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Alexandra Levit

How'd You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs-and How to Get Them Paperback – April 15, 2008

by Alexandra Levit (Author)

3.9 34 ratings

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In How’d You Score That Gig?, career expert Alexandra Levit profiles more than sixty of the coolest careers on the planet–all rated in a national survey by twenty- and thirtysomethings for twenty- and thirtysomethings. To find the jobs that are calling your name, take Levit’s short quiz and discover your “passion profile.” You may be:

• an Adventurer: You’re spontaneous, free-spirited, and you always ready for change = foreign services officer, oceanographer, news correspondent
• a Creator: You’re always looking for a way to express yourself = video game designer, book author, landscape architect
• a Data Head: You have an uncanny knack for gathering and organizing information = computational linguist, meteorologist, urban planner
• an Entrepreneur: You have business savvy and don’t want to be chained to a desk = blogger, boutique owner, inventor
• an Investigator: You excel in science, logic, and learning = futurist, classic-car restorer, field archaeologist
• a Networker: You’re a people person–outgoing and a team player = lobbyist, speechwriter, TV producer
• a Nurturer: Selfless and compassionate, you make a difference one person at a time = physical therapist, life coach, nutritionist

Engaging and practical, the book includes insider accounts of young careerists currently in these jobs and provides specific action steps for breaking in. So before you settle for a position that just isn’t you, shake it up–and land the career of your dreams!

"Alexandra Levit's new book, How'd You Score That Gig?, is chock full of research, offers a rare glimpse into the privileged world of those who hold the jobs that other people covet, and provides the roadmap for readers to pursue fields that they might have considered out of reach. Don't hop blindly from career to career looking for one that suits you. Use this book as a guide to tell you what it's like before you make a wrong turn." --Penelope Trunk, author, Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success
"First, Alexandra Levit broadens your imagination about what kinds of careers are possible, and then after tantalizing you, she provides specific tips for breaking into the field. Enormously valuable!"
--Ben Casnocha, author, My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley
"This is a cool, unusual, and truly useful book. In my career coaching practice, the number one issue my younger clients face is having the strong desire to do something different work-wise with little knowledge about what jobs exist and how to find them. Alexandra Levit’s guide organizes passion into seven profiles and describes specific jobs within them. A real gem in the book is the innumerable resources listed to help readers learn more about the jobs that strike their fancy. Buy this book!”--Julie Jansen, author, I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This
"Alexandra Levit has written an ideal book for all those adults who still don't know what they want to do when they grow up. The practical self-assessment that opens the book could point even the most indecisive person toward a realistic and satisfying career path. While reading about the dozens of coolest gigs that are thoroughly researched and attractively presented in this book, I almost started second-guessing my own career choices. Good thing I’ve already scored a cool gig!"--Tom Musbach, Editor, Yahoo! HotJobs
“Reading this is like having your own career counselor on call. It is, without doubt, the #1 book for anyone who’s unhappy in their job, confused about what to do next, or just wonders if they’re in the best career for them. I am giving a copy to every new college grad on my list. In fact, I’m giving one to every high school grad I know too.”--Barbara Stanny, author, Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ballantine Books
Publication date

April 15, 2008
Dimensions

6.12 x 0.77 x 8.11 inches
ISBN-10

0345496299
ISBN-13

978-0345496294
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alexandra Levit is a nationally recognized business and workplace author and speaker. A syndicated columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a blogger for HuffingtonPost.com, Alexandra has authored several books, including the popular They Don't Teach Corporate in College, How'd You Score That Gig?, and Success for Hire. Alexandra makes frequent national media appearances and has been featured in thousands of outlets including the New York Times, USA Today, National Public Radio, ABC News, Fox News, CNBC, the Associated Press, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and Fortune, and her articles regularly appear on the home pages of CNN, MSN, and Yahoo!.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

If you spend time talking to twenty- and thirtysomethings working today, you’ll unfortunately hear some unhappy stories. Far too many people hold jobs they don’t particularly care about. They commute to work every day and arrive home eight to twelve hours later without a clear sense of where they’ve been, where they are going, or why. In 2004, after I published a book called They Don’t Teach Corporate in College, I traveled to universities and corporations around the United States and heard these stories firsthand. The situation left me wondering: How did all of these smart, ambitious, goal-directed young people end up in dead-end or passionless careers?

