For this kind of book to be successful several different objectives have to be achieved. Firstly there has to be a strong narrative and this is certainly achieved here. To create a strong and convincing narrative however it has to be supported by evidence. Evidence can be of different types and included here is evidence from research, from case studies i.e. interviews with individuals, and from personal experience. Clearly to support an argument that is generalised as a truth, in this case about career development and achieving work that you love, the evidence should be strong and consistent.
Different kinds of evidence add more or less support to the narrative. Clearly research studies with a randomised large sample size and a well-constructed design can be seen to add most if the results are statistically significant. Single case studies, i.e. information gained from one or two individuals is much less weighty. The personal narrative is if anything the least convincing as it is subject to the clear bias of wanting to confirm the hypothesis or argument All the evidence is subject to this bias however in terms of selection (and exclusion) of particular evidence and the interpretation of the findings.
I enjoyed reading this book and felt it was important enough to treat it seriously so I read it again more carefully. I found the argument against making career choices on the basis of passion convincing and really felt Cal was pointing to something very important, but there are points in the argument that leave me uneasy. Firstly the choice of Steve Jobs as an example of how a career develops does not seem to support the main thesis does not seem to support the main contention . The core idea in the book is that you have to develop career capital, that is that you have to be able to demonstrate, show to others that you have the ability and skills that are of value. Having read biographies of Jobs and supported by what Cal says in this book, it does not seem that at this point in his career he had any substantial amount of career capital at all. The critical event which “he stumbled into” was the meeting with Paul Terrell of the Mountain View computer store. It was the idea that Terrell had of selling fully assembled computers that really started the process towards Apple. Where in this is Jobs using his career capital? Clearly he was what we now know he could do and that is able to spot opportunities. This was a concatenation of circumstances that he seized hold of, not the result of a long incubation of career capital. At this point in time it is doubtful that he even had the necessary technical ability and knowledge to make this break on his own, clearly relying on Steve Wozniack for this form of capital. I agree with the point made though that he did not do this because he was passionate, that came after the fact of the founding of Apple. This whole episode seems much more a matter of chance than perhaps the hypothesis of the book allows, and chance is important in career development.
Another instance where I think the evidence does not clearly support the conclusions is the interpretation of the work of Wrzesniewski. By collecting data from a large sample of subjects (196 people) the authors generated a plethora of relationships between different characteristics e.g job satisfaction and the respondents view of their work (job, career, calling). The most obvious point to make about all this is that these relationships are correlational rather than causative, i.e. it is impossible to say that, for example, that the respondents view of the job caused their feelings of job satisfaction to be higher or lower, the causality could work the other way. This is a notorious problem in the Social Sciences and is well recognised but often ignored in the interpretation of results where there tends to be an inflation of the significance of these results. When it comes to the subgroup of administrative assistants the problem becomes worse. The authors of the research recognise that here the numbers are too low, at 24 respondents, for any valid statistical operations to be carried out, and the number within the “calling” group of administrative assistants comes down to 9. This means that the “results” are based on little more than educated intuitions coming from the data. Interestingly as I said, the authors pay lip service to this limitation but then go on to claim that the results have “heuristic” value, i.e. they make you think! Cal on the other hand takes this data to support his hypothesis and this is not legitimate. Apart from the numbers issue and the correlation/causation issue there are many other possible explanations for the correlation between greater happiness and the time in the job, for example self-selection issues, and the view of the job. This does not give Cal the right to say that this is evidence against the “passion” theory.
Finally a comment of a different sort. Concepts such as career capital, deliberate practice and the craftsmen mindset are good antidotes to the “want it enough and it will happen” school of mystical thinking and remarkability hints at the competitive nature of the job market. The argument that Cal puts forwards seems to say though, that if you develop career capital to a sufficient extent you will naturally shine brighter than other people who are competing for the same job slots, slots that have characteristics that are quite rare in the actual job market. This seems to me to miss out a significant set of processes within the job selection process, namely the social and its subclass the political. While it may be true for a few people that garnering sufficient career capital is sufficient to achieve, for most people this will not be possible. To differentiate yourself in this way is virtually impossible for many and although the idea of seeking to achieve this is (possibly) a good one it is not for many realistic. Even if this is possible, the access to these positions that provide these sought –after conditions is fraught with other obstacles. In academia in particular the knowledge that spreads from one speciality to another is relatively small; they are bounded areas of discourse. So when the appointment of someone to a professorship is contemplated many of the decision makers will be ignorant of the speciality and therefore not really in a position to make the sort of judgement that Cal’s version of the universe would require. Quite properly when this occurs, the decision makers may take soundings from within the general academic community and within the speciality community. This is unlikely to be a very thorough process into the social realm of reputation and standing. Universities for example, are notoriously political environments where power and influence are critical to the decisions made. This is not the kind of rational process that Cal’s model requires. I would therefore suggest an additional process that is vitally important to achieving the desired outcome and that is the accumulation of social capital i.e. critical relationships with key decision makers. Although the processes to achieve this overlap with those involved with career capital , they are not the same. Making these relationships will also I think increase the rate of happy “accidents”.
I hope it is obvious that I enjoyed this book. It gave me much food for thought and it is because it may be very influential that it deserves a critical review in the best sense of that word. I would suggest you read it but retain your critical faculties when understanding and absorbing the message.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
| Amazon Price | New from | Used from |
|
Kindle Edition
"Please retry" | — | — |
|
Audible Audiobooks, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
£2.99
| ||
|
Audio CD, Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
—
| £54.11 | — |
- Read with our free app
-
Audiobook
£2.99 - 5 Used from £7.95
- 8 Used from £6.76 26 New from £5.79
- 2 New from £54.11
Frequently bought together
£7.09
Get it as soon as Friday, Nov 24
In stock
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your basket.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Reviews with images
Submit a report
A few common reasons why customers report reviews:
- Harassment, profanity
- Spam, advertisement, promotions
- Given in exchange for cash, discounts
When we get your report, we will check if the review meets our Community guidelines. If it does not, we will remove it.
