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“'A spanking can go for as much as $1,000 in Framingham, Massachusetts.' Not too shabby for a little companionship.”

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BOOK REVIEWMay 11, 2006
100 Bullshit Jobs…And How to Get Them

by Stanley Bing

Harper Collins, 320 pages, Hardcover$19.95
by Sarah Preston

What do a life coach and an aromatherapist have in common? They're both listed in Stanley Bing's 100 Bullshit Jobs…And How to Get Them. If you do mind-numbing work for mind-blowingly low pay wondering how much better life is for a glamorous ad executive, celebrity stylist or TV meteorologist, then this book should mildly amuse you. But if you hold any of the occupations outlined in the book -- and you likely do -- you'll find this read full of crap. Case in point, bullshit job no. 96: writer of this book. "Writing about bullshit is serious work," the Fortune columnist writes. And so are many of the so-called full-of-it jobs he writes about (see lawyer, no. 54).

A crash course in calculating the bullshit quotient of your job begins the book. Do the math, Bing explains, to figure out how much bullshit content each gig involves and to figure out which crappy time-sucker might be best suited for you. The book then offers an alphabetized pile of bullshit professions and how much you can earn, how much bullshit each entails, skills required, duties performed, examples of famous people who have held those jobs, how to get them, the upside, the downside, the dark side and what your future might hold. Curious what an escort makes? "If you stay upright, several hundred dollars for the evening; a spanking can go for as much as $1,000 in Framingham, Massachusetts." Not too shabby for a little companionship.

This isn't exactly a guide for the working person, as the title suggests; you're not going to find your next career move among these pages. The skills required to be a backup dancer surely take more than just having a nice butt and marrying a pop tart (which itself is bullshit job no. 76). But what it does offer is a tongue-in-cheek look at some of those head-scratching positions your lazy friends make money in and that make you consider giving your two weeks' notice…till you realize your job is just as bullshit as theirs. (Book reviewer does not appear on this list.)

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