On career advice from novels
I like reading non-fiction, especially books that summarise peer-reviewed research on a particular topic. The authors, normally academics, make some really good conclusions about how life is better if you are part of that group of people that does a particular thing. We all know that non-fiction is perfect for self-improvement and can help us in our jobs and career decisions. But how about novels?
A couple of months ago I read a novel.
I haven’t read novels since I was compelled to read the classics for my literature course in high school. What’s more, I read a thriller. I mean I despise watching thrillers, and here I was, reading one with all of its violent detail.
The reason that I went out of my comfort zone was to test two concepts.
One was the idea of mirror neurons...
...and the recent discovery that similar areas in our brain light up when we experience our own feelings as when we see someone else experiencing those same feelings (or we read about them in minute details.)
The second concept was bibliotherapy.
I had just discovered this novel therapy (pun intended). The purpose of therapy in general is to help us understand a problem we have or a particular event that affected our life deeply. We are then guided to figure out our reactions and the reasons behind them so that we can heal, learn from this experience and become more resilient.
Bibliotherapy, developed by Ella BERTHOUD and Susan ELDERKIN, is doing exactly that, except you learn about yourself from novels. The novels you are recommended would have at their core similar dramatic events to your own sufferings. All you need is to find the right novels.
And to find the right novel, I bought The Novel Cure – the bibliotherapy dictionary; literally a dictionary of human problems with suggested novels to cover them. You could of course speak to a bibliotherapist, which is probably the better option. But I didn’t have a severe problem. I just wanted to find out whether there were any novels that can help with career confusion. I picked the “The Sisters Brothers” under “being in the wrong career” or “unable to wake up on Monday morning.”
Reading The Sisters Brothers was a revelation.
The book is about two brothers, mercenaries by profession, and their journey in what will be their last job. One is really good at what he does - his right hand kills anyone in less than a heart beat. Merciless. Confident. All you need to be the best in this field.
The other one is of a large built, so you would have thought that he fits the job description better. But he doesn’t feel he belongs to the assassin career path. He longs for his mother’s house. He wants to have a family and most definitely a different job. But he is stuck; this is not the kind of industry you can just leave. Though he promises himself that this will be his last job.
I learned two things that can be applied to career decisions.
One from each brother:
It definitely helps to have a plan B. Even if you are the best in your field, you can’t prevent some things that may destroy your skill or competitive advantage. Diversifying helps, even if you do remain in your career of choice.
If you find yourself longing for something else while at your desk in the office, and you vividly see that something else; don’t wait for one more project to finish. Take the decision to change now because the costs have sunk and the investments have been made. The longer you wait, the more you might lose.
Although a sample of one novel, I can confidently say that the novel therapy worked for me and my career decisions. And I can only presume that the right areas in my brain lit up. Hopefully that got you excited enough to read The Sisters Brothers and find out how they ended up.