» What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Scotty D
Comment: I have read the book What Color is your Parachute and it is a must read for anyone in a career search.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Two Time Layed Off Job Seeker
Comment: This is a complete job seekers book that starts with "what do I really enjoy doing" to how to go after and get that job. Over 70% of jobs our found through networking. Bolles goes through how this is done, informational interviewing, interviewing and wage negotiations. I have updated and used this book for several job searches and buy it for friends that are seeking work.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The very best job hunting book, but a poor career design guide
Comment: This is, by far, the best guide for the job hunter. It is most useful for people who already know exactly what job they are looking for. As a guide to help you choose a career that will fit you perfectly it is not so good. I am a psychologist and career coach who has worked with hundreds of people seeking a no-compromise career. If you want both a successful and highly satisfying career, Parachute's primitive self-assessment tools will not get you very far in that direction. I highly recommend three other books:

The first is Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type. This book has been around for a few years and is still the best book on personality type and work. Understanding your personality and what careers fit your personality type is an important part of making the best choice.

By far the most powerfully useful career design books are both by the man who created the field of career coaching back in the early 1980s, when the word coaching was otherwise just used for sports. Nicholas Lore founded Rockport Institute, probably the best career coaching service for people seeking the perfect career, and invented many of the leading-edge tools and methods in his field. He says to have both success and fulfillment, you need to choose work that fits you naturally. In addition to your personality, he says your career should be a very close fit with your natural talents. You need to get clear exactly which job functions you do naturally and easily, what subject matter would be interesting enough, how important it is to have a purpose, a mission or make a difference, what workplace environment would be best for you, and consider several other areas you want to get right, or, like many, you may feel you have chosen the wrong career.

His first book, The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success is probably the best career design guide ever written. It takes you through choosing the perfect career for you from beginning to end. Read some of the reviews of it and you will see that many others agree with me. His new book, Now What?: The Young Person's Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career is for people under 30, students and people fairly new to the career world. The author knows his audience. Many people under 30 want their reading fast, lean and to the point. More straightforward and streamlined, than The Pathfinder, it doesn't have as much depth on some important subjects such as what to do when you get stuck, how to make the best decisions. But it is completely practical and designed to turn you into a career detective, observing what you do best and uncovering the best clues about what would make a career fit you perfectly.

I recommend you get all three of these excellent books. After all, picking your career could be the most important decision you will ever make. Most people just put up with their work. Don't let that happen to you!


I do recommend What Color is Your Parachute by Bolles as the best guide for job hunting. It will give you all the tools you need. But, I give it a one-star review because it presumes to be something it is not, a competent career design guide.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: What Color is Your Parachute?
Comment: I bought the book when it first came out when I was in college. Since then, it has expanded significantly. Thank you for such a great and useful book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Parachute from One Job to the Next!
Comment: Richard Nelson Bolles coined the phrase "Parachuting" as a way to describe bailing out of your current job in order to find the career you really want. He was so keen on sharing his insights that he self-published `What Color Is Your Parachute' for the first time in 1970.

The now bestseller is updated with current practical job search information each year and is a constant source of relevant career change advice. Amongst other useful tips, Bolles points us towards the most effective ways to search for jobs, how to approach prospective employers, and even how to find our own true calling.

So many of us know how it feels to be stuck in a dead end job with that dreaded feeling of entrapment. This book is the key to the escape hatch! And its many satisfied buyers are a longstanding testament to the fact.

This is one of the first places anyone should look to seek guidance on leaving an unsatisfying job in search of greener pastures.

Danny Iny
Author of the free eBook "Forget Everything You Know About Looking For a Job... And Actually Find One!"
HuntingToHired, [...]

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