Review of Fast Starting a Career of Consequence: Workbook

[OTrain Disene]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Fast Starting a Career of Consequence: Workbook" by Fred Sievert.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Fast Starting a Career of Consequence: Workbook is exactly that, a workbook written by Fred Sievert. It is written for people who are entering the workforce for the first time or who are entering after taking a long break for whatever reasons that may be. This book is motivated by faith, and it is filled with advice that would appeal to those who are into faith. It is not a bad book, but at the same time, it is not a good book, either.

The book opens up with an introduction, where the author states that faith and career are two things that work closely together and even describes them as “symbiotic.” He then, in detail, talks about how his faith has helped him to achieve what he has achieved in both his personal and professional lives. The author believes if we stick to faith, our careers will be successful.

The first chapter is titled “Identify and Use Your Spiritual Gifts at Work.” I think it is self-explanatory. Here, the author talks about us identifying the gifts that would help us to know ourselves better and be able to know what we can do in our workforces to be more active and more productive. He even has a few questionnaires in the book that will help you identify your gifts if you are still not sure about them or you don’t know them at all. Before closing the chapter, he gives a few action steps that we can do in our free time to put what he talked about into practice.

The second chapter is titled “Always Act in Concert with Your Values and Beliefs.” Here, the author encourages us to know ourselves and to always make sure that we find jobs that align with our values and beliefs so we can be productive and our potential wouldn’t be dampened. He says, “if you are looking for a new position or attempting to re-enter the workplace, as you begin to interview with various companies, look at their websites and read their value statements to find out what is important to them.” He also writes a few simple action steps at the end of the chapter we can take to put to practice what he has talked about.

In the rest of the book, he talks about faith, about how we must have it and apply it, or draw strength and wisdom from it in our workplaces so we can be able to see progress in our careers.

This book wasn’t enjoyable, just as much as it wasn’t helpful. From the book’s description, it does state that although they were its primary targeted audience, even if you are not a Christian, you would find it just as helpful, but I didn’t. The majority of the advice given here came from the point of view of Christianity. There were few of them which I could say had no Christianity in them, but another person might not reach them because they would have closed the book.

What I can say I liked about it is that the author kept it simple. The English language was so easy to understand. There was no intimidating jargon or anything of that nature. It was a smooth, nice read. Even though I didn’t, and I don’t think I would even attempt to do them, there were activities that one can do so they can see for themselves whether the advice or what the author talks about really helps or not. You can deduce already that this book is not to be read in one sitting, but I did because if I didn’t, I would have missed the deadline for this review. People should be prepared to highlight some texts or paragraphs which they would revisit later to reread.

What didn’t like about this book, as I have said, is that it is too appealing to people who are Christians. Some of the advice, maybe it’s because I am not a Christian, sounded too farfetched and unbelievable. Another thing I am sceptical of is its title. “Career of Consequences”? That does not sound right to me.

With everything I have said above, I rate this book two out of four stars. It was professionally edited because I only came across one error, which wasn’t too severe to dilute the quality of the book. Christians would appreciate it, but I wouldn't recommend it to you if you were a none Christian. It would just bore you, and you might discard it before you even reach in the middle, honestly.

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Fast Starting a Career of Consequence: Workbook
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