“What color is your parachute?
A practical manual for job-hunters and career-changes”
By
RICHARD N. BOLLES
What
makes a best-selling job hunting book? Well, if
anyone knows the answer to that question, it is the author of
“What
color
is your parachute?,” now
completely updated for 2012. Richard N. Bolles
says his reason for writing this perennially popular book is helping
people
answer the question:
Where
do you go from here with your life?
The
answer to that has
always boiled down to answering just three questions, and they have
remained
the same these forty years: WHAT, WHERE,
and HOW.
The
questions that Bolles goes on to list are:
- WHAT
are your favorite transferable skills?
- WHERE
would you most like to be able to use those
skills?
- HOW
do you find the name or names of that job, and the
places that have such jobs, and the people with the power to hire you?
With
the rise and popularity of social media, Bolles
points out that the way we look for work has drastically changed, and
his
latest edition addresses the way in which job seekers can navigate
social media
and find the right job. However, being a practical man with over 40
years of
experience in the job-seeking world, he also acknowledges that social
media by
itself is not the answer. Rather it is merely a tool to help get you
where you
need to go.
The
2012 edition is full of practical information
offering real life tips on finding work, especially when you
don’t know where
to begin.
Bolles
writes that there are 18 ways of looking for
work:
1. Self-inventory. Do
a thorough self-inventory of transferable
skills and knowledge that you most enjoy using so you can gain a really
clear
understanding of the type of job you do want.
2. The
internet. Use the large variety of
job-search sites or specific networking sites such as LinkedIn or
Twitter.
Bolles later explains how to do this.
3. Networking. Bolles
asserts there is a right way and a wrong way to network. You can say to
friends
and family: “I’m out of work, let me know if you
hear of anything.” Or,
suggests Bolles, you can be really constructive with your approach and
let them
know you mean business.
4. School. This
is an extension of networking, above. As
Bolles explains this, it could be high school, community college or
university.
You can ask a former professor or teacher if they have any job leads.
5. Government
or State unemployment office
6. Private
employment
agencies
7. Civil
Service. You often must take a civil
service exam to compete for a government job.
8. Newspapers. Bolles
notes checking the want ads in
newspapers can still be a useful method, although many papers now
advertise
online.
9. Journals. Check
out professional journals in your occupation or industry.
10. Temp
Agencies. These agencies can help you
get short-term contracts which may lead to contacts that help you then
land
longer term work. And some people work for temp agencies on an ongoing
basis.
11. Day
Laborers. This can be through a
construction site or a union hall.
12. Job
Clubs
and OneStop career centers. These can
teach you how to do better at job-hunting and how to ferret out job
leads.
13. Resumes. You
can blindly send out your resume to
everyone or you can target companies
that interest you.
14. Choose
Places that Interest You. You can seek
out managers at stores, factories, and organizations of all sorts and
can ask
whether they have or might soon have vacancies.
15. The
Phone
Book. Identify
entries or categories that intrigue
you. Bolles suggests
visiting the
organisations, whether or not
they are known to have job vacancies
16. Volunteering. This
can help you get a foot in the door of some organization, build
contacts, and
feel useful but volunteering is clearly only okay if you are able to
financially survive for the time being without being paid for your
work.
17. Work
for
yourself. Start
your own business or offer a service.
18. Retraining. Go
back to school and get retrained for a different job.
Bolles
says that even if you’re employed, there are
certain skills you must master in order to be truly effective in your
job-search. He claims that most people have learned the three most
basic job-hunting
skills: how to write a resume, how to
search for vacancies on the Internet using social media, and how to
conduct a
job interview. However, he argues that those skills are not enough.
A
large portion of the book is taken up with suggestions
on how to proceed, step by step, with the five essential parts of
Survival
Job-Hunting as listed below:
· Attitudes
· Job-finding
· Job-creation
and career change
· Inventory
of what we each have to offer the world
· Teaching
others through “each one teach one”
The
secret to this book, and its continued success, is
that it is so much more than a job search book. Yes, the style of the
book is
accessible and the cartoons scattered throughout the book add a certain
charm. However,
the book also offers
invaluable information about
reviewing ones’ philosophy in life. In effect,
“What Color is Your Parachute” maintains
that in the current economy, finding a job is more about being true to
yourself
and knowing who you are, which then informs everything else you do.
Self-analysis
is more than an intellectual exercise; it affects the way you look for
work and
how you interact with life.
The
power of the book is this: it can be used as a
truly transformational tool to change your life and be in tune with
your
values. Your values then impact upon your decisions; your decisions
affect how
you interact with others, and this influences how you appear to others
in the
world. When approaches the Parachute way, landing the right job becomes
a truly
organic process, which is so much more than merely bringing home a pay
check.
About
the Author
Richard
N. Bolles has led
the career development field for more than forty years. A member of
Mensa and
the Society for Human Resource Management, he has been the keynote
speaker at
hundreds of conferences. Bolles was trained in chemical engineering at
the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), and holds a bachelor’s degree
cum laude in
physics from Harvard University, a master’s in sacred
theology from General
Theological (Episcopal) Seminary in New York City, and three honorary
doctorates. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife,
Marci. To
learn more, visit www.jobhuntersbible.com. Be
sure to also check out this You Tube
presentation on the 40th Anniversary Edition of “What Color
Is Your Parachute?
Other
online reviews of this book can be found at:
“Parachute
remains the most complete career guide around…
“This
year's edition of What Color Is Your Parachute? has been vastly
rewritten....”
“Just
when I thought Mr. Richard Nelson Bolles had shared
everything....”