by Clay Burton, Independent Music and Arts (imaai), Inc.
Julia Ivy’s Crafting Your Edge for Today’s Job Market is arguably one of the most important books of its type to emerge in recent memory. Her credentials make this less than surprising. Ivy is a professor of Strategy and International Business Group at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northwestern University as well as a Faculty Director for the MS in International Business. She has extensive consulting and executive leadership coaching experience, She promotes a multi-discipline approach to business issues incorporating psychology and his garnered numerous awards for her work. The Boston based academic travels the world in her capacity as a consultant, but as a teacher and learner as well. The considerable skills she brings to bear are evident on each page of this book.
Authors Read Podcast
By Lea Ryan. Julia Ivy reads 10 min from her book
Episode 48: Julia Ivy reads from Crafting Your Edge for Today’s Job Market: Using the BE-EDGE Method for Consulting Cases and Capstone Projects.
by Carth Thomas, HOLLYWOOD DIGEST
Young people entering the job market for the first time do not enjoy the benefits of their older peers who bring years of experience and refined skill sets to the table when seeking employment. Julia Ivy’s book Crafting Your Edge for Today’s Job Market provides a remedy to the natural disadvantages they experience when their school years are concluded and they set forth into a competitve employement world for the first time. It is the result of Ivy’s years teaching at an elite collegiate level and the BE-EDGE method she has constructed to assist their efforts separates her thinking on the subject from scores of other academics and advocates for the subject. This short book manages to encapsulate the impressive extent of her method in a little over 100 pages and there isn’t a single reader who will feel she glosses over the topic.
By Jason Hellinburg,GOODREADS
There is a sharp scholarly edge defining Julia Ivy’s book Crafting Your Edge for Today’s Job Market that, on first inspection, may look a little daunting to novice readers, but such impressions soon fade once delving into the text. Ivy states the book’s goals from the outset and its following 100+ pages makes her own case with language any aspiring professional seeking entry into the job market will grasp with ease. It would defeat her purpose if she obscured the book’s goals with dense verbiage and nebulous theorizing, but there isn’t a single page of prose throughout the entirety of Crafting Your Edge sucummbing to this trap. There is a certain amount of clinical distance in the writing; anyone hoping for Ivy to lay herself bear for readers doesn’t understand the purpose of this work and will be disappointed. This book isn’t written to serve her own needs beyond those of someone harboring a passionate desire to place others in an optimum position for professional success.
By Mauricio Rey
The EDGE Method is Great for Consulting Mid-Size Companies
I wrote a whole business case for a Zenith-Optimedia subsidiary with operations in Colombia and Panama by following Dr. Ivy’s EDGE method. My CEO agreed on implementing almost 80% of my recommendations. First of all, the EDGE method helped me identify the areas I should focus on (low productivity, HR issues)…
I met and interviewed key stakeholders (CEO, directors, associates) to develop close relationships and capture their views on enterprise operations. By applying modern management techniques, I provided 5 key recommendations for Zenith to overcome their challenges (calibrate on their span of control at different management levels, change their company culture, review development plans for their key employees)…
The EDGE method was crucial to connect the dots on the company’s issues, capture data from surveys, provide recommendations and create a great storyline in my final presentation.
By Nina
The book is highly recommended!
I bought this book for the purpose of doing the case analysis and consulting report for a startup company. By following the guidelines of the book, our team was able to create a very thorough report considering the industry, market, and company itself. Using the frameworks and terminology that the book guided, the recommendation of challenge solving came out great and the action plan helped the company to overcome their challenge. I would highly recommend this book not only just for a class project need; however, it can also teach you the skill that can apply to the future career path when you need to make professional analysis in any company. This book teaches you a lot of methods and techniques! I found this book really worth reading and the guidelines were applicable as it had offered a lot of basic frameworks you can apply to earn trust, compose the case, and writing the highly effective executive summary and consulting case.
By Ethan S.
As a student of Mrs. Ivy I could not be more ecstatic about the effect this book has had on my professional career. Using the strategies outlined in the book I successfully carried out a consulting report for a company that I was very interested in working for in the future. The book provides a very clear, step by step process of how to amplify your career by emphasizing YOUR unique space as a professional, meaning that if you directly follow the steps in the book you will not be dragged into a field that does not directly interest you. I would recommend this book to anyone trying to kickstart or change directions in their career.
By Jay Izso
The Step by Step Way to Step Into the Career You Always Wanted
There are many books that talk about ideas when it comes to getting the career you desire. There are far fewer books that outline a step by step process in being able to get in the door of that career. Dr. Julia Ivy has written a guide complete with examples of how you can by following the “BE-EDGE” steps not only get your foot in the door of the industry you want to work in, but solve their problems. WARNING: If you want this book to work for you do it exactly as Dr. Ivy has laid it out. Do not skip a step. It will require work on your part, initiative, and the ability to follow direction. If you do all those things…you may find you have the most enjoyable career of your life. Well written, complete with examples, case studies and coaching suggestions
