Alum's top 3 resources to jump-start your career

Max Altschuler, ’10 BIS interdisciplinary studies (business and design studies concentrations), shares three resources that helped inspire his early career decisions.

Podcast: The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss is the author of “The 4-Hour Workweek” and other books. His blog is also super insightful. I try soaking up as much of his wisdom as I can. His podcast is especially strong because he brings on fellow thought leaders to dive deep into topics such as sleep enhancement, modern diet and exercise, and much more. He focuses on creating a growth mindset. To scale our career and live our best lives, we should try to become 1% better every day. (I explored this idea in my book, “Career Hacking for Millennials.”)

Book: “The Greatest Salesman in the World” by Og Mandino

My dad gave this book to me when I graduated from ASU. It’s inspiring, motivating and it’s got a great way of laying out things you need to do to succeed. No matter what profession you’re going into, there’s an element of sales in what you’ll do. If you interview for a job or push for a raise, you’re “selling” yourself. If you build a team, you need to “sell” people on joining. This book is like a spiritual guide to life in the workplace, with really good actionable nuggets and advice on how to persist.

Website: Udemy

College taught you a lot, especially how to learn. Now you’re off to figure out your own path. That means developing vocational skills and putting them into play. Udemy teaches skills you need that often aren’t taught in college. For example, I learned how to create and run a search engine optimization strategy and how to run SEO marketing ads. These are very helpful skills in building a company. In fact, they’re two of the highest-paid consulting gigs in tech right now. Udemy has great practitioner-led education, so you get training from people who are implementing the skills in their own careers.

RELATED: 4 ways to skyrocket your career after ASU

Top photo by Inti St. Clair. Alum Max Altschuler is a founder of multiple startups during and after his time at ASU. Max is vice president of marketing for Outreach, a leading sales engagement platform, and author of three books. This article originally appeared in the summer 2019 issue of ASU Thrive magazine.