Job or No Job
Solid business lessons in job-interview reality show.
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Job or No Job
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Job or No Job is a reality show about young job-seekers going on guided interviews. Candidates are real people with real dreams: to succeed in business, own a restaurant, or the like. They're given solid advice about interviewing that can help them and the viewers watching. Infrequent mild cursing; "s--t" is bleeped, "hell" is not. Watching job-seekers get rejected for jobs and hearing them being given tough advice may be uncomfortable for very sensitive viewers. Otherwise, this is an ideal show for college students or high schoolers, who will relate to the young aspirants featured and learn much from their journey.
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What's the Story?
Each episode of reality show JOB OR NO JOB centers on a different 20-something job-seeker. These young professionals are at a crossroads -- how do they take the first steps to turn their dreams into reality? After meeting each applicant and learning a bit about their home lives and aspirations, we watch them go on three interviews with companies in their field. After each interview, brand coach and author Jane Buckingham meets with the job-seeker to praise his or her successes and criticize where he or she came up short. At the end of each show, we learn what emerged from the interviews, from multiple offers to none, and watch as the job-seeker decides what to do next.
Is It Any Good?
Terrific for aspiring high school or college professionals (and the parents who'd like to give them a nudge), this reality show is top-flight educational TV that's also absorbing to watch. Watching young professionals take on engineered "challenges" is of course a staple of reality TV, but most are artificially pumped up, with contestants put under ridiculous (and unrealistic) time and budgetary pressures.
The reality here is a lot more, well, realistic: Job-seekers go on interviews, a real-life challenge that nearly everybody who works will go through sooner or later. The mistakes the applicants make are realistic: They forget to bring a résumé, they accidently say "s--t," they reveal their ambitions too nakedly. But host Buckingham is a steady hand on the tiller, sternly (but helpfully) explaining how to do better next time. In the end, Job or No Job is fun to watch, fresh and extraordinarily educational, though the subject matter may sound like a drag to sulky teens and college students. Parents may want to start watching without comment and see if their young worker-bees-to-be are sucked in, taking in the good advice without meaning to.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the premise of Job or No Job. Why would it be interesting to watch someone interviewing for a job? Why is this more interesting than watching someone at a job or someone filling out applications for jobs?
What kind of audience is this show aimed at? Consider the type of person who is featured on the show as well as the network on which Job or No Job airs.
Do you learn anything while watching this show? Does educational value make a show less or more fun to watch? Why?
How does Job or No Job promote integrity and perseverance? Why are these important character strengths?
TV Details
- Premiere date: August 5, 2015
- Cast: Jane Buckingham
- Network: Freeform
- Genre: Reality TV
- Character Strengths: Integrity, Perseverance
- TV rating: TV-PG
- Last updated: October 23, 2022
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