This paper offers a critical review of Patrick Combs' Major in Success: Make College Easier, Fire Up Your Dreams, And Get A Great Job (5th ed.). The review summarizes Combs' core arguments about passion-driven career development, overcoming fear, building marketable skills, and networking. It then compares Combs' accessible, reader-directed approach to peer-reviewed scholarship by Hassan Ballout and Peter Heslin. Finally, it evaluates the book's greatest strength — its frank, comprehensive, and inspiring tone — alongside its primary weakness: an occasionally unsupported, assumption-heavy style. The reviewer concludes that the book's practical resources and motivational clarity make it a valuable guide despite its limitations.
Major in Success: Make College Easier, Fire Up Your Dreams, And Get A Great Job by Patrick Combs seems to cover every aspect of college, career, and life in very readable terms. His frank approach is both inspiring and far more enjoyable and comprehensive than that of other authors who write about career success. Combs' approach has both strengths and weaknesses, but the inspirational nature of the book, combined with its suggested resources, makes it very useful.
Major in Success is a pointed guide to success in college and employment. Combs stresses that success requires extraordinary determination and drive (Combs 3), with a passion as powerful as a forest fire (Combs 10). That passionate determination does not necessarily mean achieving the highest GPA in a particular major. Rather, prospective employers will want to know whether a job applicant can complete work within deadlines, accomplish tasks under pressure, think analytically, work well with others in teams, write well, use a computer effectively, manage time wisely, and dress appropriately for the work environment (Combs 17). In short, a successful person certainly uses college, but does so creatively — learning marketable skills rather than single-mindedly striving for high grades.
Combs also emphasizes a particular attitude for a successful career. In his view, a person should pursue his or her passions because it is a waste of time to work at a job that holds no real interest (Combs 21). Combs addresses the issue of money as well, acknowledging that money is necessary but arguing it should not "buy" a person so completely that he or she cannot pursue a passion. In fact, a person should work as though money were not the primary motivation (Combs 30). Even when financial pressures exist, a person should remain aware that destiny speaks through passion and dreams (Combs 32). Combs also recognizes that despite passion and determination, people are often stopped from pursuing their dream jobs by at least six fears: the fear of poverty, other people's expectations, competition, making the wrong choice, lacking the right experience, and failure (Combs 39). Consequently, even a person who has cultivated passion and determination can fail to keep striving for his or her dream.
To help people overcome the fears that hold them back, Combs proposes a concrete plan of action. A person should pursue his or her interests and seek academic credit for them (Combs 49). He or she should also invest great energy in both work and relaxation (Combs 56). Although GPAs can be important, a person should not sacrifice the development of social and leadership skills in the single-minded pursuit of high grades (Combs 64). A person should remain mindful of the ways self-deception can derail progress, and should therefore use regular reality checks to correct course and stay on the most effective path (Combs 91). Combs also argues that a person who wishes to succeed should be a lifelong learner, constantly absorbing relevant material and improving skills (Combs 97). Another important element of success is collecting — or making visible — signs of one's education, passion, creativity, and productivity that help a person stand out to prospective employers (Combs 104). Finally, it is important to connect with others who share one's passions, determination, and career interests. This can be accomplished by contacting relevant professional organizations or by searching through the ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership directory (Combs 112). Combs' action plan is designed to help a person pursue passions, develop skills, overcome fears, stand out to prospective employers, and meaningfully connect with others who share the same drive and career focus.
Combs covers a great deal of ground in a relatively short work. Other researchers who study career success often focus on just one aspect of the subject. For example, in "Career Success: The Effects of Human Capital, Person-Environment Fit and Organizational Support," Hassan Ballout writes 24 pages in a dry, resource-heavy, peer-reviewed article that centers on person-environment fit and organizational support, as well as knowledge of career transitions, as keys to career success (Ballout 752). Combs discusses all of those same concepts using simpler, layperson's terms, and speaks directly to the reader about every other aspect of college and career success as well. Similarly, in "Conceptualizing and Evaluating Career Success," Peter Heslin writes 23 pages in a rigorous, peer-reviewed article about how people perceive and judge their own career success (Heslin 114). Combs, by contrast, speaks directly to the individual about his or her own success, honors subjective perception, and trusts the reader to define success on personal terms. Compared to these scholarly works, Combs' book is notably user-friendly, plainspoken, and comprehensive.
"Strengths, weaknesses, and reader value"
Major in Success by Patrick Combs addresses passion, determination, practical resources, fear, and self-correction in a way that can inspire and help a person achieve his or her dreams in college, career, and life. Compared to other authors on the subject, Combs speaks directly to the reader and appears to trust his or her perceptions, desires, and abilities. His frankness and the breadth of information he provides make this a strong book: it is easy to read, offers excellent points, supplies genuinely useful resources, and motivates the reader to pursue a dream. That same strength, however, is also a weakness, in that Combs sometimes assumes a great deal about the reader, academic institutions, prospective employers, and the world at large. Ultimately, the book is inspiring, and the resources it provides make it a valuable addition to any college student's shelf.
Ballout, Hassan I. "Career Success: The Effects of Human Capital, Person-Environment Fit and Organizational Support." Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(8) (2007): 741–765. Print.
Combs, Patrick. Major in Success: Make College Easier, Fire Up Your Dreams, And Get A Great Job, 5th ed. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2007. Print.
Heslin, Peter A. "Conceptualizing and Evaluating Career Success." Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(2) (2005): 113–136. Print.
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