The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl by Karen Burns
Karen Burns, AKA “Working Girl” says she’s had 59 jobs in her life, and therefore she’s an expert at the working world. I kept expecting to see a septegenarian on the back cover, but apparently she counts each freelance assignment as a separate “job.” Still, she seems to have some decent advice on subjects such as “dealing with creeps at work” and “how to use persistence to get the job you want.”
Some of the advice seems quite good (how to turn your weaknesses into a strength) and some doesn’t seem like a bad strategy (how to deal with annoying co-workers). Some of the advice, however, wasn’t as clear-cut as it needed to be. I was very excited on “how to find out what your dream job is,” but it was too hazy to be much use. I also kind of felt like “working girl” was a bit of a weirdo. Sure, she gave lip service to “work/life balance” but the anecdotes were too busy talking about how she worked, and worked, and worked some more, and then worked a second job because she never had enough money (?!). She didn’t have to tell me she didn’t have kids. I figured that much out on my own.
So, not a bad book to read for fun. The pictures are cute, and I read it in an evening. Better than most books on the working world, but not the best.
