Bait And Switch The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
by Barbara Ehrenreich
I liked Nickel and Dimed. This one, not so much. Basically Barbara changes her name, makes up an identity and resume, and tries to get a job as a 100K/year PR person. When she can't land a job, she decries corporate America. The best chapter in the book is the last chapter titled Conclusion in which Barbara admits that her test was flawed in many ways. She still keeps ranting about corporate America though. I'll be the first to tell you that corporate America can suck. There are also jobs that are challenging too; jobs with real skills, not PR fluff.
Barbara spends most of her time in this group hanging around career coaches, networking seminars, and job fairs. Some of those she chose to attend were religious in nature. While I understand she may not have known this before attending, her righteous indignation about them is wrong. I was particularly incensed when she dramatically left in the middle of one of these sessions. A simple 'I'm sorry, but I'm not comfortable with this' would have been more acceptable. Everyone needs something or someone to turn to. For some it's religion. To have someone demean and make fun of that is not right.
This is not really a book I recommend you read unless you are just a Barbara Ehrenreich fan. Be warned that you may not be a fan after reading it.
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