The Job-Hunter's Survival Guide: How to Find a Rewarding Job Even When "There Are No Jobs" [Paperback]

Richard N. Bolles (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 14, 2009

One hundred pages of lifesaving advice for people out of work. When over ten million people have needed help with their job-hunt—or with figuring out what to do with their life—there is one person they have turned to, more than any other. He is Richard N. Bolles, author of the #1 job-hunting book of all time, What Color Is Your Parachute? His name is well-known around the world. Just during the last twelve months, he has appeared in Time (“10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now,” March 2009), U.S. News & World Report (deemed “savior of the nation’s unemployed,” October 2008), NBC’s Today Show (broadcast in April 2009), and many other publications and shows. His book was the #1 best-seller on BusinessWeek’s paperback list as recently as last November.

Never has his advice been more sought than during these brutal economic times. He has responded by writing a completely new book: The Job-Hunter’s Survival Guide, designed particularly for people who are hanging on the ropes, who haven’t time to do a lot of reading but need help desperately—and now. Early reviews have called this little Guide “brilliant” and “tremendously helpful.”

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press; 1 edition (July 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158008026X
• ISBN-13: 978-1580080262
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Parachute remains the gold standard of career guides.”
–Fortune magazine

“’The Job-Hunter’s Survival Guide’ is slim . . . but there is nothing small about the book’s job-hunting tips.”
—McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
 
“a quick and concise book. . . . And, at $9.99, it’s priced to sell.”
—Sunday New York Times
 
“chock-a-block with bullet points and tips” / “a best-hits collection of advice...culled from his 40 years of career guidance.”
—Tali Arbel, “Watercooler” Columnist, Associated Press
 
“Bolles’ short, sharp tome offers triage to those job seekers who may be either flummoxed with the economy or paralyzed by indecisiveness or lack of a clear path. ...his folksy, familiar style and presentation are an effective tonic for jittery nerves and chronic brain freeze. It’s pretty ballsy for an author to produce something that might cannibalize sales of his other books, but this disruptive act of creative destruction is actually a brilliant stroke by Bolles and could provide just the gentle push needed by many.”
—Richard Pachter, Miami Herald
 
“a peach of a book. …so elegantly slim and direct. …Take a spin through this book and do what it says until you find a job.”
—Working Strategies syndicated career columnist Amy Lindgren, St. Paul Pioneer Press
 
“Any reader who takes the time to practice these lessons will dreastically improve their odds of finding employment and finding it soon.”
—Sacramento Book Review
 
“a cheaper, more concise guide...for job hunters facing today's brutal job market."
—Content That Works, Syndicated “Working Class” Career Columnist Leslie Whitaker
 
"Over 15 million Americans are looking for work. ...They need a parachute. And that's exactly what they have."
—Christianity Today
 
“Bolles gives job hunters concise, down-to-earth advice by summarizing many different methods of finding jobs in a down economy.”
—Library Journal

About the Author

Richard N. Bolles is the author of What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers, the best-selling job-hunting book of all time, having sold 10,000,000 copies to date. The book is updated every year, exists in 20 languages, and is used in 26 countries around the globe.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press; 1 edition (July 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158008026X
• ISBN-13: 978-1580080262
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

RICHARD N. BOLLES has been a leader in the career development field for more than thirty-five years. He was trained in chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and holds a bachelor's degree cum laude in physics from Harvard University and a master's in sacred theology from General Theological (Episcopal) Seminary in New York City. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Marci.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bolles Hits the Target July 18, 2009

By John Darrouzet

Format:Paperback

Richard Bolles, author of WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE?, the perennial best seller for over 30 years, has hit the target for job hunters in this dismal economy. This 100-page book provides a telling story of what to do to survive in this market and the most practical and wise advice available.

His analysis of the 18 approaches to obtaining a job is frank and challenging. Using reliable statistics, he ranks the five worst approaches and the five best ones.

But more, Bolles reminds the job-seeker not to simply look for the job he or she has already had, but rather to seek the dream job that is still available in the marketplace.

It takes work but the rewards are brilliant. I highly recommend you follow this author's approaches. It will be the best money you've invested in yourself in a long time.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good as a speedy, no-frills guide September 18, 2009

By Tax Accountant

Format:Paperback

I struggled with how I should review this book, because it is obviously not designed to be a comprehensive guide to job-hunting. It's like the "Cliff's Notes" version of "What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers", which is the best-selling book by the same author.

