Kirkus Reviews

Mar 26, 2025

This review was originally published on kirkusreviews.com.

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An earnest but ultimately superficial manual for the job-search process.

Alife coach offers a Christian-centered guide to landing a dream job.

Yang, a self-described โ€œfinance guru for Millennials,โ€ has created a guidebook for modern jobseekers. She begins by cataloging her own professional experiences, recalling multiple instances in which she applied for 50 jobs in a single day and received job offers in five days. She shares her unusual professional trajectory, which included working at Dominoโ€™s Pizza, doing foot-fetish modeling, bookkeeping, and starting her own financial services business. These experiences all inform her job-seeking philosophy, and she offers many tips here. For example, Yang states that, โ€œPersonal branding makes up 50% of your success in landing a job quickly,โ€ and recommends using oneโ€™s full name professionally to improve Google search results and โ€œcontrol the narrativeโ€ of oneโ€™s story. She urges jobseekers to get professional headshots for social media; to employ a graphic designer to create a color palette and typeface for business cards, letterhead, and more; and to choose a โ€œstylishโ€ Zoom background for maximum impact. In addition, the book encourages readers to claim a domain name, create a website, and establish an email address with a custom signature. Blogging, vlogging, and writing books are highlighted as other ways to further elevate oneโ€™s brand. In addition, Yang provides a step-by-step overview of how to achieve โ€œAll-Starโ€ status on LinkedIn and recommends a company for public-speaking instruction. Other tips for career advancement include developing new skills, embracing feedback, and always going the extra mile at work. Throughout, Yang infuses her advice with Christian theology: โ€œIt is in serving others that God provides us unbelievable opportunities.โ€

Yangโ€™s title doesnโ€™t allude to the bookโ€™s heavy religious influences, which may surprise secular job seekers. Some of the authorโ€™s advice is useful, as when she insightfully notes that โ€œCourage feels terribleโ€ and goes on to explain that โ€œCourage is the act of committing yourself to doing it anyway, despite the fear.โ€ However, the book is hampered by several flaws. Some lines, for example, feel clichรฉd, such as โ€œWe can learn and do anything we set our minds to,โ€ and a few chapter titles, such as โ€œBetter Managing Your Time for Increased Productivityโ€ and โ€œDoubling Your Productivity by Increasing Typing Speedโ€ feel unnecessarily wordy. The utility of some tips, such as โ€œWhatever you do, be fabulous doing it,โ€ is questionable, and others seem counterproductive, as when she advises readers to submit job applications en masse, but โ€œDonโ€™t bother researching any of the companies. Just apply.โ€ The book also shames sex workers, declaring at one point that โ€œItโ€™s disgusting for a womanโ€ to make a living on OnlyFans. Other lines are puzzling, as when she discounts why a famous person might find it easier to get a job than someone unknown: โ€œThink of all the people who are incredibly famous and well respected in their industryโ€ฆ.Every company wants to snatch this person up before someone else. If itโ€™s possible for famous people, why isnโ€™t it possible for you?โ€

An earnest but ultimately superficial manual for the job-search process.


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