Job Hopper: The Checkered Career of a Down-Market Dilettante (Paperback)

~ (Author) "My father used to take me in my stroller to the Children's Museum, back when it was housed in an old mansion in a once-grand..." (more)
Key Phrases: ayun halliday, theater person, Shri Devi, Miss Thing, Dick Kratt (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ayun Halliday sets us giggling with her misadventures." -- SF Weekly

"Halliday’s experiences read like travel memoirs from a particularly amusing land…she portrays incompetence and indifference with a clinically sharp eye." -- The Onion

"Her humor, intelligence, and even tenderness turn each dismal professional stop into a laugh-out-loud vignette." -- Seattle Weekly

"Job Hopper is great fun to read...we feel her pain, despair and occasional jubilation." -- The Chicago Sun-Times

"Like a black humor version of ‘Nickel and Dimed’, Halliday makes merciless observations on her bosses and herself" -- The Newark Star-Ledger

A truly hilarious lesson in gratitude. -- Ana Gasteyer, Actress

Ayun Halliday is the consummate dilettante, dissecting her checkered career with razor wit and a discerning eye. -- Mike Daisey, author of 21 Dog Years: A Cube Dweller's Tale

Hilarious and painful... reminiscent of my days working a series of flunky jobs, before settling on one for 35 years. -- Harvey Pekar, author of American Splendor

Un(der)paid artiste keeps body and soul together without selling either. Yes, I too scrubbed pit stains out of bunny costumes. -- Joyce Brabner, co-author of Our Cancer Year

Product Description

During her time in the paid job market, Ayun Halliday has managed to rack up a terrifying array of short-lived stints, including ersatz costumer designer, belligerent artist's model, bane of professional secretaries everywhere (a.k.a. "temp"), and Bert of Sesame Street for enthusiastic department-store crowds.

Clinging to her "true" vision—acting—by a hair, Halliday's diligent avoidance of hard work, regular paychecks, and anything remotely resembling a dress code, will warm the hearts of anyone who has ever served food that fell on the floor, suffered canned lunches in sterile break rooms, or been busted photocopying a résumé on the job. Honest and uproarious, Halliday is an unapologetic, loose-lipped icon for the slacker in us all.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (February 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580051308
• ISBN-13: 978-1580051309
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,033,642 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ayun's World, March 2, 2005

By	Mervyn Keane, Club Man (Riverwoods, IL) - See all my reviews

Ayun Halliday's newest book is about her Ms. adventures in the semi-unskilled job market while in her twenties. Funny, frenetic and sometimes fastidious, she gives the details of roughly fifteen work situations: the highs and lows - mostly lows. Workers are indifferent, bosses are incapable and customers are incorrigible.

In all fairness, I should state that I am in this book as one of Ayun's former employers, which is like appearing as a rabbi in a book about the Spanish Inquisition written by Torquemada. I'm not quite sure that everything Ayun says about me is the truth but more importantly, I'm not quite sure if everything she says about herself is exactly true. Mostly, she implies that she is incompetent, lazy and goofy. She is just the opposite.

I worked with her over fifteen years ago and even back then when she was in and then just out of college, she appeared to be the perfect everywoman. A good and conscientious waitress, she was alive and fascinated with everything. She seemed like the perfect student/ actress/ literature nut/ politically sensitive party girl. Perhaps it was this perfection which sent her cascading from job to job in search of the ideal situation.

When she finally does find a position that gives her happiness, she finds it in her heart to lambaste the employer who saved her and several of her clients. Well, maybe she's not so perfect after all but she is wonderful and has written a book that's fun to read which concludes on a positive if coprophagous note.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Close one, November 29, 2006

By	Leif E. Pettersen "Writer, vagabond, wino" (Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book hits ever so close to home and the "what if" thoughts that flash through my mind once in a while when I fall into crazy reveries while slogging through the slower parts of my, albeit awesome, job.

I too was a theatre nerd (but, you know, the cool kind) and spent a short period after college exploring the same path as Ayun: half-heartedly working crap jobs by day, and doing experimental theatre [......] Fortunately, my low tolerance for audition rejections and the sickening appeal of paid vacations, forced me to bail on "the life" a mere 18 months later and I became a willing tool of the Man for nine surprisingly swift years (now I'm a used car salesman in Little Rock, jealous?).

Seriously, I loved (and deeply commiserated with) this book. You just can't make this stuff up. Believe me, I tried. Even if you didn't come a whisker away from this lifestyle like I did, the stories will draw you in, make you shake your head and wonder how some people get through the day without being arrested or accidentally killing themselves. These are sociological findings that college professors pay good money for, not to mention being hilarious. Ayun is a wizard at taking all forms of misery, and the jackholes that play supporting roles, and making it funny. This is something I'm put in the position of doing all too often, so I know it ain't easy.

Good one Ayun.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, As Usual, February 26, 2006

By	Jeffrey Yamaguchi - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ayun Halliday is one of my favorite writers. I've been a fan ever since reading her East Village Inky zine years ago, which she continues to publish. I've also gotten to see her read live, and she is one of the most lively readers I have ever seen. Anyway, this excellent collection of stories about her various jobs is charming, honest, eye-opening, touching (especially the story of her job at Dave's Italian Kitchen), and most importantly, hilarious. The picture of Ayun at the end of her introduction is a perfect represenation of how great this book is: It's nostalgic, a bit-crazed, and funny. My favorite story is the last one, about Ayun's experiences as a massage therapist. Very revealing about the nature of the job, about customers, and about one particualar boss... Quite a character. I highly recommend this book.