Are you ready for a confession?

I’m a career guide junkie. Seriously. I think I was in 3rd grade when I first read What Color is Your Parachute for the first time. So, I only paused a moment before I grabbed Daniel Pink’s The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.

I love this book. Dan Pink is a right-on author when it comes to spotting the trends that will define work in the coming years. His A Whole New Mind is still ping-ponging in my head 3 years after I read it. In Johnny Bunko he has managed to take those big ideas and distill them into 6 basic tenets–Manga Style. Rob Ten Pas offers the genius behind the illustrations.

Why the aforementioned pause? I am not a Manga Fan–so some of the lingo/shorthand of this format may have been lost on me–but I certainly walked away with enough meat to appreciate this effort. I also had to take a moment to laugh at the title. Last Career Guide? Ha! Great marketing! But it’s hardly going to cure my insatiable appetite for the genre. I may, however, be the rare bird that keeps reading career guides long after she’s established hers.

In an age where workers are faced with outsourcing and the end of the 40 years to a Gold Watch Plan, we have to be lighter on our feet–sure–but we also have a strong desire to make a difference, to use our gifts, and to (gasp) enjoy our work. Pink touches on all of these concepts in his story/guide. If you pay close attention, you may get to skip a downer gig or even leap ahead to something truly satisfying as you make your way along the career path.