Test-Drive Your Dream Job: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding and Creating the Work You Love [Paperback]

Brian Kurth (Author), Robin Simons (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2008

In TEST-DRIVE YOUR DREAM JOB, you'll discover how you can identify, explore and experience your dream job, and how or if you want to pursue it. Author Brian Kurth, founder of VocationVacations, offers professional, personal and financial perspectives on how to transition into a new career and turn your dream job into a reality without risking your current job or jeopardizing your financial stability.


By following this practical and encouraging self-discovery guide, you will gain a better understanding of who you are now; what fulfills you both personally and professionally; how to get from Point A to Point B on the road to your dream job; or perhaps satisfy your curiosity and gain a deeper appreciation for where you are now in your life and your career.


Brian Kurth is a sought-after expert on how to pursue and attain one's dream job. He has shared his wit and wisdom in appearances on NBC's TODAY Show, CNN, and FOX News, and has been featured in articles in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Fortune Magazine. Many more regularly turn to Brian for his comments, advice and insights. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Kurth lives in Portland, Oregon. (2007)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is far more than a collection of motivational quotes. Test-Drive Your Dream Job offers concrete examples and practical solutions for the disenchanted. Highly recommended!" (Curledup.com )

"The mix of candor, concrete advice and real-life stories adds up to a must-read for those who are ready to shove aside the status quo and take a chance at a more satisfying career."

(USA Today )

"If you have ever worked at a job that you hated, you know how downtrodden you can get. Finding your dream job always seems like an arm's length away, but it doesn't have to be that way. This book lays out the step by step path that you need to create your dream job. Inspiration abounds within the pages of this book." (Laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com )

Test-Drive Your Dream Job is both an engrossing chronicle of Kurth's journey to creating his own dream job and a sourcebook for those who can't afford a mentoring fee or would prefer to set up a test-drive themselves. The book delivers by offering lists of questions to ask potential mentors; charts to help in establishing an action plan; and reality-checks about
money, health insurance and the impact a life-change might have on your relationships. Anecdotes about successful dreamers are inspiring, while profiles of those who needed a dream-adjustment demonstrate the importance of taking action: Regardless of the result, you'll have useful experience and information. Kurth notes that many of us accept the ordinary because we've been conditioned to, but it's OK to want something different or better. Really. (Bookpage )

"VocationVacations offers short-term pay for mentoring opportunities in various occupations. While the book is in part an advertisement for Kurth's company, it also shows how you can explore new careers on your own." (Lifetwo.com )

"TEST-DRIVE YOUR DREAM JOB by Brian Kurth, and It's Not A Glass Ceiling, It's Sticky A Floor by Rebecca Shambaugh. I would suggest you go to your nearest library or bookstore and get those books. Any major change in life should begin with research, and those books are a good place to start." (Wellpast50.blogs.com )

"Throughout the book, Kurth and co-writer Robin Simons provide a step-by-step guide to finding mentors on the way to one's eventual dream job. Kurth also tackles the tough issues, such as what to do when your dream career isn't everything you thought it would be, leaving you feeling directionless and shattered. Or how to talk things out with a family member who's not feeling quite so psyched about all the risk associated with the career move you're considering" (Selfhelpme.net )

"Wouldn't it be fabulous to be able to try on a profession or "vocation" before putting enormous time, effort and money into it?! Well, folks, we have a new GREAT RESOURCE in VOCATION VACATIONS!" (Workpassionportal.com )

"Once you experience your dream job, it allows you to be your true self all the time ... Brian Kurth has tapped into today's pervasive career zeitgeist with ...Test-Drive Your Dream Job." (Thirdage.com )

"You can make money and love your job. However, be smart about any job transitions. Read this book first! Life is too short to waste on a job that makes you miserable." (Reviewyourbook.com )

"The book describes the vocations/jobs that some of his clients have tried out. They have been as diverse as opening a bakery to becoming a dog trainer. Some have blossomed into successful careers. Others have discovered that the realities of their dream job were more like a nightmare. So trying out the career move saved some real agony in the long run." - (Armchairinterviews.com )

