the working room: What Color is Your Parachute?

What Color is Your Parachute?
Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The book, What Color is Your Parachute? is a perennial, massive, bestseller by Richard Nelson Bolles. There is a new version every year along amongst others with similiar titles. It is a practical guide to helping a person through the difficult steps of finding a new job or changing a career.

It is not about a search for any job, it is about the search for The Dream Job.

The path to The Dream Job is achieved by: completing exercises, reviewing online sources, and an interesting self-examination of what it is a person truly desires.

The chapter on self-employment is thin gruel and not very encouraging.

Surprisingly, he's also not keen on online job searches. I'm conflicted by the stats he quotes. Aside from the big league, golden parachute positions almost all viable jobs seem to be on the Internet.

Hunting down employers like telemarketers is apparently the approach he prefers.

Networking is key, which takes up the second half of this book.

I am someone who doesn't have a grand passion for anything in particular. I found the book tough to work through. I'm an adult who doesn't quite know what I want to be (if and when I grow up), so I couldn't answer most of the quizzes to adequately describe myself.

However, this book is excellent for those with a clue, have a passion for something(s), and are keen on a career or job change. Overall, the message is: It takes work to find work.

Labels: career change, career counseling, dream job, job hunting, online job search, what color is your parachute

posted by GoldenAh

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