PDF Summary:What Color Is Your Parachute?, by Richard N. Bolles

Career expert Richard Bolles shares his revolutionary “parachute approach” to finding a job. This approach is twelve times more effective than sending out traditional resumes and doesn’t simply get you a job, it gets you a job you’ll love.

The parachute approach starts with self-reflection⁠—who are you, what do you like, what are you good at, and what do you value most? By figuring out what you want, instead of what the job market wants, you’ll set yourself on a path to career satisfaction and personal fulfillment.

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3. Find out what organizations hire for the job. Brainstorm broadly. For example, if you want to be a teacher, you’ll think of schools, but also consider things like corporate training, military bases, ESL associations, and so on.

4. Find out what specific companies hire for the job. Make a list of companies that you think look interesting (regardless of whether or not they have open positions). To do this, keep talking to people⁠—friends, family, and informational interviewees⁠—and look online using search engines and LinkedIn.

5. Research specific companies. It’s important to research companies for two reasons: 1) to learn about an organization’s culture, working style, mission, and how you can be an asset to them, and 2) to determine if you would like working for that company. To research, look online, read company materials, test-run companies by signing up with a temp agency or as a volunteer, and keep conducting informational interviews.

Ideally, after going through the five-step process, you’ll have discovered the existence of a job that meets the requirement of multiple petals. However, if that job is completely different from any jobs or fields you’ve worked in before, you might have trouble securing it because you have no experience.

In this situation, the best course of action is to move into your dream job in two steps⁠—first, switch fields, then, switch job titles, or vice versa. For example, if you’re an architect and you want to become a music teacher, instead of going directly to a music teacher role, find a stepping stone job such as designing soundproof practice rooms so you can gain experience in the field.

Online Presences and Resumes

Now that you know what job you’d like to do, the next step is to find an opportunity. The first thing to do is assess your online presence, because these days, employers learn just as much about you from the internet as they do from your resume.

There are four steps to creating a work-friendly online presence:

1. Delete. Search yourself and read all the results. Delete anything you or anyone else posted that doesn’t show you in a favorable light.

2. Bolster. Add information to your existing online profiles to make them more complete and keep them updated. LinkedIn is a particularly important one.

3. Add. Put more information about yourself online. Join online forums and groups, start a professional blog or video series, and create new professional accounts on sites such as Twitter.

4. Summarize. Now that you’ve increased your online presence, you want to create a summary of the information for those who don’t have time to look through everything. You’ll do this by creating a resume. To create a resume, brainstorm a list of all your skills, experiences, and so on, consulting your flower if necessary. Write your resume content and format it professionally. Then, post the resume online. You can post it on major job boards such as Monster or on specific companies’ websites. You can also send it to specific postings or employers.

Interviewing

Once your online presence or resume has secured you an employment interview, the next step of the job-hunt is to ace that interview. There are some guidelines for interviewing:

Before the Interview

1. Research the organization. Read the about page and press releases on their website, look for a file on the company at the library, and conduct informational interviews.

2. Test-run technology if you’re doing a video or phone interview.

3. Prepare samples. Bring relevant samples of work you’ve completed in the past.

4. Prepare a list of general skills. There are some general skills that all employers want, such as dependability, commitment, and trainability. Before your interview, make a list of these types of skills and an experience in which you’ve demonstrated that skill.

During the Interview

1. Keep your word. If you asked for the interview, don’t let the interview run on longer than the time you initially asked for.

2. Remember that interviews are a two-way conversation. An interview is a chance for you to learn about the employer as much as it is a chance for them to listen to you.

3. Speak and listen in equal measures. If you talk too much, employers might think you’ll ignore their organizations’ needs. If you listen too much, they might think you’re hiding something.

4. Prepare for common questions. Every question an interviewer asks you is related to one of these five underlying questions:

• Why are you interested in my organization specifically?
• What will you be able to do for us? What are you good at, what do you know, and if you were hired, would you solve our problems?
• Who are you? Will you fit in with the company culture?
• What’s unique about you? What makes you different from the other applicants?
• What will you want to be paid? Taking into account my budget and existing pay structure, is that possible?

No matter the question, try to give an answer with information that addresses some of the above questions.

Since interviewing is a two-way conversation, you’re going to have approximately the same five questions for the employer:

• What are the tasks involved with the job? Ask this question aloud.
• What are the skills you’d need in order to excel at the job? Ask this question aloud.
• Are you going to fit in with the company culture? Use your observational skills to answer this question.
• What’s unique about me that I could share? This is where you bring up your traits⁠—the adverbs and adjectives that describe how you execute your skills. Wait for an appropriate moment.
• Will they offer me an appropriate salary? (Don’t bring it up until it’s clear that the employer wants to hire you.)
• You may also want to ask some questions about how the company sees itself.

5. Answer all questions within 20 seconds to two minutes.

6. Reassure the employer that you’re not a risk. Bad hires are expensive⁠—don’t do anything that suggests you’ll be a bad hire, such as showing up late.

