For those between 30 and 40 ...

By Kim Ji-soo

The first thing that catches one’s eye about this book is the title, “Between 30 and 40, How One Should Work.” Amid a plethora of books targeting a larger audience of let’s say those in their 20s, 30s or 40s, this one focuses on that specific age range. It’s a range where your average salaried worker may well face a conundrum about their job or career.

It’s also a stage in the usual career path where the worker is in a middle-management position, having to supervise yet be supervised.

More importantly, it’s a period in life when angst about a middle-life crisis creeps in, and naturally prompts one to revisit and readjust life’s goals.

The author Kim Joon-hee, chief executive officer of Neungyule Education Inc., addresses these concerns. Kim has worked in several other education/publishing companies, serving as chief of Woongjin Think Big Co. (2002-2008). A successful corporate CEO, he also has a background of engaging in student movements when at college.

He draws from his life experiences and his long career in publishing, touching on specific situations that anyone can face in their job. They range from how to deal with anxiety coming from the need to succeed, bad working dynamics with a boss or an underling, overcoming criticism either perceived or real to learning to deal with fast-paced changes and discontent and doubts about work.

These situations are described as “To a ‘hubae’ (junior) facing ...” so as to more warmly engage the reader to visualize what they are reading.

The author also draws from Chinese classics, the Bible and present-day readings such as Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” to convey advice to those hubae in the workforce.

He advises people who are afraid of change to “specifically visualize oneself three years from now” to those upset that younger employees are advancing faster up the corporate ladder to “rethink about what the job or the work means to them” to those feeling “forced out” by the younger generation “to be wary of the moment that they want to stay in.” Throughout the book, there is stress on how to view and resolve difficult inter-personal dynamics in office life.

There is a feeling that the author has seen and experienced a lot and wants to pass on some of the lessons he learned on the way. In essence, it is time-old wisdom that one has to be really desperate to realize their dreams, be honest, be bold and courageous. He also urges the readers to be proactive to become the rightful owner of one’s self.

How to do that? In the prologue, the writer gently urges the reader to constantly question whether one’s decision was right but to constantly ask oneself, “Where am I now? Where do I want to go?”