotions and the mismanagement of an investment scheme that put 53 customers at serious risk of losing nearly £10m. It would seem that The Trusted Financial Adviser could not have come at a better time.

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Lee Clarke is a successful independent financial adviser from Cardiff and founder member of the Institute of Financial Planning and Professional Speakers Association. He has served on several committees and task forces for MDRT, the professional association for financial services professionals worldwide with 35,000 members and currently serves on their Constitution, By-Laws and Ethics Committee. The Trusted Financial Adviser shares his 28 years of experience and is his first book.

Lee Clarke blogs at www.finspeak.blogspot.com

The Trusted Financial Adviser is published by Ecademy Press.
Buy it here for £12.99

For press enquiries please contact Jessica Suter on 01603 283 503 or by email.

We have just added videos of four of our authors as interviewed by Tina Bettison on The Book Channel.

Simon Zutshi talks about the new edition of Property Magic

Steve Glowinkowski -’It’s Behaviour, Stupid’

Robin Sheppard talks about his ‘Solitary Confinement’

Angela Bryant talks Property Investing

Please take a look and give us feedback. Are these video links useful? Should we be doing more of them?