100 Bullshit Jobs...And How to Get Them - Softcover

Bing, Stanley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060734809 ISBN 13: 9780060734800

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007

Synopsis

The scholarly discipline of Bullshit Studies has blossomed in the last several years, fertilized by a number of critical works on the subject and the growing importance of the issue across a wide range of professions. Now, best-selling author and lifelong practitioner Stanley Bing enters the field with a comprehensive look at the many attractive jobs now available to those who are serious about their bullshit and prepared to dedicate their working life to it.

What, Bing inquires, do a feng shui consultant, new media executive, wine steward, department store greeter, and Vice President of the United States have in common? What, too, are the actual duties performed by a McKinsey consultant? Other than sitting around making people nervous? Could that possibly be his core function? Likewise, what does an aromatherapist actually do, per se? Sniff things and rub them on people, for big fragrant bucks? Is that all?

The answer in all cases is "Yes." They all have bullshit jobs.

These few, of course, are just the beginning. Across the length and breadth of this shrinking globe, skillful bullshit artists have secured pleasant, lucrative employment, and are enjoying themselves more than you are. In virtually every occupation, from Advertising to Yoga Franchising, lucky individuals who "work" in these coveted positions enjoy the best lives imaginable -- they are paid well, they rarely break a sweat, and their professions are highly respected, because nobody really knows what they do.

At once funny, useful, and tolerably philosophical, this groundbreaking work takes a close look at 100 bullshit jobs -- the money they bring with them, the actual tasks and activities involved (if any), and famous and successful examples of each position, who will provide the neophyte with inspiration. Most crucially, Bing goes on to offer what others so far have not--a clear, concise strategy to help job-seekers at every level reach for that brass ring, knowing full well that it may be attached to the nose of a bull.

About this title

About the Author:

Stanley Bing is a columnist for Fortune magazine and the bestselling author of Crazy Bosses, What Would Machiavelli Do?, Throwing the Elephant, Sun Tzu Was a Sizzy, 100 Bullshit Jobs . . . And How to Get Them, and The Big Bing, as well as the novels Lloyd: What Happened and You Look Nice Today. By day he is an haute executive in a gigantic multinational corporation whose identity is one of the worst-kept secrets in business.

From Publishers Weekly:

There's an element of bullshit in all jobs, including his own, but bestselling author Bing (Sun Tzu was a Sissy) has taken a wickedly satiric approach and ranked the BS quotient in jobs both common and obscure that require little effort but pay well. From aromatherapist to motivational speaker to velvet rope nazi to critic (touché), he dissects the skills necessary to excel in these jobs, as well as the upside, the downside and the "dark side." Using humor and insight, no job is off his radar, including high power corporate jobs like investment banker, rarified non-jobs like boulevardier (George Hamilton), and the crumber, who "removes detritus from dining in restaurants." Bing's central piece of advice is to hone your internal bullshit detector and find the right balance between fulfillment and fluff: "In the end, a life that is made up of nothing but bullshit is as untenable as one that is completely dedicated to content. It is your gift on this earth, your right as a living, sentient human being to fight for the right mix."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0060734809
• ISBN 13: 9780060734800
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320