What Color Is Your Parachute?

Title: What Color Is Your Parachute?

Author: Richard Nelson Bolles

Pages: 382

Genre: Self-Help?

Grade: B+

Synopsis: This is the "Bible" for job-hunters. The website for the book is even: http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/. This book is updated yearly and is more of a workbook than a book that you would sit down and read front to back. I didn't participate in all of the exercises, but I still came away with 8 pages of notes and ideas. The author begins by pointing out the best and worst ways to search for a job. Obviously the best methods are ones where the job seeker creates an active connection with the employer. Using the internet, answering newspaper ads and cold-calling are not successful because this connection isn't present (although, almost every place that I have applied has told me that they only accept resumes submitted online...). He goes through many important facets of the job search from the resume to the interview to salary negotiations. The biggest part of the book focuses on the "flower diagram". This is the type of thing that would be perfect for somebody trying to pick their college major or change career fields. For somebody like me who has yet to really work in my chosen profession, then it didn't seem entirely applicable. This exercise helps you to identify what types of working conditions you like, what skills, interests and values you have and where and what you would like to do. This is the ultimate exercise for somebody who is not happy with what they are doing and are considering changing careers.

Why I Chose This Book: This is supposedly the #1 manual for finding a job. This is probably a pretty pertinent subject for me right now.

My Review: I liked a lot of parts of this book, but there were other parts that I had to trudge through. I wish that I had read this book when I was trying to choose my college major. My decision was made very haphazardly (but I certainly don't regret it). If I ever find myself dissatisfied with my job then this is the first book that I'll pick up. It's also the type of book that would be perfect to give a niece or nephew graduating from High School. I didn't expect the book to be so activity based. These types of books can be quick reads - but if you really want to take advantage of the material then it can be really time-consuming. I learned a lot from this book and fully expect to read it again.

From the Book (I didn't really find any quotes to share about finding a job, but here's one that I liked): "(P. 317) The search for a dream job is, on its surface, a search for greater happiness. Most of us embark on this search because we want to be happier. We want to be happier in both our work and our life.
But some of us want even more.
We want to be happier in our soul.
Though others do not believe, we do. And we want our faith to be a part of our dream. hence, no discussion of work happiness can be complete--for us--unless we also find soul happiness. Unless we find some sense of mission for our life." [All formatting as the author intended]