Resource Review – What Color is Your Parachute?

For this month, I’ve selected What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles.

Updated almost every year since it was first written in 1970, this is often recognized as the Bible of job hunting. The analogy is certainly appropriate, as the author is an ordained Episcopalian priest.

The catalyst for writing the book was his own job loss in the 1960s. Rev. Bolles soon landed on his feet with another job, which included counseling campus ministers looking for jobs. To facilitate those efforts, he did some research and wrote a guide he initially distributed free of charge. But the guide caught on, and to date, the book has sold over 10 million copies!

Although focused on finding a new job, the book also addresses changing your career. The book contains a number of exercises that should be useful to anyone considering the JumpToConsulting. Things like where would you like to live, what would you really like to do, etc.

He even includes a chapter on starting your own business. No fluff, either, just lots of “nuts and bolts” advice. All delivered in a manner you might expect from a caring pastor.

In 1978, he wrote a companion book, The Three Boxes of Life and How to Get Out of Them: An Introduction to Life-Work Planning. Since then he has added another dozen or so to his arsenal.

Rev. Bolles also has a web site, and he periodically offers a five day workshop at his home in the San Francisco Bay area. At 82 years young, he is still going strong.

Although I’ve not met Rev. Bolles, I am an avid and grateful fan. His book certainly came in handy when I lost my job in 1982, and later when I finally got serious about making my own JumpToConsulting.

What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles – Ten Speed Press, 2011
ISBN 158008267X
www.jobhuntersbible.com

Update: It is with regret I report that Rev. Bolles passed away in 2017 at 90. But his legacy lives on…