Building a successful career starts with you.

It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day demands of your current job and lose sight of the big picture, but with a typical career spanning 50 years or more, you do so at your own peril. It's up to you to chart your own course to professional success.

If you read nothing else on effectively managing your career, read these 10 articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you develop yourself, make the right career moves, navigate inevitable detours and disruptions, and turn your professional dreams into reality.

This book will inspire you to:



Identify and leverage your strengths
Cultivate the curiosity, skills, and knowledge you need to maintain your professional relevance far into the future
Navigate messy job transitions gracefully
Build and sustain a network that supports and encourages your growth
Restore meaning and passion to your work
Bounce back from career setbacks big and small
Reinvent yourself, even in tough times

This collection of articles includes "Managing Oneself," by Peter F. Drucker; "How to Play to Your Strengths," by Laura Morgan Roberts, Gretchen Spreitzer, Jane Dutton, Robert Quinn, Emily Heaphy, and Brianna Barker Caza; "How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career," by Herminia Ibarra; "Five Ways to Bungle a Job Change," by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams; "Learning to Learn," by Erika Andersen; "The Strategic Side Gig," by Ken Banta and Orlan Boston; "How Leaders Create and Use Networks," by Herminia Ibarra and Mark Lee Hunter; "How to Bounce Back from Adversity," by Joshua D. Margolis and Paul G. Stoltz; "Rebounding from Career Setbacks," by Mitchell Lee Marks, Philip Mirvis, and Ron Ashkenas; "Reawakening Your Passion for Work," by Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee, and Daniel Goleman; and "Next-Gen Retirement," by Heather C. Vough, Christine D. Bataille, Leisa Sargent, and Mary Dean Lee.

HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.