I believe that part of the answer lies in the college recruiting scene. No matter who you are and what school you’re graduating from, the story is usually the same. Despite a major that you thought was going to prepare you for a career in the real world, by the time you’re a senior you still have no idea what you want to do with your life. You visit the campus career center and are introduced to a bevy of consulting and banking firms and Fortune 500 staples. You don’t want to go to graduate school right away and might not know what to go to graduate school for, so you interview for these jobs and inevitably accept one. You become like every other college student graduating in America today, and before you know it, you’re on a career path that may not have anything to do with your true calling.

For previous generations, this setup worked out well enough. They accepted college recruiting for what it was, and to some extent felt that a meaningful career meant a healthy, steady paycheck and not much else. We twenty- and thirtysomethings today, though, are rather different in our expectations regarding job satisfaction. Our parents carefully nurtured our talents and self-esteem from babyhood and told us we could be anything we wanted to be. As adults, our career desires are directed toward finding meaningful work that helps others. In essence, we want to be “paid volunteers,” to join an organization not because we have to, but because we want to, because it allows us to do something significant with our lives. We’re highly concerned with our professional development and want to have the opportunity to make a significant impact at a young age.

Unfortunately, the college recruiting system isn’t changing quickly enough to meet our needs, and even after we’ve gone through the process and possibly even accepted a position, many graduates yearn for a solution outside the typical channels. We want to discover the hidden road, the one that leads to an exciting, unique, and fulfilling line of work, the one taken by a select few who always get asked the question, “How’d you score that gig?” We long to have a job that makes us love getting up in the morning, a job that has our friends talking enviously at their Friday night happy hour gatherings. That’s where this book comes in. How’d You Score That Gig? is for you, the twenty- or thirtysomething who wants to find and travel that hidden road of your dreams.

The book features sixty cool jobs you may never have thought about pursuing, divided into seven categories based on the broad personality types that are generally best suited to those jobs. I selected the cool jobs via an online survey in which I asked nearly five hundred twenty- and thirtysomethings to tell me about their dream careers. Based on the responses, I generated a list of the top sixty careers and constructed a fairly comprehensive profile of each using the information I gathered from written sources and in-depth interviews with more than a hundred individuals currently holding the jobs. Then, I researched various personality-type measures to develop my seven “passion profiles”—adventurer, creator, data-head, entrepreneur, investigator, networker, and nurturer—and placed the sixty cool jobs into the appropriate categories. In the first chapter, I provide an assessment to help you decide which passion profiles (and therefore which jobs) might be most appealing to you. However, though you may be tempted to skip ahead to your own passion profile, I hope that you will be sufficiently intrigued to read the entire book, because you never know what might spark your interest and prompt you to go out and learn more about a particular job. My goal in writing How’d You Score That Gig? was to offer a true insider’s glimpse into each and every one of these careers, and to provide you with critical advice you simply can’t get in your run-of-the-mill job-reference book—especially as it pertains to how you’d go about getting a job in that field. Congratulations on having the courage to embark on the journey toward career fulfillment. I promise it will be worthwhile.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books (April 15, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345496299
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345496294
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 0.77 x 8.11 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,602,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,399 in Job Hunting (Books)
- #12,234 in Job Hunting & Career Guides
- #38,386 in Success Self-Help

Customer Reviews:
3.9 34 ratings

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Alexandra Levit

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Alexandra Levit’s goal is to prepare organizations and their employees to be competitive and marketable in the future business world. A former nationally syndicated columnist for the Wall Street Journal and writer for the New York Times, Fast Company, and Forbes, Alexandra has authored several books, including the international bestseller They Don’t Teach Corporate in College and Humanity Works: Merging People and Technologies for the Workforce of the Future.

Alexandra is a managing partner with organizational development firm PeopleResults. She consults and writes on leadership development, human resources, technology adoption, entrepreneurship, innovation, career and workplace trends on behalf of numerous Fortune 500 companies including American Express, Canon, Deloitte, DeVry University, Intuit, SilkRoad, and Staples, and has spoken on these topics at hundreds of organizations around the world including Abbott, ADP, Bank of America, Cardinal Health, Campbell Soup, Exelon, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Human Capital Institute, McDonalds, Microsoft, PepsiCo, the Society of Human Resource Management, and Whirlpool.

In the last several years, Alexandra has conducted proprietary research on the future of work, technology adoption, the millennial generation, gender differences and bias, and the skills gap. She also served as a member of Business Roundtable’s Springboard Project, which advised the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Defense on current employment issues.

Alexandra is also a frequent national media spokesperson and is regularly featured in outlets including USA Today, National Public Radio, CNN, ABC News, CNBC, Forbes, the Associated Press, and Glamour. She was named an American Management Association Top Leader for two years in a row and has also been Money Magazine’s Online Career Expert of the Year and the author of one of Forbes’ best websites for women.

