Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The best career advice I ever got was when someone told me to read "What Color Is Your Parachute." I did so, during a period when I couldn't figure out what to do for a living, and spent a few months completing all the exercises it contains.

To get the most out this book, don't try skimming through or reading it all at once. Instead, treat it like a course of study. It isn't necessarily quick or simple, because the book guides you through a process of self-discovery, and that requires time and serious thought. But if you work with it, it can really help you focus on what's important to you in a career ... not money, but the things that make work satisfying. Since you have to work for most of your life, is it possible to go to work every with a smile on your face? Some people do - what do they know that you don't? What type of career will make you feel proud and pleased about what you do all day long?

I recommend this book to everyone who's trying to work through the puzzle of what to do to pay the rent without losing your mind or soul. It worked for me ... I've escaped from the cubicle and have found the career that is right for me, and this book made it possible.

Parachute is not for everyone. If you dislike thinking about your life, values, spirituality, and your goals, you will find What Color Is Your Parachute ? incomprehensible. If you want a quick fix to your life/work problems, Parachute doesn't offer you a quick fix.

But for many ( 8 million readers and growing), working with the ideas and exercises of this book has helped them create very positive change in their lives---and its impact on their personal lives is so great that they want to share it with others.

In my case, I read the book after graduating from college, and found myself in the midst of a recession, no demand for a kid with a BA in liberal arts. I was totally unprepared to enter the world of work after 4 years of college. WCIYP? gave me a road map for thinking out my mission in life, who I was and how to find work that would use my favorite skills. I started my own business , which turned into a INC 500 Company. My life/work has been a wonderful adventure,influenced greatly by Bolles' book. Over the years, I must have given out 100 copies of Parachute to college students and friends who needed to go through a life changing job hunts. I have worked through it several times over 20 years. Each year Bolles brings out a new edition with fresh insights. I keep it on my shelf as a reference book.

I have read many other books on 'finding the job of your dreams'---and almost all are derviative from Bolles and frankly are pale imitations.

A word of advice. Parachute is really a workbook. Just reading it gives you only a taste of its true value. Read, reflect, write and read some more. Then take action!

Bolle's book is still timeless for job seekers of all kinds. I feel that his book updated each year to meet the current trends in society is critical. He needs to address those issues, like the web, downturn in the economy and the like.

The most critical part of the book is the self evaluation section. This is a very structured process that can be used intutitively as well. Bolles asks you to write a few stories about yourself, then, what did you like and dislike about those stories? What did you do well, where did you fail or feel challenged beyond your abilities? These are the critical areas of the book that take time to get through, yet you can evaluate yourself and understand what you like, it is what you do best, usually.

We excel what we are good at, according to Bolles, this method will help us discover what we are best at.

I have recommended this book to many over the years, and still do. Whether someone is in college, or someone is going through a long term transition after being in a job for a long time or moms returning to the work place, this book will be very instructive for you.

One of his processes is very simple asking you to compare who you would most like to talk with or groups of people you would rather relate with. This is a standard set of tests for some very expensive career consulting, he gives it to you for the price of his book and the time to self evaluate yourself. Then, he breaks down the possible job areas and skill sets related to these groups.

Again, a worthwhile journey for anyone not wanting to wander any longer in the world of work.

JOE SLEVIN
Job Coach

I've owned five or six different editions of this annual over the last 25 years and I've never been disappointed. Why do I keep buying it? Because I keep giving it away to friends and associates who find themselves without a job. Oh and because I've been there a few times myself.

As to comments about retiring this book because of tired content, I just don't see it that way. I do see Bolles doing what he urges readers to do, and that's constantly adapting to changing conditions, re-inventing yourself to incorporate proven strengths with newly-emerging knowledge, skills and experience.

Note the subtitle: "A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters & Career-Changers." One of the most helpful aspects of Bolles' guidance is assessing your transferable skills and exploring how they could be valuable in a variety of jobs.

His approach is warm and humorous, compassionate and realistic. Reading this author is like a conversation with a wise friend who looks you right in the eye and says, "It ain't going to be easy, but you can do this."

As one of those people who never did figure out what I should do after highschool, I ended up getting a master's degree in a field I disliked and worked for years at a job that drove me crazy. I stopped working after I had my child and felt a relief you can't imagine. As my son got older, I felt it time to hit the workforce again - but was none the wiser about what to do. A friend suggested this book and I have to say - I am amazed at what this book has done for me. While the process is long - you have to work through many exercises - the end result is a better knowledge of yourself, your interests and skills.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who isn't sure what career path to choose, anyone who is unhappy in their current job, or people just looking for a positive change in their lives.

