What Colour Is Your Parachute? (A Practical Manual for Job Hunters and Career Changes) - Richard Bolles

What Color Is Your Parachute is a job hunting manual, but it is also a great deal more than that. This book does not simply give you tips on how to write a CV or to succeed in an interview, but it offers what the author likes to call a "life changing job hunt". The book concentrates on the job hunter him-/herself and how through getting to know what you really desire in life you can find the perfect career. So far more than 8 million copies ...
...70s and as well as What Color Is Your Parachute, he has written several other career counselling books. In connection with What Color Is Your Parachute he also runs a free job searchers website: www.JobHuntersBible.com where job hunters apart from posting their CV can get tips and advice from the man himself.

The book is close to 400 pages long (although there are quite a few drawings and statistical tables to fill the pages up), ... more

What Color Is Your Parachute is a job hunting manual, but it is also a great deal more than that. This book does not simply give you tips on how to write a CV or to succeed in an interview, but it offers what the author likes to call a "life changing job hunt". The book concentrates on the job hunter him-/herself and how through getting to know what you really desire in life you can find the perfect career. So far more than 8 million copies have been sold, the book appears in 12 languages and is in its 36th year of publishing.

Richard Nelson (or Dick as he apparently likes to call himself) Bolles is a graduate of Harvard University in physics and a graduate of the General Theological (Episcopal) Seminary in New York City. His interest in theological matters is obvious throughout the book. He is now in his 70s and as well as What Color Is Your Parachute, he has written several other career counselling books. In connection with What Color Is Your Parachute he also runs a free job searchers website: www.JobHuntersBible.com where job hunters apart from posting their CV can get tips and advice from the man himself.

The book is close to 400 pages long (although there are quite a few drawings and statistical tables to fill the pages up), but as the contents page gives an extensive explanation to what each chapter contains you could go straight to what interests you. However, the first time you read it, it may be advisable to read through it all from cover to cover as everything is interlinked.

The first 5 chapters discuss "The Problem". This starts with a poem clarifying what the problem is:
The Problem is
that you need a job.
The problem is
That you need to pay
For your medical plan,
Or for your pension plan.
The problem is that your
job just disappeared, one morning.
While you were looking
The other way.
The problem is that you're tired
Of doing the thing
You've always done,
You want to find more meaning
For your life.

In solving any problem
The way to begin is
with The Truth.

So here are the most
Fundamental truths I can think of
Concerning the problem
Called "The Job-Hunt".

Okay, he probably would not win any poetry awards with this but at least it gives a clear introduction to the following chapters. The first few chapters concentrate on introducing his idea of a life changing job hunt, how to, as he puts it, master the job hunt once and for all and clarifies certain key words. He claims that no matter what there are always vacancies 'out there' it is just a matter of identifying them and the person who has the power to employ you. Furthermore, he goes through different ways that someone may look for jobs and grades them from best to worst. Surprisingly, using the internet to search for a job is the very worst way to go about it. According to Bolles this has only a 4-10% success rate (that is 4-10% of people job hunting on the internet will get a job this way). Unsurprisingly, doing a life changing job hunt is the best at 86%. I found these figures unconvincing, especially since he does not always mention where he gets that particular figure from. The fifth chapter turns things around and focuses on how the employer hunts for employees, in order to give more of an insight into what you can do as a job hunter to put yourself in their way.

The next section consists of 4 chapters introducing "The Playing Field". Basically, this means where you should concentrate your job hunt. This discusses the growth of the internet and the 'death of distance'. As an example to describe what he means he talks about the Tsunami and how that apparently shook the entire world, not just Asia. The way people everywhere responded to this catastrophe is more proof that 'distance is dead'. The phrase death of distance was coined by Frances Cairncross who argues that the growing ease and speed of communication is creating a world where miles have little to do with our ability to work and interact together. Distance is no longer an obstacle, at least not within certain professions. The first exercise you are requested to do (and there will be many, many more of these to come…) is to go through a list of criteria in order to figure out where in the world you would like to live. You then move on to making a picture of your ideal life, where you live and with whom etc. In these chapters Bolles provides several web links where you can do tests to measure your interest and get career suggestions. Many of these are free, but the more extensive ones you will have to pay for. There is also a very useful chapter on starting your own business. Again, there is no practical advice as such, no business plans or accounting services recommended but rather it examines the idea of being self employed to see whether this would be of interest to you.

