Book Club

By Jaz Bruhn

Not For Sale: Why We Need a New Job Search Mindset (first edition)

Cathy Keates

Career Considerations 2009

ISBN 978-0-981 1034-0-2

For the most part, there is the traditional textbook study guide set-up which makes it an easy and fast read. The book is written in the traditional style with each new item introduced at the end of the previous chapter and repeated at the beginnings of the next chapter. We find a table of Contents, Acknowledgements, a Preface and an Introduction and then the book is divided into two parts with the first four chapters in the first part dedicated to an explication of “The Sales Mindset of Job Search”. The author details her exploration of “what the Sales Mindset is, the metaphor it is based on, and why it has become so popular in the first part.” Part II has three chapters dedicated to “Defining an Integrity Mindset of Job Searching”. There are various graphic aids throughout the text which really do help, for example visual aids or graphs as summary aids. We then get an Appendix, Endnotes and an Index. These are all components of a traditional text book which are familiar to most of us. In her Preface the author tells us the “why” for the book; establishes the “what we know”; and finally states her “Intentions for This Book”. The Introduction sets the stage and gives us an abstract of the two parts of the book.

So what is going on in this book? I believe this is the story of an epiphany and the catharsis which often follows life changing realizations. A process that I feel is ongoing for the author and has been a long arduous task. She affirms what Career Counsellors have been trying to say to all the other professionals involved in helping people find work or jobs. Career counselling is not about getting a job although that can be one of the affects or results. It is about finding out who you are and what you want to end up doing. A job or various jobs along the way are just a way to either get there or make a living while trying to get there. I offer kudos to the author, for not only bravely sharing her story, but also for her caring approach to sharing her ideas with others. She has detailed beautifully and clearly that the “one size fits” approach is the wrong one.

I think the book is a must read for Career Counsellors as a validation, for HR and job developers for helping them understand the difference between them and Career Counsellors and for anyone looking for career counselling who has had to deal with getting job search help instead of the career advice they wanted.

Jaz Bruhn has studied at Georgian College in the DSW program and Humber College in the Teachers of English as a Second Language program. In 1990 he received his B.A. with specialized honours in Linguistics and in 1994 he received his M.A. with a focus on the Style and Stylistics of English, both from York University. He is currently working and has worked for the last three years on the Cannexus, National Career Development Conference, project at CERIC.