What Color Is Your Parachute? 2020: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers
320
What Color Is Your Parachute? 2020: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers
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Overview
NAMED ONE OF THE ALL-TIME 100 BEST NONFICTION BOOKS BY TIME
What Color Is Your Parachute? is the world’s most popular job-hunting guide, revised and updated annually with more than ten million copies sold. This newly streamlined edition features the latest resources, case studies, and perspectives on today’s job market, revealing surprising advice on what works—and what doesn’t—so you can focus your efforts on tactics that yield results.
At its core is Richard N. Bolles’s famed Flower Exercise, a unique self-inventory that helps you design your career—and your life—around your key passions, transferable skills, traits, and more.
This practical manual also provides essential tips for writing impressive resumes and cover letters, networking effectively, interviewing with confidence, and negotiating the best salary possible.
Whether you’re searching for your first job, were recently laid off, or are dreaming of a career change, What Color Is Your Parachute? will guide you toward a fulfilling and prosperous life’s work.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781984856562 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed |
| Publication date: | 08/13/2019 |
| Edition description: | Revised |
| Pages: | 320 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1
It’s a Whole New World for Job-Hunters
If you are trying to understand yourself better, and what you have to offer to the world, this book is for you.
If you are out of work, and want some practical help, this book is for you.
If you are trying to understand how the world, and particularly the world of work, really works these days, this book is for you.
If you’ve been out of work a long time, and think you’re now permanently unemployable, this book is for you.
If you’re on the edge of poverty these days, this book is for you.
If you’ve got some disability, this book is for you.
If you’re trying to figure out a new career or your first career, this book is for you.
If you’re going to college and you can’t figure out what to major in, this book is for you.
If you are trying to figure out what you want to do next, with your life, this book is for you.
If you’re just graduating from college and have to live with your parents ’cause you can’t find any work, this book is for you.
If you’re trying to figure out how to start your own business, this book is for you.
If you’re a returning vet, this book is for you.
If you’re facing retirement, and want to know what to do to support yourself, this book is for you.
A Two-Minute Crash Course on How Much Has Changed in the World of Work
Charles Dickens put it well: For some people, a lot of people, this is the best of times. But for others of us, this is the worst of times. The rules of the game have changed. Without notice. And without warning. Especially for the job-hunt, or for those trying to make a career-change.
The job-hunt is behaving differently now, than it used to. Things have changed. Dramatically.
The tipping point was 2008. We all know what happened then: the so-called Great Recession, the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression in 1929. We have recovered, but the landscape has been fundamentally altered, long term. What used to work, doesn’t work anymore. What used to be easy, is now difficult or seemingly impossible. Our lament: Out of work. Made up a resume. Sent it to all the places I’m s’posed to. Went to all the Internet “job-boards” and looked for vacancies in my field. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. All of this worked the last time I went job-hunting. But now? Strikeout! Nothing!
There are things we can do about this. Believe me, there are. That’s what this book is all about. But before we change our strategies, we must know what we are up against.
1. Employers Changed, Job-Hunters Didn’t
2. The Length of the Average Job-Hunt Has Increased Dramatically
3. The Length of Time the Average Job Lasts Has Decreased Dramatically
4. The Way Jobs Are Done Is Changing Dramatically
5. Job-Hunting Is Increasingly Becoming a Repetitive Activity in the Lives of Many of Us
6. Job-Hunting Has Moved More and More Online
7. Increasingly Job-Hunters and Employers Speak Two Different Languages
The Remedy
No, it’s not all bad news. Think of these, instead, as challenges.
Sure, the workplace has changed dramatically since 2008.
And consequently, the job-hunt has changed dramatically since 2008.
Still, there is Hope. It’s not that there are no jobs (see chapter 2). It’s just that the old way you used to hunt for them doesn’t work very well anymore.
In today’s world, he or she who gets hired is not necessarily the one who can do that job best; but, the one who knows the most about how to get hired.
If you learn new advanced job-hunting skills, you can not only survive. You can thrive. The rest of this book is devoted to showing you exactly how to do just that.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 It's a Whole New World for Job-Hunters 1
The length of the average job-hunt has increased dramatically
The length of time the average job lasts has decreased dramatically
The way jobs are done is changing.
Chapter 2 There Are More Than Ten Million Vacancies Available Each Month 15
There are always jobs out there.
Chapter 3 The Best and Worst Ways to Look for Jobs 21
There are different ways you can go about the job-hunt
Each has a different chance of success
The Traditional Approach begins with the job market
The Parachute Approach begins with yourself.
Chapter 4 Self-Inventory, Part 1 31
You have a twelve times better chance of finding work using this method than if you just sent out a resume
Not just work, but work you really want to do
If you are thinking about a career-change you will discover what new direction you want to pursue.
Chapter 5 Self-Inventory, Part 2 41
At the heart of this book is the Flower Exercise: a self-inventory in which you examine seven ways of thinking about yourself, using the language of the workplace.
Chapter 6 You Get to Choose Where You Work 119
Find out what careers or work your Flower Diagram points to
Try on jobs before you decide which ones to pursue
Research places thoroughly and utilize contacts.
Chapter 7 Google Is Your New (but Not Only) Resume 139
There's a new resume in town and it's online
Remove anything that contradicts the impression you would like to make
Expand your positive professional presence.
Chapter 8 Sixteen Tips About Interviewing for a Job 165
What to keep in mind during hiring conversations.
Chapter 9 The Six Secrets of Salary Negotiation 195
How to get the best salary possible.
Chapter 10 How to Deal with Any Challenges You Have 211
Being turned down for a job can lead to thinking there is something about you that caused it.
Chapter 11 The Five Ways to Choose/Change Careers 233
Think of "job-title" as what you do and "field" as where you do it.
Chapter 12 How to Start Your Own Business
There is another choice if you don't want to work for someone else.
The Orange Pages
Further resources to use in your journey, set in a different color for easy access.
Appendix A Finding Your Mission in Life 261
Appendix B A Guide to Dealing with Your Feelings While Out of Work 284
Appendix C A Guide to Choosing a Career Coach or Counselor 290
The Final Word Notes from the Author 301
About the Author 306
Index 307