The Art of Job Hunting by Anastasia Helena Fenald is a book I received a PDF copy of in exchange for a review. Before I read the book I was thinking of sharing it with Charlie who is going job hunting this week for his first job and also my sister who has spent months looking for a job along with my best friends daughter but because there is adult material including harsh language and sexual content, which some readers might find upsetting. As for me personally I read the book and yes, it did bother my but I learned from the book and will share bits and pieces of the story with Charlie which is actually poems.
It seems like more and more people I know are looking for a job and there is signs everywhere of places hiring but no, matter how may applications someone puts in they may not get hired. Which is what I am afraid of with me because I’ve been thinking of looking for a job when Charlie looks for one but I haven’t worked in 16 years and I’m going on 60. Is there anyone in the world who would hire me? I doubt it.
I was excited to read The Art of Job Hunting which isn’t a true self-help book but more of a Poetry book teaching us how to deal with being unemployed in a fun yet sarcastic way. The honestly in this book is going to make you stop and shake your head as you will find people or places you’ve dealt with when looking for a job.
About the book:
Capitalism got you down? Me too.
Do you shell out cookie-cutter answers in every horrible interview? Did society pressure you to enter the workforce, or was that Mom and Dad? Do you fantasize about running away and living off the grid in desolate Wyoming? If you have answered “yes” to any of the following questions, then you are also familiar with getting f*cked by job hunting.
The Art of Job Hunting is Anastasia Helena Fenald’s second poetry collection, a classic one-two punch of humorous satire and blunt truth. While taking inspiration from job applications, skill assessments, and interview questions, each poem delivers wit and sarcasm sprinkled with plenty of uncomfortable booming honesty.
These poems also embrace the bitter and frustrating aspects of job seeking, such as desperation, lying, and not being good enough. Refreshingly, Fenald refuses to answer each question with a lousy fake “can-do” attitude. The Art of Job Hunting is for anyone living paycheck to paycheck, plotting to cannibalize the rich, and still hopeful enough to think they have a chance against nepo babies.
The Art of Job Hunting contains adult material such as harsh language and sexual content, which some readers might find upsetting.
Meet the Author: Anastasia Helena Fenald
Anastasia Helena Fenald (b.1992) is a second-generation Ukrainian-Hispanic-American poet from California’s windy High Desert. She has a B.A. in Global Studies from the University of Riverside, California (2014) and an M.A. in Globalization and Development from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (2015). Known for her energetic attitude and poignant poems, she spends most of her free time devouring fanfiction, performing at open mics, and forgetting to drink water until bedtime.
Her first poetry collection Help Me, I’m Here: Poems to Myself, was published by the World Stage Press. She has also been published in Sheila-Na-Gig Online Journal, Acid Verse Literary Journal, The Sims Library of Poetry’s anthology Poems in Praise of Libraries, innate DIVINITY books’ anthology A Case for the Personhood of Trees, A Thousand Flowers Anthology, Lit Stack, and more. The Art of Job Hunting is her second poetry collection.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
