Test Drive Your Dream Job through VocationVacations

Brian Kurth

Brian developed the company concept during one of his daily, two-to-three hour, round-trip commutes on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. This year, Business Plus published Test Drive Your Dream Job: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding and Creating the Work You Love, written by Brian, who joins us from Portland.

In Brian's book, you'll discover how you can identify, explore and experience your dream job, and how or if you want to pursue it. Kurth offers professional, personal and financial perspectives on how to transition into a new career and turn your dream job into a reality without risking your current job or jeopardizing your financial stability.

Book Description:
Test-Drive Your Dream Job is both an engrossing chronicle of Kurth's journey to creating his own dream job and a sourcebook for those who can't afford a mentoring fee or would prefer to set up a test-drive themselves. The book delivers by offering lists of questions to ask potential mentors; charts to help in establishing an action plan; and reality-checks about money, health insurance and the impact a life-change might have on your relationships.

Anecdotes about successful dreamers are inspiring, while profiles of those who needed a dream-adjustment demonstrate the importance of taking action: Regardless of the result, you'll have useful experience and information. Kurth notes that many of us accept the ordinary because we've been conditioned to, but it's OK to want something different or better. Really.

Talking Points:

• You describe your book as a how to step by step guide to finding and creating the work you love. So let’s talk about the steps.
• Entire chapter on fear.
• How does it work?
• What does it cost?
• How do you make a transition from corporate job to your dream job?

From day one, the company has followed a simple, but powerful vision – that happiness and passion can and should be an integral part of what you do. No matter what your current profession - whether you’re a doctor, teacher, attorney, accountant, sales rep, homemaker or corporate executive - it’s important to be true to yourself!

Brian Kurth Biography:

Brian was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, and graduated with degrees in Political Science, History and International Relations from the University of Wisconsin before moving to Chicago to earn his Masters Degree in Political Science from Loyola University. Before launching VocationVacations®, Brian spent more than a decade in the corporate world. Early in his career, he lived and worked in Tallinn, Estonia, helping set up an office automation company in the immediate post-Soviet period. After returning to Chicago, he worked his way up in the telecommunications industry with AT&T and Ameritech (now AT&T) taking an assignment in Budapest, Hungary, as a product marketing director for Matav, a joint venture between Ameritech and Deutsche Telekom. Once again returning to Chicago, he went on to become the director of business development for a dot.com startup.

The VocationVacations concept was born on Chicago’s Kennedy Expressway during one of Brian’s long, daily commutes. Numb from his lack of passion for what he did for a living and staring at brake lights, he wondered what it would be like to be a wine maker, a tour guide or a dog trainer. Brian wanted to explore his dream jobs through a company offering working adults short-term “internships” while on vacation. But with research, Brian realized such a company did not exist. A business idea was born. He went on to work at the dot.com — only to get a pink slip in late 2001. After the lay-off, Brian took a six-month road trip across the United States and parts of Canada. During his travels, he realized the time was right to dust off his unique business idea. At the end of his trip, Brian moved from Chicago to Portland, Oregon. After first test-driving a dream job in the wine industry, he created his ultimate dream job by launching VocationVacations® in January, 2004.

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