"This revolutionary, hands-on program from the founder of VocationVacations will help you mesh your working life with your deepest sense of self as you learn how to plan a vocation vacation in any career; build the skills and gather the knowledge you'll need to embark on your new career; overcome the fear of changing careers; transition into a dream job without risking your job or jeopardizing your financial stability; turn a layoff or other involuntary career change into the opportunity of a lifetime; design and create a dream job that doesn't exist yet; manage a smooth, safe transition from your present job into your dream job; and minimize financial risk as you embark on your bold new life." (The Sunday Oregonian )

About the Author

Brian Kurth is the founder and president of VocationVacations, a travel company based in Portland, Oregon that lets people try out their fantasy jobs in a low-risk way -- while they are on vacation from their real work.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Business Plus (January 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446698881
• ISBN-13: 978-0446698887
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #595,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vocational Development Handbook, January 7, 2008

By 

J. Lee (Sarasota, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Test-Drive Your Dream Job: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding and Creating the Work You Love (Paperback)

As a retired professor of Counseling Psychology I spent many years teaching vocational development to M.S. and Ph.D. students. My own dissertation and the first 12 years of my research was about vocational development. Brian's book is the best how-to book on the market! Not just in changing vocations but the process of choosing a career for beginners. If I were still teaching, his book would be one of my required texts. It is so clear and well laid out with all the essential how-to's it would be must reading. The anecdotal cases make the whole process vivid and real for the reader and searcher. The whole idea is fantastic for those who always wanted to try something different. At age 70 I am not inclined to try a new vocation. But, I did try a vacation experience with Brian's company that was fantastic.

We live in FL and summer in WI. I found a VocationVaction just down the road from our WI residence - Sword Making at Albion Swords! I spent two days learning how to make and making my own 15th century sword! My mentor and I had a lot of common background and I got to learn how they make museum quality medieval swords. Brian's company isn't just for wanting to change vocations but also for those who always wanted to try something.

This book is one of the best how-to books I have seen and there are a lot of them in the popular psychology genre.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do you need inspiration to make a career change?, January 6, 2008

By 

A. Morrongiello - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Test-Drive Your Dream Job: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding and Creating the Work You Love (Paperback)

Inspirational, educational, entertaining, great testimonials and stories. Terrific fast read for anyone contemplating career change or needing inspiration to make change in their lives. I have read many books about career change and this was one of the best and most inspirational out there! Great step by step process that can be easily followed----but the stories are what make it real and achievable. Great insight into how to go about finding a mentor - which I feel is one of the most important steps before actually making a career change! A must read...

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What is your dream job?, January 18, 2008

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Test-Drive Your Dream Job: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding and Creating the Work You Love (Paperback)

In 2004 Brian Kurth launched an innovative company he called Vocation Vacations. The company helps people who are considering career changes to "test-drive" the dream job before signing on the bottom line to commit to a new life. Test-Drive Your Dream Job is the story of how his new venture came about and also the stories of others who have tried his vocation vacations with varying results.

Kurth's plan to start this type of business came as the result of fantasizing while making a 90-minute commute to work each day in Chicago. He was daydreaming about all of the kinds of jobs he wished he had rather than the one he was headed to. While waiting in traffic he thought up the name Vocation Vacations, and almost on a whim, registered the domain name. Eight years later he started his new company.

The book describes the vocations/jobs that some of his clients have tried out. They have been as diverse as opening a bakery to becoming a dog trainer. Some have blossomed into successful careers. Others have discovered that the realities of their dream job were more like a nightmare. So trying out the career move saved some real agony in the long run.

While interesting in part, I found the book a bit simplistic. Kurth seems to think he is giving readers all of the tools they would need to leave an unsatisfying job and move into a "career for which they feel a deep sense of passion and purpose." But nearly all of his examples are well-educated members of the corporate world who are bored with the day-to-day work.

He tends to romanticize the "joys" of small business ownership, but assumes a lifestyle that doesn't have multiple financial responsibilities.

I just couldn't take his methodology seriously. And the book dragged on too long for a light look at how to find the perfect job.

Armchair Interviews says: Heed the reviewer's comments.