The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success [Paperback]

Of all the career books I've read, The Pathfinder by far caters to the most limited type of audience. The author clearly tackles the subject as best as he can from his business-oriented personality, reducing life down to a short-sighted "let's win" approach with no perspective or goal beyond the material rewards of effectively being employed. I couldn't overlook the corporate, rah-rah feel of this text. Many like myself reading this would find swiss cheese: big gaps of information and substance.

In his writing style, the author has overcompensated the surplus of empty new-age gimmick books to the point of disrespecting the potentiality of any spiritual guidance or insight to an alarming degree. Regardless of career focus, being bombarded with these capricious comments continually left a sour taste in my mouth which did not make the Pathfinder an enjoyable read. Even worse, by the tone in his work he also ridiculously seems to think the bulk of his audience are basing their every move superstitiously on any chance circumstance to guide their lives rather than rational, conscious decision-making. At first I laughed, but as it continued, I was even further irked by this man's personality. While I can innocently enjoy SOME degree of satire in response to the few gullibly charmed among us, this brings me to my next point:

At a supposedly-pivotal point in the book the reader encounters the BOLD chapter in which he asks you to *choose* something and then proceeds to only explain the obvious: that it isn't a path carved in stone, falling into yet another full-fledged lecture*. No kidding! Is this the big difference of The Pathfinder? Common sense? I was expecting a well-organized book designed to help the reader develop an effectively plan for choosing and pursuing career goals, not a climactic lecture on the importance of making a decision.

But perhaps Pathfinder IS different somehow: *unlike other career guides, the author's writing primarily is a collection of lectures as a way of TRYing to meet the needs of all different people rather than simply presenting the information from a higher level of understanding in a productive fashion.

Lectures aside, I didn't see any originality in the techniques given in The Pathfinder despite the bold assertion. This was a let-down because I thought the outright claim was in fact dishonest sales ploy. While there are many, every technique and inventory splattered in the Pathfinder I have already seen multiple times in older books and resources.

Granted, if the book wasn't half-filled with self-boasting about how marvellously efficacious THE PATHFINDER is, I'd probably give a kinder review. If I could overlook the continual insults to my belief in God's guidance and purpose as well as my own intelligence and common sense, maybe I'd even shift the two stars up to three for the sake of the collection of some time-worn exercises. But in the end, I surprisingly found The Pathfinder to be not only fruitless but somewhat offensive. (And -eh heh- I've never experienced that with a reference book before!)

Personally, I recommend: "How to Find the Work You Love" by Laurence Boldt and "How to Find Your Mission in Life" by Richard Nelson Bolles. These have helped me more than any other book or counselor on this topic ever have. If you've searched a bunch, the usual inventories are old news to you, and you want to explore a truly different approach - maybe give "Test Your Job Aptitude" by James Barrett a whirl. -- Cheers, an "INF/TP"

I'd say there are three major keys to The Pathfinder which set it apart from others in its category. 1) Comprehensiveness: Lore hits the career-choice question from every conceivable angle. This yields a robust and multidimensional picture of your ideal careers(s). 2) Integration with motivational psychology: several chapters are designed to help you overcome self-doubt, make better decisions, and learn to set goals and get things done. And if you're really going for a big change, for the thing you've always wanted to do but never thought you could, then you'll be needing these chapters. And 3) Method: the brick-by-brick process of career discovery is extremely helpful. By breaking it all down, and asking you to make smaller (more manageable) decisions along the way, the Big Decision is far less intimidating, and has such a logic to it that you'll no longer be able to beat yourself up for being "impractical."

On a personal note, The Pathfinder is working for me. I'm in transition now, making the leap from DC public policy geek to Austin-based filmmaker. Perhaps the best part is, although I know that the road ahead will be a major challenge, I also know that I've worked hard for this change, having spent months using The Pathfinder to dig deep within myself to uncover my path. I now have a notebook full of completed exercises to revisit when the going gets tough. These remind me that what I'm doing is not some childish fantasy, but the very practical answer to the question: What should I do with my life?