Review: I Don't Know What I Want But I Know It's Not This: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work

I Don't Know What I Want But I Know It's Not This: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work by Julie Jansen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I laugh when I hear U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. Because I still haven’t figured out what I’m looking for, so I’m not sure whether I’ve found it already or not. This book takes the tact that you need to answer both of those questions in the correct order – what is it you want with a career, and how do you get there. I appreciated the broad brush used here. The author delves into a number of personality tests and includes many surveys and thought questions to help answer that first question. And she doesn’t narrow down the possible answers to just a new full-time career. The author talks about going part time, volunteering, owning your own business, and retiring. She covers all bases. The final chapter is typical of a book about job hunting. I found this was a different perspective than many books that focus on either “what should I do with my life” or “how do I start a business, retire, get a new job,…”. But that was also a weakness. There was quite a lot covered, so there didn’t seem to be as much depth as other similar books. Overall, I found it a reasonable overview of the topics discussed, with one or two new-to-me things to think about (in my case, about purchases of existing businesses). The title is golden.

I listened to this audiobook, mostly while driving or walking as is my habit. This contained a number of surveys, quizzes, and the like which required stopping the playback and writing down well-thought-thru answers. These interactions were key to getting something out of the book. If you want to play along, you should consider a paper copy of the book.


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