A member of the Northwestern University Council of 100 and the Young Entrepreneur Council, Alexandra received the prestigious Emerging Leader Award from her alma mater. The award honors a Northwestern graduate under 35 who had made a significant impact in her field and in society. She was also just named to the Thinkers50's Class of 2019. This global organization identifies the individuals developing the most compelling business and management ideas of our age. She resides in Chicago, IL.

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3.9 out of 5

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Mike Corak

Exploring career choices that match your personality? This book is for you.

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2009

Verified Purchase

"How Did You Score That Gig?" How'd You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs-and How to Get Them is a fun and easy read with thought provoking content. Matching personality assessments with careers, this book helps identify your strengths and weaknesses, and proposes potential employment options for you based on your test results. Suggested careers contain descriptions and tips on how to land them, very helpful.

Some advice, don't just read the jobs that match your assessment, also take a look at those contained in categories that may not. Pretty entertaining and thought provoking for those already down their career path, example, my highest scoring category doesn't match my chosen path (my second highest scoring category does), and looking at the traits of my chosen career, I'm able to identify some areas to focus on that may not be innate. One issue with these sort of tests for me at least, I rarely score overly heavy in any one category, a blessing and a curse I suppose.

While taking the test is enjoyable for all, agreeing with another reviewer, I also believe the book is most helpful for the unfulfilled looking for a career change, or high school and college grads planning their future. Go getters and the motivated have probably moved down this path already, and obviously the book can't possible contain every job out there, realizing limitations from someone taking a deep look.

Overall, definitely worth your time and recommended.

One person found this helpful

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Ariel

Read along with "They don't teach corporate in college..."

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2012

Verified Purchase

The forward of the book really packs a punch with, "How did all these smart, ambitious,
goal-directed young people end up in dead-end or passionless careers?" I am personally frustrated by the lack of any real guidance by college career centers to help find a career that is truly a good fit for you as well as being honest about what the work world is really like. I find that this book coupled with "They Don't Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something's Guide to the Business World", are must reads for those in college (& 20's) as well as those still in need of some career guidance. I would even recommend sharing this book with friends and younger family members to jump start their brains early to choose a career that is both fulfilling and makes sense for them based on their strengths, values
and personality type.

One person found this helpful

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Nicole

Unrealistic.

Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2009

Verified Purchase

I bought this as a gift for my graduating sister and read through most of it before I gave it to her. This book offers a few job titles plus short descriptions, most of which involve tons of experience and some education. You could easily save yourself time and money by searching Google and plan a much more fitting and realistic career change. Most of the jobs listed in this book are highly selective being only a few positions with many aspiring to fill them. I suppose the book is a decent jumping off point for a high school grad but for anyone else it's absolutely ridiculous. It's more accessible than the jobs it describes being written for a very broad audience. If you're seriously interested in getting a great job I don't recommend this book.

6 people found this helpful

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Puglover

Every college grad needs this book!

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2008

Verified Purchase

I SO wish this book had come out years ago before I chose a career path! It's a thoughtfully written, unique & fun glimpse into some really cool jobs. The self-assessment quiz at the beginning makes it even more fun to read. No one tells you about opportunities like these in college. Image consultant? Life coach? Computational linguist? AWESOME. I actually think this book would be a great premise for an entire college course. Each featured career could have a guest lecturer. Maybe Ms. Levit should take this idea on the road! Anyhow, I bought 5 more copies of the book as college graduation gifts.

3 people found this helpful

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Journey

Not so Helpful

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2009

Verified Purchase

The book was okay in terms of taking the quiz and going straight to your specific area of interest; however, this book did not offer up any great advice. Instead, like another reviewer stated earlier, the jobs were far reaching and not realistic for the average person seeking the right fit. It would take years, connections and a lot of luck to get the jobs featured. I had hoped the book would have been more dead on in terms of offering more realistic job choices for the everyday person.

2 people found this helpful

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Brian Snyder

Unique and excellent book!

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2008

Verified Purchase

This book should be required reading for all "major undecided" college students... the personalization aspect of the book (via a guided self-assessment at the beginning) opens a world of career choices and helps individuals discover their passion and career calling. Levit's engaging style and exciting content combine to make "Gig" much less a reference and more a potential life-changer!

3 people found this helpful

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Jodi Behee

gift

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2010

Verified Purchase

when your son asked you what he should be buy him a couple of books to help him make a choice!!!

One person found this helpful

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