I'm not sure why someone would invest $10.00 on this book instead of just paying about $15.00 more and getting the full book (What Color is Your Parachute). So here is my opinion:

1. The information in this book is sound-- it tells you the best job-hunting strategies in a very abbreviated manner

2. This book is a good choice for anyone who doesn't want to wade through a long job-hunting guide.

But my honest recommendation would be that you just spring for the extra couple of bucks and get the complete guide instead of this little one.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Advice, but jumbled July 22, 2009

By Alexandra Paulsson

Format:Paperback

I found the information in this book to be intriguing, I wasn't really expecting to read anything that I hadn't heard before, but I did. I haven't gotten a job yet using these skills but I've only had the book for a very short time.

My only problem with it is that I feel it doesn't give a step by step guide. A big thing he talks about is self-inventory but you have to jump around the book to really get the whole picture of how to do it. I know it's a shorter, boiled down version of his "What color is you parachute" book but I felt it could have flowed better.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended for all job seekers November 30, 2010

By Paul Lappen VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Here is a basic job-hunting guide for the growing number of people who are unemployed, and don't have the time, or desire, to read a lot of details.

Among the first things you should do is to do a Google search of your name, to see what the Internet says about you. If there are any drunken, or racy, photos of you on Facebook, for instance, restrict their availability or delete them, now. You can plan on a potential employer doing the same search.

After that, take some time and do a through self-inventory of what you do best and enjoy most, and your skills that are most transferable. What did you like most about your last job? What would be your dream job? (Please don't say "A job with high pay and no responsibilities.") That way, you can be absolutely detailed about the type of job you are seeking, and use that to focus your job search.

Most people want to limit their job-searching to replying to online job vacancies, mailing resumes, answering newspaper ads or using private employment agencies. Their rate of success is small, so don't make them your only job-search methods. Much more effective job-search methods include asking your network for job leads, knocking on the door of any employer that interests you (whether or not they have a vacancy), and using the Yellow Pages, alone or with others in a job club, looking for fields of interest.

Before you get on the Internet, know what kind of job you are seeking. There are a seemingly infinite number of sites to visit, including omnibus search engines, sites with jobs in specific fields, and social networking sites. Pick just a few sites, and monitor them (jobs are frequently cross-posted to multiple sites). If a site allows you to fill out a profile, or post your resume, do it.... You never know who will read it. Employers prefer to fill vacancies from within, before they advertise for the opening, and deal with a bunch of semi-qualified candidates. If they already have your resume, or have seen you work as a temp or contract employee, your chances have greatly increased.

This book is short, and excellent. To those who bemoan the total lack of available jobs, the author asks "Have you done anything more than rely on the Internet or Sunday want ads for your job searching?" It is very much recommended for all job seekers. Read more ›

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good But Also Seriously Disappointing October 1, 2011

By G. Charles Steiner

Format:Paperback

This guide is helpful, but it starts off completely on the wrong foot. In Chapter 1, page 1, Richard Bolles, who is no economist and has no real understanding as to why America is in the "recession" it's in, nonetheless boldly advances the blame-the-victim thesis that it is the American people -- not the international and global bankers, not the treaties signed by our present and former Presidents and not the greedy global corporations and the Elite who run these institutions -- who have brought on this terrible jobless trouble by over-spending and by being greedy -- for which he now offers a remedy. Bolles' lack of respect for the American people and his ignorance of global corporate structure certainly are on display here. This opening salvo, nothing but made-up drivel, almost caused me to close the book and never open it again.

The guide is helpful in that it provides a lot of online computer tips even while the author asserts contradictorily that the odds are against you if think computers are going to get you a job. What counts is who you know.

The last section of this guide, however, was the most disappointing and the most dreadful. The last section, or last chapter, has to do with a complicated procedure involving you writing six fictional stories that display your transferable skills in order to find your dream job (yeah, right). He gives an example which is very good, but it merely demonstrates his own ability to write a good story. Even the instructions he provides as to how follow-through with this method are brittle, tight, and distancing. I felt like a sausage being shoved into a slicer -- and all of a sudden, too.... Throughout the guide, the tone is casual and personal in almost every chapter, but just when he reaches the climactic moment of the book in which everyone can enjoy the discovery of her or his dream job, Bolles begins to write as if he were a technical writer trying to advance a computerized crossword puzzle for the reader to follow, and he doesn't seem interested any more to engage his audience any deeper. Maybe the tone is "off" here because he really rushed this chapter through and wasn't really in touch with himself as a whole person -- let alone the whole self of any one reader.

The book is ten bucks and, frankly, it's worth that much -- for the online tips, at least, but, on the whole, it's not much more than a helpful finger pointing. Bolles makes a compelling statement in the penultimate chapter that you "shouldn't decide what work to do until you first know who you presently are." But after he writes these words, his follow-through in "Looking for Your Dream Job" is an utter failure -- particularly on the self-inventory and self-discovery score.

Bolles never did promise the reader here a Bible for Your Dream Job -- no, he certainly didn't. Read more ›