Dig This Gig

March 15, 2011

Quirky career counseling directed at the clueless 20-something.

Dodd abandoned her job as a PA on a hit TV show in Los Angeles and headed for the beaches of Sydney, Australia. There, in the dingy, shoebox-sized room she shared with two friends, she contemplated, along with every other young adult she knew, her dream gig and how to achieve it in the recession-era job market. With this book, the author provides a series of "over-a-beer" conversations that profile the actual career misadventures of 20-somethings active in the workforce, set against the backdrop of success stories of industry leaders like Jeffrey Sachs and Dan Rather. Each chapter targets a specific career field, from "Entertainment Gigs" to "Green Gigs." Some of the accounts are decidedly more successful than others, as explored in "Derailed Gigs." The author opens each section with a basic overview of the field and ends with a postscript that provides 20/20 hindsight. Among others, there's advice from an urban planner, a yacht stewardess and a genetics counselor, who opines, "Nobody understands what a genetics counselor is."

Perfectly suited for the well-traveled recent graduate of an Ivy League institution with a trust fund to fall back on, but not recommended for average young adults slinging coffee and dreaming of a gig they will dig.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from May 1, 2011

In a tough economy, it can be difficult for recent college graduates and others searching for their first job to discover the right career. To make this process a little easier, Dodd, a student at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, created this compilation of profiles that help demystify job titles and provide candid insights into the jobs that young people do. These very resilient workers share their stories of how they found their career paths, often after stumbling through jobs that were all wrong for them, and discuss some of the lessons they learned. The profiles are divided into eight industries, from health care to outdoor gigs; each section includes the stories of four workers in their twenties as well as the insights of a mentor in the field, including Jeffrey Sachs and Dan Rather, who share their experiences and reflect on what they've learned in their careers. VERDICT Dodd targets her words directly to her generational peers, but this is also an excellent choice for high school and college students exploring their career options as well twentysomethings who are still trying to decide what they want to be when they grow up.--Elizabeth Nelson, UOP Lib., Des Plaines, IL

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.