How to Find Fulfilling Work: The School of Life [Paperback]

Although I'm retired, I've struggled to find interesting work at times during my working life and now that I'm free to do what projects I chose, I've find it hard to know which to prioritise, so I got this book.

I wish it had come out years ago while I was still working. It has a very different approach to other career-guidance books; for instance, it argues for finding ways to try out the jobs you're thinking about - as many as possible - in some form or another, such as work-shadowing because it's only by trying them that you'll find out how much you enjoy them (or don't). Other books recommend doing lots of research first and then making the career switch - thinking first, acting later - whereas he's recommending acting first, thinking later.

He also has some interesting exercises for thinking about how you've ended up with the career you've had so far - that stuff alone was worth buying the book for!

I've found this book a real help in choosing among the unpaid work I've been thinking about and I've recommended it to a friend who has been stuck for years in a job she hates while struggling to come up with an escape plan.

It's short (125pp or so) and I read it in a couple of hours. I like books that say what they have to say without padding it out or repeating themselves to make you think you're getting your money's worth.

Highly recommended. I've just ordered his "The Wonderbox", which also looks great. His website is interesting too - he does a lot of work on how to encourage empathy in society.

This isn't a quote from the book but it could have been. I thought long and hard before giving one star for this book because it is well written and has a lot of interesting research about work and how humankind deal with this necessary evil. However I wanted, and was expecting, some kind of suggested action plan to identify what job might suit me and how to progress in that direction. What I got was heavy-duty wordy research/history on work in general and case studies of well paid professionals who had all they needed materially but didn't enjoy their job. News flash everyone struggles to find the enjoyment in their job, although not everyone is as well paid for doing their job as these guys so stop whining.

Anyway the overall answer to how to find fulfilling work was to try out lots of different jobs (in a work experience sense) to see what suits you. I take issue with this as it's a great idea in theory that's simply not possible in the real world. Even if you have money enough to do unpaid work for a while and don't have restricting family commitments, do you know how difficult it is to get work experience? Firstly so many places require a CRB check, even unpaid staff, and it has to be done by each company you're working with. They won't pay £40 for a CRB check so you can have a few days work experience never to be seen again. Equally references are usually required for each new company you work with and while most of us have a couple of people who are happy to write us a reference, would they be happy to write 6 or more a year answering different questions from different companies. If you are well connected you may be able to blag a day here and a day there unofficially shadowing but that won't teach you much about a job and as Roman points out 'lawyers hang out with lawyers' so you'll probably end up shadowing in an industry you already know about anyhow. Those that don't have connections, references, time or money are screwed.

I brought the book because I want to move out of the poorly paid and draining charity sector for a professional career and I found it depressing to hear the case studies of professionals who have everything I want but hate it and after paying off the mortgage go work in the charity sector for that sense of fulfilment. Spare me, charity jobs are fulfilling when you believe you don't have to work as hard (?!) and don't have to rely on the income. For those who work in the charity sector and haven't cleared our mortgage yet, we have daily worries about quality, kpi's, losing funding and losing our jobs to over qualified candidates looking for that warm gushy feeling inside you get from 'charity work'

It's an interesting read on the history of work but that's it. It may inspire hope if you're an unhappy educated wealthy professional looking to take your foot off the pedal with lots of options already but why you'd actually need this book I don't know. For everyone else it doesn't really offer anything practical, of course we'd all love to spend a day or two shadowing the Guardian's assistant editor, or following an a&e doctor around but it's just not going to happen. contrary to the advice in this book most of us do have to work out what we want before we take action because we are limited by money, time, family commitments , lack of contacts, and education. We can't afford to try and if it's not right, try again. If we are going to gamble many thousands of pounds on education or give up paid work to get us somewhere we need it to be the right somewhere. This book does nothing to address these issues so to me it was useless.

This is a readable and entertaining book about a subject most of us think about repeatedly throughout our lives: how to ensure we are in the right work for us. Krznaric describes the three basics for meaningful work: alignment with our values, how much our work enables us to enter a state of flow and how much freedom our work allows us. Through a blend of case studies (current day and from historical characters) the book gives practical advice on how to find our meaningful work. Read it and you will think about work differently. A very readable and thought-provoking book that made me not only think deeply about my career path, but also encouraged me to read items from the bibliography, just to find out more!