Customer Reviews

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2011: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This excellent book has been in multiple reprints since about 1970 and is extremely helpful in many ways.

Some of the areas I found most helpful included:

1. How Employers Hunt for Job-Hunters. In this chapter, Bolles clearly lays out the harsh realities of the differences between people looking for work and those seeking jobs. The power lies with the employer, and the sooner I realized that truth, the better off I was. This chapter also pointed out that different types of resumes work better for different types of employers, so it's important to tailor your resume to your audience. This was a great lesson for me.

2. Tips. What I loved about this chapter was the reinforcement that job hunting is hard work and takes effort, there is no getting around it. I also thought it was great advice to be open to changing my tactics if what I was doing wasn't working. Too often I get caught up in the thinking that just doing more of the same will change my result. I now realize that sometimes I am just doing the wrong things, so need to try something different.

3. Interviewing Tip For Smarties: Another great chapter that reset how I think about interviews. One of the best tips for me was sticking to the time I asked for from the interviewer. Too often in the past if I thought the interview was going well, I would keep talking. Now I realize that one of the best ways to impress a potential boss is to stick to the time (e.g., 20 minutes) that I originally asked for. The other very helpful tip was to let the interviewer do 50% of the talking. This balance of time lets the interviewer know that you know how to listen as well as speak. Too much talking by me tells them I might ignore the needs of the company: too little speaking by me might tell them I am trying to hide something. Good input!

Overall, I thought this book could be extremely helpful to a lot of job seekers, since it provides a wealth of insight into what the employers are looking for and how they are approaching the hiring process. After all, it involves two parties trying to see if there is a match, so it's very important to know what the hiring manager is thinking and how they are approaching this process.

Another book that I thought was extremely helpful in terms of applying to my job search was "GOAL! Your 30 Day Game Plan" Goal!: Your 30-Day Game Plan for Business and Career Successwhich helped organize my efforts and kept me motivated along the way towards my new job.

While WCIYP may be a classic book of its genre, the formatting of this Kindle edition makes it useless to all intents and purposes:

- Highlights are picked out in the palest shade of gray, rendering key phrases almost illegible.

- Tables and diagrams are filled with tiny, fuzzy fonts that are unreadable, even when zoomed (I have a K2, these may be better on a DX but I suspect that they would just be larger and fuzzier).

- Hyperlinks are provided to online versions of the tables and diagrams, but they lead to PDF files that the Kindle cannot download

- It even opens with a piece that defends why it needs to be published in a paper edition

Kudos to Amazon for allowing a prompt and easy return and full refund (even though I'd had it more that the requisite seven days) but the publishers need to do a far better job.

I used this book several years ago to help me get direction in life once I got out of college and actually had to act on the age-old question of "what do you want to be when you grow up?"! In 2010 I am revisiting this classic. And I am giving it 4 stars because the newest edition is definitely still jammed full of useful advice about career choices and the job search process. HOWEVER, this book has the same flaws as the older versions: it is too long and too scattershot in its approach. The book has way too many charts/diagrams/grids - many of which you must complete, including the "Flower Diagram." I don't know about you, but I don't particularly want to spend hours on end working through a career book and drawing diagrams.... SO I greatly prefer Scott Smith's "FIND YOUR PERFECT JOB." It is MUCH more concise and easier to use while still being jammed full of useful advice. FYPJ's "Perfect Job Profile" accomplishes much more quickly what 300+ pages of Bolles' book tries to do. And if you are a young professional then FYPJ is specifically tailored for you (it includes very interesting info on business and law school programs, two areas that Parachute has no information on). Find Your Perfect Job: The Inside Guide for Young Professionals

Let's get it out of the way right up front. If you are looking for a job and not using this book, it is the same as sending an army to war without rifles. This is it, and it simply does not get any better than What Color is Your Parachute. Every year it seems to get better and better.

IT PROBABLY SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING IN YOUR LAST YEAR IN COLLEGE

I would tell anyone that you must read this book before going to interviews in your senior year in college. Anyone who is seeking to change positions that is out in the work force should have a well-marked and annotated copy in her briefcase. There are simply no excuses. The information you need to get and find the job that you want and deserve are in this book. It's easy to read and easy to use.

