Career advice from a comic

by Jenelle Madrid

Students at Texas State were introduced to a new spin on career guidance Wednesday night.

Daniel Pink’s The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need is the first graphic novel to make Business Week’s bestseller list.

His novel is done in a Japanese form of comic book called Manga that he discovered while in Japan.

“Comics have different roles in Japan,” said Pink. “They are ubiquitous.”

He said that like television in the U.S. can tell any kind of story, so can comic books. Stories and/or guides on time management, cooking, and even Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

He also noted that while printing material in the U.S. is decreasing, Manga increases.

“I think career books are an endangered species,” he said. “But, books provide strategic advice that online can’t.”

In the book, Johnny Bunko hates his job, and has a realization while eating at a Japanese restaurant.

As he breaks his chopsticks, Diana, an “I Dream of Genie” type character, emerges. She is, as he quotes, a “kick-butt” career advisor.

For each broken set of chopsticks, a new lesson is learned in this order: 1) There is no plan, 2) Think strengths, not weaknesses, 3) It’s not about you, 4) Persistence trumps talent, 5) Make excellent mistakes, 6) Leave an imprint and 7) Stay hungry.

He also advocates finding a career that one has a passion for.

“If you hate accounting, you are going to be a crappy accountant,” he said.

He ended his presentation by career guidebook titles that posed questions asked by different generations. For instance, in the 80’s the question was What Color is Your Parachute?, the 90’s-Who Moved My Cheese? and the question for our generation is “wtf?.”

Daniel Pink is a humorous and insightful author that definitely has a hold on his audience, and his next book Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us will be out in late December or early January.

Image from johnnybunko.com