You've just graduated college and embarked on your first "real" job. Now you're asking yourself, "How will I do this for the next forty years?" What you need is a jolt of encouragement. While work is not life, it can be rewarding and noteworthy-even a calling.

Jump-Start Your Career is not a book of tips on resume writing and interviewing, or steps you should take to ascend the corporate ladder. It doesn't tell you how to explain the gaps in your resume, how to negotiate your salary, or when to ask for a raise. You won't learn how to exit a company without burning a bridge. In sum, it's not a how-to manual.

Instead this is a guidebook to help shape who you are as a person, which in turn can shape your career. You'll learn how to

- Identify the overarching theme that gives your life meaning

- Map out your career by finding your "area of exploration"

- Abandon inconsequential goals

- Concentrate more on getting the job done and less on getting credit