I didn't give this 5 stars as I periodically felt the exercises took too much time and I just wanted to "get the answer". Patience isn't really my strong suit and there is alot of work involved. Having said that - the end result is worth the effort!

Richard Bolles'," What Color Is Your Parachute?," has garnered a lot of praise, and sold not a few copies, over the years. I found the book easy to read, with simple, but useful, advice for the job-hunter. Like other books of its type, it contains a combination of exposition and exercises, or homework if you like; Bolles provides short-cuts for those who may already have the "answers" and step-by-step details for those who do not. Read it like you would a textbook and expect to be called upon in class to answer questions. Completing the exercises does take some time, but the few hours needed are a small price to pay.

Bolles writes in a down-to-earth, non-academic style. He is constantly hammering home a few points: the job-hunt may take a long time and be meet with failure after failure, which leads to giving up too quickly i.e. persistence pays off, the job-hunter should take no short-cuts and leave no stone unturned, if a particular strategy doesn't work pick another one, and that it is important to identify what your skills and interests are; none of this is particularly unique to this book. Bolles clearly makes a distinction between skills and traits, something not all books of this type do adequately. He provides alternatives when a particular approach fails to produce results. And above all he encourages while at the same time providing some realism.

The book is copiously illustrated. And ironically - I typically complain that publishers of non-fiction often leave out illustrations - this is my one complaint about the book, that the illustrations take up so much space and yet provide nothing but aesthetic value. A word of caution, that the author himself acknowledges, many of the Internet links provided are out-dated - either because the links are "dead" or because they have become fee-for-service sites instead of free. I have just started looking for that dream job, so my journey isn't over yet. But I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to improve their working life.

When I first read this book, I thought it had some pretty good points about how to get a job or change your career but it wasn't a life-changing experience for me at the time. The second time I picked up this book, I was in a workshop where we were actually going to do the exercises in the book. What a huge difference this made in what I got out of this book!

By actually applying the tools, I learned so much about myself and what I wanted to do with my life. Not just my career, but my whole life! I highly recommend this book to anyone going through a career/life transition. But don't do what I did the first time I read it. Do the exercises and you will be amazed at the results.

Recently, I was out of work and frustrated. So I bought two books. The first one was Parachute. I read it, but I quickly got frustrated because it wasted so much time on stuff I didn't care about. For instance there are scores of pages dedicated to starting your own business. If I wanted to start my own business, I would have bought a book on that topic. Then, there are many pages where the author tries to push his religion on you. If I wanted to focus on my faith, I would have bought a book on it. Instead, I recommend the second book I purchased "10 Insider Secrets to a Winning Job Search"

"10 Insider Secrets to a Winning Job Search" was just released last month and this book really spoke to me in the situation I was in. I found the book to be extremely motivational and the 65 sample job interview questions were right on as I was asked at least half of them in my interviews. Also, the one magical question that the author tells you to ask on the interview worked like a charm. Parachute is an alright book if you aren't in a hurry to find a new job. However, if you want to get a new job fast, I recommend "10 Insider Secrets to a Winning Job Search" instead.

I think after 30 years of being in print this book is starting to get a bit dated. While I found many of the exercises to be very beneficial, I also found the book to be extremely time consuming and not as practical for today's fast paced world.

A small workbook that I found to be much more beneficial was "10 Insider Secrets: Career Transition Workshop" by Todd Bermont. That book really helped me net it out to figure out what I wanted to do and it also helped me with putting together a game plan to get the job.

As for Parachute, my recommendation is to skip to the Flower Exercise as I found that to be the most useful part of the book. If you do that exercise there is not much need to read hundreds of pages of dated material.

When I first read this book in 1978, I was beginning my career as a career counselor in a small women's college on the East Coast. Ellen Wallach ran a workshop for a group of Mass. educators and counelors at that time which I participated in. So I was quickly exposed to "Basic Bolles". Through that experience, I found a tool for me and, more importantly, for my clients - a tool that has proved comprehensive and increasingly valuable over the years. It became a Bible for me which I subsequently recommended and gave to clients. Then, about ten years ago, I had the privilege of meeting the man when I first attended the California Career Conference, and discovered that he was a giant, not only physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. What he has done for the profession is monumental. I have learned that intention is more important than technique. In Dick and in his work, I have discovered a timeless resource and marvelous friend.