Contents

Cover

Title Page

Introduction

Part One

Is it time for a cool career?

Part Two

1. In the know

I can keep a secret

I want to be the first to know

I want to get to grips with evidence

2. Past, present and future

I like to live in the future

I like to live in the past

I want to do something this century

I want to have retro cool

3. Outside the mainstream

I don’t want to war a suit and tie

I want every day to be a little different

4. Adrenalin charged

I am driven and ambitious

I want a life on the edge

5. People love

I like to understand people and know what makes them tick

I want to help people change their lives

I love children

I want to make people look or feel better

6. Saving the world

I love the planet

I want to save the people of the world

Animals are my friends

I love exotic animals most of all

7. Sense-able

Sound strikes a chord with me

Taste and smell make me feel good

I want to create something beautiful

8. Living off your wits

I want to look at the big picture

I am fascinated by words and language

9. Down and dirty

I like to get my hands dirty

I like things as much as (or more than) people

I want to make money from my body

10. Striking it Rich

I don’t care what I do, just show me the money

I deserve a six (or seven) figure salary

What I really want is the champagne lifestyle

I want the celebrity life by proxy

11. Up front and out there

I want to schmooze for a living

I love to show off

12. Different from the rest

The unconventional cool 100

Index

Keep Reading

Copyright

About the Publisher

Introduction

Have you ever wanted a different career? Something a little bit different, something fun and exciting? Or that sounds as if it will really keep you interested and happy?

‘If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.’ Or so the old saying goes. When you have a career you really love doing, your life as a whole becomes immeasurably happier.

David is a lucky man in the eyes of many of his friends. He directs films for a living. It has taken him a long time to find a career he really loves. First he was a barman, then a professional limousine driver, briefly an electrician and, for several years, a cameraman and freelance assistant director. Finally, he started making music videos as a freelance director and now he makes films. The world of film is undoubtedly cool but, more importantly, he thinks it’s cool. For many years he followed a career path that wasn’t exciting, fun or interesting. Now he is fortunate, or clever enough just to fix his eyes on doing something he truly loves.

Your career, like David’s, is for you alone. A cool career will transcend the mere idea of work and become a job that you can be really passionate about. There really are no obstacles out there that you can’t find your way around. You have to love what you do and go for what you want to do in your life.

Cool Careers contains lots of ideas for some of the coolest and most fascinating careers on the planet right now. There are thousands of careers out there. Most conventional career guides only touch on the headline careers. The aim of Cool Careers is to tease out the little ones … the interesting jobs that you usually only discover when you have been working for a while.

It is not always easy to decide what career you might like. How should you make the decision? Based on what your friends do? Based on what you have done in your life so far? On your current qualifications or skills?

Well, if you are content with any old job, so be it. But if, on the other hand, you are looking for a career that will keep you fascinated, then this is the book for you.

This book came about because, over the last ten years, I have met hundreds of people who were seeking a career. I kept being asked the same question, ‘How do I find a truly satisfying career?’

Some were graduates taking their first steps on the career ladder. Some had lost their job and needed a new one. Many, though, had already held down a job or two before realising that they want something bigger, perhaps better paid, different, more exciting, with more free time or more of a challenge. Many simply felt that their career didn’t really express who they were. They just knew something wasn’t right.

In other words, what they were looking for was not just any old career but a really cool career.

What is a cool career?

Undoubtedly, there are some careers that lots of people in the world think are cool. Others are only considered cool by a select few.

A cool career is basically a career that is in a cool area or is simply cool itself. It is a career that is ‘a little bit more’ or ‘much more’ off the beaten track than the average.

Anybody can get a career. However, if you are creative or unconventional, if you want to do what you love and maybe even inspire others to do what they love, you probably are really looking for a cool career.

If so, look no further. This book contains around 500 of the coolest careers in existence today.

How do I use this book?

Cool Careers is deliberately not laid out like a conventional career guide, even though it contains plenty of ideas to stimulate your thinking about your future career.

This is not an A to Z career guide. A career is not simply something you should pick off the shelf like a tin of baked beans. It is what you are going to spend most of your time doing for the rest of your life!

Yes, you can find lists of careers here. Yes, you can find guidance and career definitions. But you will also find ways of thinking about career choices that are deliberately random and unstructured in order to stimulate your thinking about what matters to you in making your own choice.

Part One of the book takes a brief look at why and how you might find your own cool career – particularly in a rapidly moving global culture. Part Two is full of lists. The lists are selected to fit only one criteria – the areas they cover, and the careers they contain, are cool. See what catches your eye. Pick the book up, scan through it and get some ideas for what you want to do. You can read it all the way through or dip into the odd list.

This is not a definitive guide to every career out there, just the coolest around. Take your time, stimulate your thinking, come up with your own ideas and go and find yourself a really cool career …

Part One

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