The 7 chapters after this all handle the "What, Where, and How". This is solely concentrated on getting to know yourself and what makes you tick, through going through what skills you enjoy using, where you wish to use those skills and how to find the person that has the power to hire you. There is also a chapter on interview tips, but be warned, it will not give you the usual 100 questions that you could be asked in an interview and recommended answers to these. In the first of these chapters the idea of the flower is introduced. This is basically a mind map (for want of a better word) that will help you figure out what your dream job really is. Bit by bit you fill this out with the results that you have from each exercise you complete, by the end you should have a fairly clear idea of what your skills are and what you truly enjoy doing. The last chapter discusses salary negotiation as an important part of the job hunting process. This did not seem suitable for the book I though at first, as I am more concerned about getting a job than getting a good salary (obviously I want to be paid good money, but I feel I will have time to discuss that later, when the job is really mine).

The book ends with and epilogue on How to Find your Mission in Life and 2 appendices: How to Choose a Career Coach or Counsellor and Career Counsellors Guide: A Sampler Index

The pros with this book are many, but I think mainly the idea of a life changing job hunt can give you a completely different perspective on things and edge you closer to finding out what you want out of your life. I also enjoy Bolles' enthusiasm most of the time, he is very positive about everybody's chance to find there dream job. The book is great for motivating you when the job hunt starts to get you down and you need something new and fresh to get you going again. I also very much like the fact that it emphasises that YOU are the only one who can decide what is best for you, what to do with your life and what happens is all in your own hands.

The cons are mainly that the book is very repetitive in places. I often find that American TV shows and books like to repeat things as much as possible to make sure people understand it. I don't want to offend any Americans out there, but to me this is not useful but rather annoying! It is as if the audience is assumed to be stupid beyond belief and need the repetition simply in order to understand what is important. Furthermore, Bolles takes any chance he can get to talk about his faith. He is a devoted Christian and this certainly shows! Apparently this was even more pronounced in earlier editions and he has since tried to tone this down and keep it non-denominational in more recent editions. However, to be honest, I could do completely without these pieces on human beings' mission in life and becoming a better person. Another downfall, to us outside the US is that even though Bolles tries to ensure his readers that the job hunt is virtually the same no matter where in the world they are, the book is very US-centric. Many of the links are only relevant to the US audience and some topics that he discusses do not seem very relevant in Europe. However, this is not a major problem as the most important parts of the book easily translates across the Atlantic.

The reason I read this book was that I was recommended it by another temp at my current temping assignment. She said that it had helped her feel more positive about the whole job situation and inspired her to look into teaching again. She also advised me that the best thing I could do would be to look upon reading it as a job and to ensure I did the exercises immediately rather than skipping them and go back to do it later. As I started reading the book I did indeed try to follow this advice, drawing little stick men to represent me and my friends and family amongst other things. However, the further I got into the book the lazier I got and I started to skip exercises. Once you start doing this you cannot really get back into it as all exercises are interlinked and really need to be completed in order. Therefore, my number one advice to you if you are thinking of reading this book would be to make sure that you take it seriously and complete all the exercises. It will take quite a while as there are so many of them and they require you to think very carefully about who you truly are. Bolles himself says something along the lines of how can you expect to find your dream job if you are not willing to put in the time and effort to find out what that job really is.

Even though I never got that wow feeling that I had heard people say they got from the book (and which Bolles gives several examples of during the book) I can see the sense in the idea that in order to find your ideal job you need to know yourself and what truly would be your ideal job. The chapter that I found the most interesting was How to Start Your Own Business, it was certainly very inspiring.

I think this book would be great for anybody that is looking to start a career, change career or who simply wants to get to know themselves a little bit better. In all, I think this book can be useful for many job hunters out there, although, unlike what Bolles says, I don't think it will necessarily guarantee you a job. I think the book is worth its price of about £12 for the 2006 version, but if you want to save some money older versions contain the same exercises and advice although they do not have all of the website links or the same topicality.
 

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