Book IVYou’re interviewing them too.Three questions to carry in.
Vitaesmith advanced series
Judge them back. Stay ready.Hold your course. Learn from others.
Four illustrated books for working life in the United States: judging an employer while they judge you, staying ready for your next job from your first day in this one, getting through bad bosses and toxic workplaces, and stories that show how it all goes right, wrong, and worse.
PDFs for any screen or printer, and a reading edition for your computer. Pay once. Written with the help of AI tools and illustrated with an AI image tool: about AI.
Real pages. The same four people, years on.
Choose your books
Book IVThe firm scorecard.The whole book on one page.
Book VThe wins log.Ten minutes on a Friday.
Book VAsk while they still love you.References, before you need them.
Book VIName your storm.One word for it won’t do.
Book VIWhen you must not let it go.The routes the law gives you, and their deadlines.
Book VIIThe question that changed the room.A good ending, and why.
Book VIITwelve patterns.What every story here shares.
Why these books
You’ll spend about 8,000 hours in your next job, and you’ll choose it in about four. The first three books get you through the interview. These four are for everything around it, with Jade, Theo and Marta a few years on, and Smithy the anvil still pointing out what matters.
Four books, one job each
For the job you want, the one you have, and the one you’ll want next.
623 illustrated pages, US Letter. Every study read at its source. Each book stands on its own, and points to the others where one goes deeper.
Book IV · Judge them back
An Interview Is a Two-Way Street
136 pages · 20 chapters
They’re deciding whether to hire you. You’re deciding whether to give them years of your life. Read the signs, weigh the fit, and spot the firms that aren’t worth your time.
The chapters
- You’re interviewing them too
- Investigate first
- Your deal-breakers
- How did it really go?
- Five myths, retired
- Ten minutes in the car
- The silence
- When the answer is no
- Listen when they describe the job
- What they really mean
- The true cost of the job
- The people you’d spend your days with
- The one-year test
- Is there even a job?
- Job scams
- Round nine
- Free work in disguise
- Kept waiting
- Make them show their hand
- Walking away well
Book V · Stay ready
While the Sun Shines
140 pages · 22 chapters
The best time to prepare for your next job is your first day in this one. Your stories, your people, your skills: kept sharp an hour or two at a time.
The chapters
- Day one
- How careers rust
- Loyal, with your eyes open
- The six-month checkup
- A résumé that never goes stale
- The wins log
- From log to STAR
- Get the numbers while you can
- What stays out of the log
- Ask while they still love you
- How to ask
- Give first
- A network across companies
- Your last thirty days
- Training that travels
- Hunting for it
- The resourceful one
- Read job ads when you don’t need one
- Interview fitness
- If it all ended on Monday
- Side doors
- Moving up by moving on
Book VI · Hold your course
Weathering the Storm
197 pages · 27 chapters
Bad bosses, sour relationships, toxic workplaces, and the way back after damage. How to get through the storm without wrecking your life.
When it’s more than a bad boss: harassment, discrimination, safety, retaliation, and unpaid wages, with the EEOC’s and the Department of Labor’s routes and deadlines. General information, not legal advice.
The chapters
- Work is mostly people
- Even twins disagree
- Name your storm
- Could it be you?
- Your character is your career
- The 24-hour rule
- Let it go, even when you’re right
- Told to shut up
- A field guide to difficult bosses
- Cliques, gossip and the colleague who wants you gone
- Keep it off social media
- Don’t secretly record your boss
- HR is not your friend
- Even if you win, you can lose
- When you must not let it go
- The quiet paper trail
- One call to a lawyer is not a war
- The clean exit
- When it’s costing you your health
- Salvaging a sinking ship
- “Why did you leave?”
- A new skill, a new industry
- Your online trail
- Go overseas
- A criminal record
- Second-chance employers
- Making it right
Book VII · Learn from others
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
150 pages · 23 chapters
The interviews that went right, the ones that went wrong, and the ones nobody should live through, each with what it teaches. Inspired by true stories, with every name and detail changed.
The chapters
- How to read these stories
- The question that changed the room
- “I don’t know”
- The note that reopened a door
- The career changer nobody wanted
- A reference from seven years ago
- The second chance
- The answer rehearsed to death
- The candidate who trashed the old boss
- The lie that surfaced three years later
- The dream job that was only a dream
- Wrong room, wrong day, muted mic
- The counteroffer that backfired
- The job that never existed
- Nine rounds, then silence
- The question nobody should be asked
- The post that ended a career
- The secret recording
- “I wouldn’t have hired you”
- The workplace that made someone ill
- Twelve patterns
- Write your own
- The whole series on one page
In every book
Something to do tonight.
- Book IVThe firm scorecard and the red-flag phrasebook, thirty questions that ask what happened, not what would, and the letters for withdrawing and declining.
- Book VThe wins log, ten minutes every Friday, turned into stories for your next interview, and a plan for your last thirty days in any job.
- Book VIThe 24-hour rule, the quiet paper trail, and the clean exit, for the day a job goes wrong.
