What is the main message of Best Job Ever?

The main message of Best Job Ever is finding fulfillment through aligning your passions with your career.

Who is the author of Best Job Ever?

The author of Best Job Ever is C. K. Bray.

Career & Success

Best Job Ever Book Summary - Best Job Ever Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

Best Job Ever summary

Name: Best Job Ever
Rating: 3.8 (75 reviews)
Author: C. K. Bray

C. K. Bray

Rethink Your Career, Redefine Rich, Revolutionize Your Life

3.8 (75 ratings)

12 mins

Brief summary

Best Job Ever by C. K. Bray is a career development book that provides practical tips for finding and landing your dream job. It offers strategies for building your network, crafting a winning resume, and acing any interview.

Topics

Job Hunt Career Progress

Table of Contents

Best Job Ever
Summary of 5 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 5

What’s in it for me? Find your ideal job.

Are you tired of your job? Are you bored, exhausted or dissatisfied with your tasks? Or perhaps you like your tasks, but it’s your office and your colleagues that make you dread going to work.

Today, as we rush to find a job and make a living, we make bad decisions and choose a job that doesn’t meet our expectations or doesn’t fit our strengths. As a result, our discontent grows. We’re hesitant to make a change because we fear we won’t be able to find anything else, let alone something better – and sometimes we don’t even know what we would do instead.

These blinks show you what it takes to make a career change. They’re full of effective strategies to help you overcome your fears, discover your strengths and successfully plan a career transition.

In these blinks, you’ll also learn

why winning the lottery is not a career path;
what scoring a goal, landing on the moon and changing careers have in common; and
how to try out job opportunities like food samples in the supermarket.

Many people have unrealistic expectations about work and are dissatisfied with what they do.

You’ve probably heard this cliche before: Just find a job you like and you’ll never work a day in your life. Well, the reality isn’t that simple. After all, work is called work for a reason. What makes it worse, though, is that lots of people have unrealistic expectations about their jobs.

For instance, when asked to describe their dream career, people tend to say things like, “a job that lets me travel a lot,” or “one where I make twice as much money as I do now.” But such notions are totally off base. Just like winning the lottery, which some people list as their ideal career, the notion of luxurious jobs is a fantasy, with an absurdly low probability of realization.

While some people want the most pampered career they can imagine, others would take virtually anything but their current job. In fact, lots of people are unhappy with their jobs, even though many of them like the field in which they work. Indeed, a 2013 global Gallup survey found that 87 percent of employees weren’t satisfied with their careers.

But while lots of people are left unsatisfied by their work, it’s not the type of work they do that leaves them feeling unfulfilled. The real issues are characteristics of their workplaces; things like bosses, coworkers, salaries or even office politics.

If this is true for you, it might make sense to look for a different position within the same company or the same role at a different one. For example, if you have a family, but your job requires loads of travel, you might prefer a different role within your organization that keeps you closer to home.

Making a career change means overcoming your fears and deciding what should be different.

As you begin thinking about changing careers, you’re likely to have thoughts like “you can’t do it” and “you’ll definitely fail.” So how can you get past these thoughts and into the career you desire?

The thing all these thoughts have in common is fear. So to make your career change, you’ll need to overcome it. Remember, it’s no surprise that your plans are scary – it’s a common human reaction to unknown situations, and a career change is a highly uncertain undertaking.

Develop a five-year plan for your career change to lay out your path and reduce your fears.

Lots of people try to make significant changes in their lives, from quitting smoking to losing weight to stopping nail-biting. But too often, people fail to stick to these plans. That doesn’t mean change is impossible, it just shows that it requires a particular combination of short- and long-term thinking.

So once you know exactly what change you want to make, it’s time to make plans for the near and distant future. Draw three columns on a piece of paper and label them “One Year,” “Three Years” and “Five Years,” respectively. Then, in each column, write your ideal employment situation for that time frame.

You can use your network to change careers, even if meeting new people makes you anxious.

Just as companies have to leverage their resources to make profits, you need to leverage yours. But what’s the most important resource at your disposal?

It’s the people around you.

You can and should prepare for your career change to ensure it’s done in a carefully calculated manner.

You know how some supermarkets offer free samples that let you try out different foods before buying them? Well, the job market also has free samples on offer.

In fact, there are many ways to find out what a prospective job really involves, and this information can help you make an informed decision about your employment and career prospects. For instance, if you’re considering changing jobs within your company, you might ask to work one day per week in a different role, strictly on a trial basis.

Want to see all full key ideas from Best Job Ever?

