Career
by Richard N. Bolles
Why is job hunting so grim?
Most people look for work by sending CVs to adverts and waiting to hear back. Richard Bolles spent decades showing how badly that works. His book starts somewhere else, with what you most enjoy doing and where you'd like to do it, and only then turns to finding the job.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
Before you read a single advert, Bolles has you build a picture of yourself called the Flower. Its petals cover things like your favourite skills, the people you like working with, your ideal conditions, where you'd live and the pay you need. It becomes your shopping list for jobs.
Bolles asks you to write short stories about times you did something you enjoyed and felt proud of, at work or anywhere else. Then you pick out the skills each story used. These transferable skills, whether with people, information or things, go with you into any field.
Bolles points out that employers and job hunters search in opposite orders. Employers prefer to promote from inside, then hire someone they've seen work, then someone a trusted contact recommends. CVs and adverts come last. Job hunters usually start with CVs and adverts, which is why it feels so hopeless.
Bolles made the informational interview famous. Visit people doing work that interests you and ask what it's really like, how they got in and who else to see. You're checking whether the work fits, and people help far more readily with that than with a job request.
Weak methods
Sending out CVs and answering adverts are among the least effective ways to find a job.
Know yourself
Start with yourself before the job ads. Bolles's Flower Exercise maps what you're like and what you love.
Your skills
Your skills travel with you. Someone good at teaching can use it in many kinds of work.
Ask around
Talk to people already doing the work you want, just to learn what it's like.
Pick the place
Choose the places you'd like to work and approach them, whether or not they're hiring.
A story from the book
Bolles was an Episcopal priest who lost his job to budget cuts. Working with other clergy in the same position, he kept hearing people talk about bailing out of their careers. He'd ask them what colour their parachute was. His self-published guide took the question as its title.
One thing to try
Write half a page about a time you did something you enjoyed and are proud of. Say what you were trying to do, what got in the way and how you handled it. Then underline every skill you used. That's the first step of Bolles' Flower.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. What Color Is Your Parachute comes with a Spot the Trap case to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appWhy is job hunting so grim? Most people look for work by sending CVs to adverts and waiting to hear back. Richard Bolles spent decades showing how badly that works. His book starts somewhere else, with what you most enjoy doing and where you'd like to do it, and only then turns to finding the job.
Draw your Flower; Skills hide in stories; Employers hunt backwards; Ask before you apply.
Write half a page about a time you did something you enjoyed and are proud of. Say what you were trying to do, what got in the way and how you handled it. Then underline every skill you used. That's the first step of Bolles' Flower.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from What Color Is Your Parachute in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Spot the Trap case to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
