YOU CAN ONLY READ so many books on resumes or titles like “Job Hunting for Complete Dummy-Morons” before the chirpy advice of smiling-faced life coaches make you long for relief. These three “career” books might not help you land your new gig, but they might make the search less tedious. Who knows — even the happily employed could get some “The Office“-type laughs from these tomes.
» OVERHEARD IN THE OFFICE
$13, Perigee Trade
The “Overheard In …” blog folks have built a veritable empire on recounting non-sequiturs and funny bon mots on the streets of New York, D.C. and elsewhere. For this book, their “spies” infiltrated the corporate world, compiling 240 pages of quotes. The musings range from nonsensical (clueless cube-dweller insisting that “dust comes from sunlight) to groan-worthy (“That’s not Harry Potter, that’s John Lennon“). Best read in small doses, a little at a time, not in one, overwhelming sitting, “Overheard” could provide final, irrefutable proof that all your co-workers really are as weird as you think. Unless, of course, you see yourself quoted.
» WATER COOLER DIARIES
$16, Da Capo
This huge volume spends 320 pages covering one question: “What’s your workday like?” To find out, editors Joni B. Cole and B. K. Rakhra asked for diaries from hundreds of people employed in all kinds of fields, from trad (teachers, doctors, government employees) to rad (racecar drivers, boxing promoters). Each subject recorded their every move on the same day: March 27, 2007. The result is — surprise! — even people with so-called glamorous jobs don’t have totally “Cashmere Mafia” lives, and cubicle life kind of sucks no matter what your job is or where you live. The book’s biggest flaw? Since the editors chose only women to participate in this project, it seems almost too much like an estrogen-fest. Don’t guys have jobs worth reading about too?
» CAREERS IN CRIME
$13, Andrews McNeel Publishing
Oh, this book had so much going for it. The gimmick alone is priceless: Compile an “applicant’s guide” treating criminal occupations of all types with the same gravitas as the Department of Labor treats any other job, using measures like annual salary, predicted job growth and job satisfaction to rank 50 careers from hitman to counterfeiter to cigarette smuggler. The problem? Even wannabe Tony Sopranos and Nathan Detroits will probably find this book’s endless pages just as dull as reading zillions of pages of career information at Monster.com. Anyone forced to read this book cover-to-cover would most likely want to turn criminal afterward — so hey, at least the info in this book is good for something!