I sort of finished reading What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-hunters and Career-Changers by Richard Nelson Bolles few days ago. I read the 2006 edition.
I think this is the most comprehensive and useful book in job hunting that I have ever read. Given that fact, please bear in mind that my reflection upon my first reading below will not do the justice to the book. It’s an excellent book let me start by stating that, you owe it to yourselves to at least have a quick read through it as I have.
In the early chapters, the author contrasts ways that job hunter’s preferred ways to find jobs and employers’ preferred ways to hunt for employees. Richard shows that often job hunters think that mass sending their resumes is the effective way to hunt for jobs, however employers’ most preferred ways of hiring is through hiring from within and/or through colleagues or contacts.
I said earlier that I sort of finished the book, but I cheated, because I didn’t really do the exercise in the book. The exercises are to determine:
- What skills you enjoy most using?
- Where do you want to use your skills?
- How do you find the person who will hire you for the job that you are looking for?
The best thing I got out from first reading of the book is, I am reminded that I have a lot of choices in terms of careers/jobs (this is particularly true as I’m blessed enough to live in Australia, I can’t help but thinking will not be the case if I were to live in poorer countries).
One practical advice that I want to follow is: talk to the people in the company before deciding to take a job. As a job hunter, we should screen companies before we join the company not after joining. My other personal take after reading this book, when looking for a job instead of hitting the job boards like SEEK, etc2, it will be far better if you research and compiled a list of companies that you want to work for and talk to people who work there.
The bad thing about this book is in a way it promotes self centeredness, it is all about me and my happiness, it is about what job I want to do, where do I want to live etc2. The author is highly optimistic that everyone can find the career that they want by utilizing the techniques described in the book, I however don’t believe that as there are things that you just can’t control in life (for example: you might live in a poor country, you might have mental disability etc2). Also from the Christian’s perspective, it is not that awfully important for someone to have that "perfect career" in his/her life.
The author ends the book with a chapter on finding your mission in life, in which he explains the spiritual side of work. He shares how his faith in God as a Christian shapes his attitude towards work and job hunting. To be honest, I gave this chapter a cursory glance, especially as I myself am a believer so I already have some understanding how my relationship with God shapes my career or my work. Another reason why I didn’t read it in details is because I am uncomfortable with some of his conclusions.
As mentioned earlier, this book is content heavy, I should read this again on between jobs, it would make more sense then. I definitely want this book on my bookshelf as reference.
If you are a Christian, read this book for its practicalities (again very excellent book in this matter) but not for its philosophies (although the author claims that he’s a Christian himself).
This is the 16th book I read this year.