Careers for Mystery Buffs & Other Snoops and Sleuths (Careers for You Series) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Who loves a good mystery?..." (more)
Key Phrases: mystery buffs, fire investigators, median annual earnings, New York, United States, Hayden Planetarium (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The inspiring Careers for You series shows career explorers how to examine the job market through the unique lens of their own interests--and find new happiness in the workplace. Vital information on each job includes:

• The latest data on training and education
• Stories of success from each field
• Advice on assessing job skills and marketing them well in an interview
• Expert advice on finding and getting the job
• Resources for further career exploration in each specific field

From the Back Cover

[category] Careers

Careers for Mystery Buffs & Other Snoops and Sleuths

Love a good mystery? Your natural investigative talents can lead you to a rewarding and fulfilling career. From law enforcement to news reporting to genealogy to paranormal research, the opportunities for mystery buffs are as diverse as they are rewarding. If you'd like to find a career that puts your investigative talents and interest to good use, this book is for you. In Careers for Mystery Buffs, you'll learn how sleuths and puzzle-solvers like yourself can earn a healthy living as:

• Investigative Reporters
• Museum Historians
• FBI or DEA Agents
• Criminologists
• Attorneys
• True-Crime Writers
• Archivists
• Parapsychologists
• Genealogists
• Librarians
• Archaeologists

Inside you'll find all the information you need on salaries, working conditions, and opportunities for professional advancement. Written for newcomers and career changers alike, Careers for Mystery Buffs will show you how to successfully land your dream job.

Blythe Camenson is a full-time writer and the director of Fiction Writer's Connection, a membership organization providing support to writers. She conducts on-going writing workshops.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 2 edition (March 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071408967
• ISBN-13: 978-0071408967
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,809,175 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An elementary guide, October 10, 2008

By	Karina A. Suarez (Walt Disney World, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Careers for Mystery Buffs & Other Snoops And Sleuths (Paperback)

On a desperate lookout for a new career on these times of massive layoffs, I decided to read a guide that would suggest ways to achieve the ever more elusive "American dream" while at the same time working on a field I truly enjoy. Blythe Cameson has put out and average guide that is now invariably outdated (the book was printed in 1997), yet it gives preliminary information on the different careers for fans of the mystery genre like me.

I must admit I found no correlation whatsoever to the mystery genre in some of the careers explored, especially science careers such as astronomy. In Ms. Cameson's viewpoint, even careers such as sociology and psychology would not be directly related to mystery writing or reading, unless we all become our very own Miss Marples or Hercule Poirots. In fact, it could be said that for Cameson, almost every career in the world relates somehow to the mystery genre. Some careers like "landscape anthropologist" are, in all actuality, a specialization of the original discipline - i.e. anthropology - they are associated with, yet Cameson introduces them as a separate and independent career.

Perhaps because she is a writer, Cameson appears overtly enthusiastic in chapter 1, when expounding about the idea of becoming a mystery writer as the first occupational option for the mystery fan and as something that is fairly easy to achieve if one is persistent enough. However, it is not only rare but extremely hard to become published in today's world, and mystery writing presented as a career is not, in my opinion, a particularly good suggestion, at least not for a newbie.

The book does have some good resources listed, including career books, websites and institutions both on the national, governmental level as well as in the private sector, where to start - just start - a search towards future employment as a mystery fan. A true negative appears to be that most of the career options do not pay well, and if they do, they require long study, mostly ending with a Ph.D. Perhaps this is after all Cameson's method to ensure publication of the mystery fan's very own novel.