Key ideas in Best Job Ever

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is Best Job Ever about?

Best Job Ever (2016) is a guide to making the career change you need to be happy with your professional life. These blinks walk you through the difficult process of switching jobs, changing fields and trying something you’ve always wanted to do, but didn’t know how to start.

Best Job Ever Review

Best Job Ever (2016) by C. K. Bray is an insightful book that provides guidance and inspiration for finding and thriving in one's dream job. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It offers practical tips and strategies to help readers land their ideal job and create a fulfilling career.
By sharing real-life stories and experiences from various professionals, it provides valuable insights and perspectives on different career paths.
The book encourages readers to embrace passion and purpose in their work, showing that a fulfilling career is within reach for everyone.

Best quote from Best Job Ever

Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway. – Dr. Robert Anthony

—C. K. Bray

Who should read Best Job Ever?

People who want a job that overlaps with their passion and personal goals
Anyone who feels the need to make drastic changes to their career path

About the Author

Dr. C. K. Bray is a career coach who used to work in the corporate world until he realized he was chasing other people’s dreams. Now, he helps people define and achieve their professional goals.

Categories with Best Job Ever

Career & Success

Book summaries like Best Job Ever

Career Fear (and how to beat it)

Somi Arian

Get the Perspective, Mindset and Skills You Need to Futureproof Your Work Life

The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

25 min

4.1

The Upside of Your Dark Side

Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener

Why Being Your Whole Self – Not Just Your “Good” Self – Drives Success and Fulfillment

23 min

4.0

The Long View

Brian Fetherstonhaugh

Career Strategies to Start Strong, Reach High, and Go Far

16 min

4.2

The Squiggly Career

Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis

Ditch the Ladder, Embrace Opportunity and Carve Your Own Path Through the Squiggly World of Work

22 min

4.5

The Practice of Not Thinking

Ryunosuke Koike

A Guide to Mindful Living

Master the Art of Deep Conversation

Managing Your Emotions - So They Don't Manage You

22 min

4.2

The Power of Self-Confidence

Brian Tracy

Become Unstoppable, Irresistible, and Unafraid in Every Area of Your Life

20 min

4.4

How to Speed Read People

Patrick King

Think Like a Psychologist, Analyze Human Behavior, and Decode Emotions

19 min

4.0

Getting It Done When You're Depressed

Julie A. Fast

50 Strategies for Keeping Your Life on Track

Powerful Life Lessons from My Career in Sports

18 min

4.5

Storytelling with Data

Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

Stop People Pleasing, Staying Silent, and Feeling Guilty... . and Start Speaking Up, Saying No, and Unapologetically Being Yourself

19 min

4.4

The Introvert’s Complete Career Guide

Jane Finkle

From Landing a Job, to Surviving, Thriving and Moving on Up

Navigate Earth, Mind and Body. Step by Step

A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads

The Science of Rewiring Your Heart

19 min

Is Your Work Worth It?

Jennifer Tosti-Kharas & Christopher Wong Michaelson

How to Think about Meaningful Work

20 min

Do Hard Things

Steve Magness

Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness

18 min

4.4

The Unspoken Truths for Career Success

Tessa White

What You Never Learned about Navigating Pay, Promotions and Politics in the Workplace

How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success

What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future

19 min

4.3

7 Strategies for Wealth and Happiness

Jim Rohn

Power Ideas from America's Foremost Business Philosopher

20 min

4.4

Every Job Is a Sales Job

Cindy McGovern

How to Use the Art of Selling to Win at Work

Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older

Science-Backed Strategies for Creating Meaningful Connection

Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery

366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature

30 min

4.4

On the Origin of Species

Charles Darwin

By Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

16 min

4.3

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Cal Newport

Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

Stop Pleasing, Start Living

26 min

3.7

Start-up of You

Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career

14 min

4.3

The Year of Magical Thinking

The Surprising Science of Human Goodness

Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

A Guide to Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt

18 min

Building a StoryBrand

Donald Miller

Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking

16 min

4.2

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Robin Sharma

A guide to using ancient practices to improve your quality of life and achieve your goals

How to Work Together Better

17 min

4.0

The Great Cholesterol Myth

Jonny Bowden and Stephen T. Sinatra

Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease – and the Statin-Free Plan That Will

21 min

4.4

Coaching for Performance

Sir John Whitmore

The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership

18 min

4.5

The Psychology of Money

Morgan Housel

Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness

21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

13 min

4.3

Overworked and Overwhelmed

Scott Eblin

The Mindfulness Alternative

The Hidden Determinants of Human Behaviour

18 min

4.2

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.