Book Review: How to Find Fulfilling Work, by Roman Krznaric

There have been many, many posts of late about the so-called "quarter-life crisis," from an entire HuffPo page collecting articles on the topic to this Book Riot post on what to read through a quarter-life crisis. As a 25-year-old who has recently realized I have absolutely zero idea what I want to do with the rest of my life, I'd say I'm smack dab in the middle of this particularly trendy issue.

And Roman Krznaric's How to Find Fulfilling Work could not have landed in my mailbox at a better time. The book, part of Alain de Botton's School of Life series, offers up history, wisdom and guidance for finding the fulfilling work. Not the perfect career. Not the most high-paying job out there. Not the most world-changing work available. But fulfilling work, which means it is important to you, the worker, the person who will do this for the rest of your life.

Or maybe not. Maybe you'll be one of the multi-career individuals Krznaric points out, focusing on multiple jobs at once or perhaps several careers over a lifetime. The biggest overall takeaway from Krznaric's short but impactful book, after all, is that there is no one path for everyone, and there are no right answers. Finding fulfilling work is about taking chances, asking questions, and learning who we are as an individual, and Krznaric's book aims to help us do just that. He offers examples of individuals who have found--or not found, as the case may be--fulfilling work, homework assignments intended to get one really thinking about what it is we want to be doing all day, and probing questions about our priorities, our goals, and our intentions. 

Though How to Find Fulfilling Work doesn't have all the answers, it does ask questions that force us to start writing our own answers. It's a short book, but an important one, whether you be in a quarter-life crisis yourself, or just somewhere along a not-so-fulfilling career path. And hell, I'd bet it could be thought-provoking even if you consider yourself happy and fulfilled at work. At just over 200 pages, it's well worth the read.

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Review of How to Change the World coming soon.

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How to Find Fulfilling Work | Roman Krznaric | April 2013 | Picador | 224 pages | Buy from an independent near you