MAKING GOOD

Two enterprising young activists explain why trying to change the world is the best career move you could possibly make right now.

The current unemployment crisis is enough to get anyone down, but Parish and Aujla are here to brighten the gloomy atmosphere. Where others see hopelessness, they see opportunity. This enthusiastic handbook urges the jobless and the underemployed to venture out, virtually skip the corporate world all together and embrace the power of “non-linear” career paths. Doing so, the authors write, will lead not only to greater personal fulfillment, but also broader societal change. The prescription boils down to acknowledging your passion, discovering a need and creating the job that you really want. The authors draw heavily on their own experience working in the areas of green energy and community organizing to illustrate their points. They also provide numerous exercises, each designed to aid others in devising personal pathways out of the jobless wilderness. Joseph Campbell urged his students to “follow their bliss.” Parish and Aujla are doing the same thing here, with the added benefit of reducing unemployment and hopefully spurring wider societal progress. There isn’t one right way to create your own job, of course, so the authors provide general rules, exercises and thought experiments to help individuals realize their true potential and value in the changing workforce. Unfortunately, their efforts to simultaneously address both career development and social change occasionally become unwieldy, resulting in choppy sections. Practical advice and earnest cheerleading more than make up for these shortcomings, however. A fresh way to look at the challenges facing job seekers today.