Some things you can figure out for yourself - others are not as easy. Do you ever notice that people in the trades all have their secrets that are passed down from older people in the trades? A carpenter will tell you that you MEASURE TWICE - CUT ONCE. It makes sense, because then you will not waste wood. In job hunting it is the same deal. There are things you need to know, because it will give you an edge over your competition.

Remember there is always more than one person looking to fill the slot that you are looking to fill. YOU NEED THE EDGE and this book will give it to you. As an example, one of the key points and there are hundreds of them is that YOU ARE ALWAYS INTERVIEWING. The moment you walk into a company, you are being watched. It might be the receptionist, or the pre-interviewer, but you are always being measured. This means you have to always have your guard up, take nothing for granted.

This book will teach you about the latest techniques for looking for a job, and much much more. Here are just a few of the issues you need to be concerned about:

* There are thousands of Internet sites that help people searching for jobs. This book tells you which ones are for you. Page 53

* What do you put into the resume - key points? Page 71

* You will learn the specific interview questions that in all likelihood, you will be asked. BE READY page 93

* What about salary negotiations? The other side negotiates all the time. You only get to negotiate a couple of times in your lifetime. You need this information to even out the playing field. Page 121

* There are always mistakes made during interviews. The book covers the big ones. Page 92

CONCLUSION:

There simply is no better book on the market for those who need a job, or want to learn how to promote themselves. This book is the BIBLE OF THE INDUSTRY. Buy it, read every word, write in the margins, take notes and write the notes in the back of the book. It is a resource, use it wisely and get the job you want. Thank you for reading this review.

Richard C. Stoyeck

First, let me say that the *content* of this book is excellent. The author gives statistics of what are the best methods for searching for a job, and that alone helped me focus my searching. (I'm still looking, but I've only had the book a few days.) If you're looking for a job, I think this is an excellent resource.

Having said that, the publisher needs to do better on the Kindle version. You *can't* simply release the print version and make the e-book version a carbon copy, especially when you know that a lot of the e-book readers will be reading on e-Ink devices with 16-shade grayscale. The portions of the book the author meant to highlight (and are thus, presumably the most important parts) come out light gray on the Kindle's screen, which makes them very difficult to read. Other problems with the e-books's formatting might be put down to the limitations of the Kindle e-book format itself, but it honestly appears that no one in the publishing house actually took the time to read this book on an e-Ink device. (I can only assume that all other e-Ink devices have the same problem with the color.)

Overall, the content of the book is good, but I would definitely suggest reading it on the Kindle for PC software, or a tablet, rather than on the Kindle itself.

I first read an edition of this book in 1979. At that time, there wasn't much available to help one look for a job, much less a career path. I was giving up on the industry I had been in and looking for a new direction. This book was a God-send. Following its direction, I found a new industry that for me was perfect. I now try to keep a copy on hand to give away to anyone I know who has similar struggles. This is a life-changing book!

I had read and used a previous edition of this book years ago. It was helpful for me to go through the exercises again, however, I still have not been able to pinpoint exactly what work I would like to do for the rest of my life. That said, there is good information in this updated edition related to searching for a job in the current economy. We can use all the help we can get!

This book is great! As a recent graduate, I found it very helpful in giving me structure for my job search. My only complaint is that I wish I bought this book at the bookstore, rather than for my Kindle. A lot of time I wanted to refer back to pages and complete the exercises towards the end but found it more challenging to do so on my Kindle. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Kindle but it is not ideal for self-help, job hunting books that contain exercises in them. I hate to say that I might have to go out and buy the tangible book to get the maximum results!

I'm having trouble putting WCiYP, 2011 down! I fondly remember reading an earlier edition as I approached graduation from college and again after grad school in the early 1970's. But this edition is not only a resource for our current job market, it's a treasure for anyone trying to figure out their place in this life and how to work and live with purpose and meaning. I must say this book is practical AND profound. It's as if the author summarized all his best advice and wisdom and wrapped it up in encouragement as a gift to our troubled times!

This book has survived the ages, and through the years. Are you anticipating a career change? Want to land in space designed especially for your talents and indicative of your likes and dislikes? This book gets you there!