7. Behave appropriately. Dress professionally, avoid nervous habits, be confident and polite, and demonstrate positive character traits.

8. Never speak badly of anyone. If you bad-mouth previous co-workers or employers, that suggests that you might do the same about your potential new employer and co-workers.

9. Concentrate on the future. Employers ask about past experiences in the hope of predicting how you’ll act in the future. Whenever you answer a question, try to anticipate what future behavior the employer is trying to predict and address it.

10. Assess the interview’s progress. Once you start getting questions about the distant future (where do you see yourself in ten years), you can assume the interview is going well. Now, ask more questions about the job such as what are the duties, who would you report to, and how does training work?

11. Ask final questions. After your final interview, if you like the employer and you think she likes you, ask about the next steps such as when you’ll hear back from her. Also, ask for business cards, or names and addresses, so you can send thank-you notes later.

After the Interview

There’s one to-do right after an interview: Send thank-you notes to everyone you meet, not only the person you interviewed with.

After Learning the Results

If you’re invited back for another interview or offered a job, congratulations! If you’re not, don’t be discouraged. Just because one employer didn’t hire you doesn’t mean another won’t.

Salary

Congratulations, an employer likes you, you like them, and they’ve offered you a job! Now, it’s time to discuss salary and benefits.

There are six secrets to negotiating salary:

1. Research industry-standard salaries. Research salaries so that when an employer gives you a number, you know if it’s near the top or bottom of her company’s range. To research, search online, conduct more informational interviews, or find out what competitors or the government pays people in similar positions.

2. Wait for the opportune moment. Discuss salary only after the employer has decided she wants you⁠. This puts you in a better position to negotiate.

3. Be prepared to negotiate. It’s your right.

4. Get the employer to mention a figure first. If an employer asks you for a number, respond by asking for her number⁠—she came up with the job, so she must have some idea in mind.

5. Work the range. The bottom of your asking range should be near the top of the employer’s. For example, if an employer’s range is $40,000-$45,000, your range might be $44,000-$49,000.

6. Negotiate benefits. Benefits include life or medical insurance, vacation, and retirement contributions, and these can add 15-28% to a salary. As with salary, before going into an interview, you should know what you want.

Once you’ve finished all your negotiations, get everything you’ve discussed in writing and signed. Otherwise, an employer or supervisor might try to go back on what they offered.

Working for Yourself

Another option for a career change is to start your own business. Some people want to start a business because there’s something in particular they want to do; others simply want to work for themselves.

If you don’t know what kind of business you want to start, follow these four steps:

1. Brainstorm. Review your flower diagram, your resume, make lists of things you like and are good at, and search online.

2. Research. Learn how to start and run your own business. There are many online resources such as Free Agent Nation and federal small business tips.

3. Assess your skills. Find out what skills you need to run a business by conducting informational interviews. Then, compare the skills to your flower diagram to figure out what you’re missing. Either learn the missing skills yourself or find someone to help.

4. Solicit feedback. Talk to your partner about your business idea⁠—a business will affect her too. Once you’ve considered her feedback and everything you learned during the above three steps, make your decision.

What If It’s Not Working?

Sometimes it takes a long time to find a job. No job-hunting strategies work 100% of the time, and sometimes the odds are stacked against you⁠—for example, by law, a company might have had to post an opportunity publicly, but privately, always intended to hire the owner’s son.

If your job hunt isn’t going as well as you’d hoped, it’s important to manage:

• Depression. It’s normal to feel depressed or discouraged when you’re unemployed and job-searching, but there are some things you can do to alleviate it, such as taking care of your physical health, connecting with others, using the time to learn and explore, and practicing gratitude.
• Bias. Employers are people and, therefore, they have biases, but all employers are unique individuals. If one employer doesn’t hire you because they think you’re too old, undereducated, or inadequate in some other way, focus on what you’re capable of, keep up the search, and you’ll eventually find something.
• Shyness. When you’re enthusiastic and excited about something, you forget to be shy. To cure shyness, practice having conversations with people about subjects you’re passionate about.

Hire a Career Coach

If you want personalized help with your job search, you can hire a career coach. It’s best to stay away from firms because they’re often scams.

There are three steps to finding your ideal career coach:

1. Track down three coaches. Research career coaching online and ask people you know for recommendations. Churches and schools sometimes have free options available.

2. Set an initial appointment with three potential coaches. Ask them about their program, their experiences, their certification, their success rate, their fees, and their contract, if they have one. Some red flags: they’ll do all the work for you, they don’t have much experience, they claim a 100% success rate, and they charge a fee upfront (often scams).

3. Assess. If you liked one of the coaches, sign up with them. If you didn’t, for any reason, find another three and repeat the process again.

Cater to the Job Market

The parachute approach involves learning about yourself and then finding or creating a job you’ll enjoy. However, if you’re desperate, you can try starting with the needs of the job market. There are certain jobs, called hot jobs, that researchers think will see a lot of growth and new opportunities. Use the Occupational Outlook Handbook or other projection sites to find out what they are.