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Campus Calm
had the opportunity to chat with Alexandra Levit, our 20-Something
Career Expert,
about her latest book How'd You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs-and How to Get Them.
Click here to learn more about Alexandra or visit her
website here.
Campus Calm:
What's the premise of How'd You Score That Gig?
Alexandra: On the college recruiting scene, the story is always 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, Fortune 500 staples, and advertising and public relations agencies that employ the “creative” types. 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.
But what if you could discover the hidden road, the one that would lead 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?” I wanted to write the book that would help twenty and thirty-somethings discover that hidden road, and I wanted it to be more than just a directory that listed a bunch of jobs and some cursory details about each. By taking a deep dive into the inner world of each of these professions, I was able to come out with the concrete steps for turning unattainable dreams into money making realities.
Campus Calm: How did the idea originate?
 Alexandra: The idea originated as a result of several conversations I overheard at friends’ dinner parties. It seemed that someone at every event always had a job that totally intrigued the rest of the group. People were completely captivated by this individual, and were always curious to know how s/he scored the gig, and what exactly it entailed.
Campus Calm: My readers stress out about finding the "perfect" major, believing that a college major will dictate their career choices indefinitely. For example, when I told a student that I had majored in English and History in college, she responded, "But how did you launch your own business? You weren't a business major." What would you say to students who agonize over picking the right major? When you profiled the dream gigs in your book, did each interviewee choose that perfect college major?
Alexandra: College majors actually have very little - if anything - to do with the career most people end up choosing later in life. I, for example, was a psychology major, but I had no desire to go to graduate school and become a professor or researcher. Some of my interviewees in How'd You Score That Gig? majored in their current fields during undergraduate study, but most did not. When it comes to choosing a major, simply look for something that will provide a greater range of options later on. Considering there's no way to know what you'll want to do in 10 or 20 years, it makes more sense to get a general liberal arts degree than an ultra-specific degree like musicology, which may not offer a broad enough education.
Campus Calm: How did you choose the cool jobs in your book?
Alexandra: How'd You Score That Gig? features 60 cool jobs, 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 500 twenty and thirty-somethings to tell me about their dream careers. Based on the responses, I generated a list of the top 60 careers and constructed a fairly comprehensive profile of each using the information I gathered from written sources and in-depth interviews with more than 100 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 60 cool jobs into the appropriate categories. In the first chapter, I designed an assessment (with help from my husband, who’s a psychologist) to help readers decide which passion profiles might be most appealing to them.
Campus Calm: What's your personal favorite of the jobs you profiled?
Alexandra: When I was writing the book, countless people asked me about the job I thought was the coolest. And while I certainly tried hard not to play favorites, I couldn’t help being especially intrigued by the Futurist Career. As a kid, I wrote a lot of science fiction, and I remember the day my dad took me to visit the headquarters of the World Future Society (WFS) in Bethesda, MD, so that I could do research for a story on future climate change. Looking at that story now, I can see that many of the predictions regarding global warming, which I obtained from the WFS in 1988, actually turned out to be true.
My survey responders, by the way, thought the five coolest jobs were, in order of number of votes 1) Travel Journalist, 2) Event Planner, 3) Fashion Designer, 4) Documentary Photographer, and 5) Bed & Breakfast Innkeeper.
Campus Calm: What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
Alexandra: There are so many reference books out there that merely list cool jobs. I hope that
How'd You Score That Gig? will provide a true insider’s glimpse into each and every one of the careers I profile, and access to people just like you and me who are in a position to give realistic advice about getting job in each field. I hope that by learning about their personality profiles and the corresponding interesting jobs, a whole new world of possibilities will be opened up to readers, and they will have the courage to take the first steps on the journey to career fulfillment.
Campus Calm: What's your best advice today for people who want to score their dream gig?
Alexandra: Finding a career that will fulfill you personally and professionally requires exploration, and a great deal of trial and error. Throughout this process, it’s important to have realistic expectations of “dream careers.” Although the individuals profiled in my book love their jobs, even they don’t believe there’s a such thing as the perfect work situation. Every job has its ups and downs, and aspects we love and aspects we don’t love. This is a hard, but necessary lesson that I had to learn when I succeeded in my dream job of being a book author!
Check out Alexandra Levit's monthly tips as our 20-Something Career Expert
here.
© 2009 Maria L. Pascucci / Campus Calm.
About the author:
Maria Pascucci is the President of Campus Calm - the
international online-community for today's stressed-out students, and their parents
and educators. Download your Stress-Out Less Kit with 4 FREE gifts at www.campuscalm.com.
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