- Book VIITwelve patterns from all the stories, and a page to write your own.
Every chapter ends with a practice you can do that week, and five lines to remember.
The Vitaesmith books
Seven books. One working life.
Book IWhat to do
Book IIHow to do it well
Book IIIWhat to say- Book IVJudge them back
- Book VStay ready
- Book VIHold your course
- Book VIILearn from others
Books I to III are the interview itself: see the interview books. All seven together are the Complete Set, below.
Two ways to read
On any screen. Or on paper.
The PDF, for every screen
Read each book on a phone, a tablet or a computer, or print it for yourself on US Letter. Its contents are clickable: tap a chapter and you’re there.
Interview Tips & Tricks
The reading edition, for your computer
Open it in Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox, even offline:
- A highlighter in four colors
- A bookmark that saves your place
- Six themes, light and dark
- Larger or smaller text
- Search across the whole book
- The contents beside the page
On a phone, read the PDF: a phone opens the reading edition without its tools.
Choose your books
Pay once, for the books you need.
Each book comes as a PDF and a reading edition, with START HERE. Buy one, all four, or all seven Vitaesmith books.
All four
The Advanced Collection
Books IV, V, VI and VII: 623 pages.
$24.99once · $39.96 bought one by one
All seven
The Complete Set
Every Vitaesmith book, I to VII: 958 pages.
$35.00once · $63.93 bought one by one
Judge them back
Book IV
An Interview Is a Two-Way Street
$9.99once
- 136 pages, 20 chapters
- Read the signs, weigh the fit
- The firm scorecard
Stay ready
Book V
While the Sun Shines
$9.99once
- 140 pages, 22 chapters
- Your stories, people and skills
- The wins log
Hold your course
Book VI
Weathering the Storm
$9.99once
- 197 pages, 27 chapters
- Bad bosses and toxic workplaces
- The law’s routes and deadlines
Learn from others
Book VII
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
$9.99once
- 150 pages, 23 chapters
- Inspired by true stories
- Twelve patterns
About AI. AI tools helped us write these books, and their illustrations were made with an AI image tool from descriptions we wrote, then chosen and arranged by us. The people in them are invented. Book VII’s stories are inspired by true ones, with every name, place and telling detail changed.
Have Vitaesmith Ultimate? Books I to III come with it, so the Advanced Collection is the one you need. See Vitaesmith Ultimate
Vitaesmith advanced series
Judge them back. Stay ready. Hold your course. Learn from others.
From $9.99once · no subscription · yours for good · US dollars; any sales tax or VAT is added or included at checkout, as your country requires
Buying on this site opens in the next few days.
Each book as a PDFFor any phone, tablet or computer, with clickable contents, or printed for yourself.
Each book’s reading editionFor your computer’s browser: highlight, bookmark, search, six themes.
START HEREOpening and reading the books, and the license in plain English.
Your downloads, kept safeOn your thank-you page and by email. Only someone who paid can download them.
General information about work in the United States. It isn’t legal, financial or career advice, and no book can promise a job, an offer or an outcome. These are digital downloads, so we don’t refund a change of mind once the download starts. If a file doesn’t open, we’ll fix it, replace it or refund you. Terms and refunds
Questions, answered.
Do I need Books I to III first?
No. Each book stands on its own. They point to one another where one goes deeper, and Books I to III cover the interview itself. See the interview books
Which one should I start with?
Book IV, if you’re choosing between jobs now. Book V, if you’ve just started one. Book VI, if a job is going wrong. Book VII, if you’d like to see it all happen to someone else first. The Advanced Collection has all four.
Are the stories in Book VII true?
They’re inspired by true stories, with every name, place and telling detail changed, so nobody in them can be recognized. None of them is a review or a testimonial.
Is Book VI legal advice?
No. It explains, as general information, when a problem at work may be more than a bad boss, and the routes and deadlines the EEOC and the Department of Labor give you. For your own situation, it says when to call a lawyer.
I have Vitaesmith Ultimate. Which should I buy?
The Advanced Collection: Books I to III come with Vitaesmith Ultimate, so the Complete Set would give you those again.
Can I read them on my phone?
Yes: read the PDFs on any phone or tablet, with clickable contents. The reading editions, with the highlighter and the themes, are for a computer’s browser: a phone opens them without their tools.
Can I share them with my team or my students?
No. Your license is for your own reading, on all your own devices, and printed for yourself. A coach, a teacher or an employer needs a license for each reader. Read the license
Were they written with AI?
AI tools helped us write the books, and the illustrations were made with an AI image tool from descriptions we wrote, then chosen and arranged by us. The people in them are invented.
Can I get a refund?
These are digital downloads, so we don’t refund a change of mind once the download starts. If a file doesn’t open or something’s wrong, tell us: we’ll fix it, replace it or refund you. Your legal rights aren’t affected.
We read every message, and we keep improving.
Write to [email protected], about the books or anything else.
- The pages shown are real pages of the books. The books’ illustrations were made with an AI image tool.