Book Review – What I Learnt After Quitting My 10th Job By Pinakin Joshi
Title: What I Learnt After Quitting My 10th Job
Author: Pinakin Joshi
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 87 in PDF format
Download link: What I Learnt After Quitting My 10th Job
Synopsis: The premise of the book is really thought provoking. Isn’t it a fact that whenever we ask our close friends or relatives whether they are happy with their current job, 99 times out of 100 we get a negative answer? Pinakin Joshi has worked on numerous jobs ranging from a watchman to a call-center employee. In this book he takes us through his career and tells us about his experiences and the many lessons he has learnt on these jobs.
My Take
Pros: After reading this book the first thing that struck me was the phenomenal amount of knowledge I had acquired. Pinakin’s first job was that of a teacher in an institution where he teaches basic computer knowledge and Ms-Office. The other jobs he has taken up include working in a cybercafe, working as a watchman, accountant, a toll booth operator, the angadiya system, factory manager and a free-lance content writer.
His description of how he faced challenging situations when he worked as a toll booth operator makes very interesting reading. The toll booth it seems was located in a remote forest area with lions roaming around. It must have been really frightening. He describes how he buoyed his courage when he worked as a watchman. But the two chapters that really hooked me were the chapters in which he describes his experience as a call-center employee and as a worker in the angadiya system.
Pinakin describes with great elan the difficulties faced by call-center employees and how strenuous a work day is for them. In fact there have been several occasions when I have been guilty of yelling at call center employees myself. The reason is when I dial the help-line for a service (Airtel in my case) a voice immediately tells me, “For English press 1, Hindi mein jaankari keliye do dabayen” and so on.
After pressing numerous keys I am told that everyone is busy and I have to wait. Finally after 10 or 15 minutes I get to speak to someone. It stands to reason that I am not in the best of moods and tend to yell. But after reading Pinakin’s description of what the call-center employees go through everyday, I have resolved never to yell at them again. I understand what pressures and tensions they are laboring under.
The angadiya system is some thing I have never heard of before. It is very interesting and the author describes it well. I am not going to tell you what it is because I would rather prefer you read the book and find out for yourself. All the other chapters hold your attention too and make good reading. All in all I really enjoyed reading the book.
Cons: I hate to say this, but Pinakin has to pay attention to the quality of English in his book. After I read the first chapter my immediate reaction was like, ‘Oh! My god, how am I going to finish this book?’. But I soldiered on and the book soon became very entertaining and I really loved the theme.
Conclusion: I am definitely going to recommend this book. It really teaches the reader a lot of new things. It is very entertaining and makes a definite impact on a person after he finishes reading it.
Rating: I am going with a 4/5 for this book. It is indeed a great read.
Rating Scale:
1 – Poor
2 – Fair
3 – Good
4 – Excellent
5 – Outstanding
This review has been written as part of the Blogchatter Book Review Progarm
Sometimes a good book is marred by the quality of the language. What is discourse without style? Nevertheless you have given a good rating to a book which could easily have been better with some editing.