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Author Topic: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts  (Read 806 times)

I D Shukhov

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What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« on: March 06, 2018, 05:04:32 am »
I've been reading the 2017 edition.  The author, Nelson Bolles, died that same year of a stroke at age 90.  The book was published annually and has a 2018 edition.  Maybe Bolles finished it before his death.

In Chapter 1, "It's a Whole New World for Job-Hunters" Bolles presents statistics about how the length of an average job is continually decreasing (according to him the Great Recession exacerbated this).  Because of this he says that job-hunting is now a "survival skill" that one has to master.

Chapter 2, "Google Is Your New Resume"  discusses how employers first go to Google to gain intel on you if they are interested, so it behooves someone to be able to be found on the web and to put something there to build your credibility.

Much of his writing is of a "go hire yourself an employer" ilk and in order to do that you have to be confident about yourself and your skills.  For that reason, a full 87 pages is devoted to a Self-Inventory, which is about a 1/4 of the book.

Actually, the book is structured this way:

The first 110 pages of the book is about practical skills for getting a job now -- as in Rumsfeld's   "go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time".

The next 89 pages is the self-inventory.

The next 74 pages are for dealing with handicaps, changing careers and starting your own business.

Finally, there are morale-boosting appendices for  "Finding Your Mission in Life" and "A Guide to Dealing with Your Feelings While Out of Work".


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ilconsiglliere

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2018, 09:33:24 am »
I read this years ago. It was interesting reading but I am not sure how applicable this stuff is today.
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I D Shukhov

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2018, 08:21:47 pm »
Quote from: ilconsiglliere on March 06, 2018, 09:33:24 am
I read this years ago. It was interesting reading but I am not sure how applicable this stuff is today.
I thought the self-inventory section would be pointless because by now I should know everything I need to know about myself and what I want in a job.  I know a lot *more* than I did starting out in my 20s, but it never hurts to go through the exercises to get more clarity about where you're currently at.  At any rate, you do have to come up with a value proposition for yourself.

There's the reminder for older workers to forget Fortune 500 companies and seek out smaller companies that don't have HR departments with candidate elimination rules.

It's been a while since I looked for a job, so a refresher read helped I think.


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unix

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2018, 05:10:57 pm »

I saw that book in a bookstore. This is the type of stuff I *should* read but don't.

Another one, perhaps on the same wavelength, is who moved my cheese.
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benali72

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2018, 05:48:45 pm »
Reminds me of "Who Moved My Cheese?"  I worked at a company where they made everybody read this, the idea being that everybody should be working like an entrepeneur... for the company. Bet they never thought some employees might think they might as well become an entrepenuers for themselves!
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G0ddard B0lt

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2018, 06:36:23 pm »
Quote from: benali72 on March 07, 2018, 05:48:45 pm
Reminds me of "Who Moved My Cheese?"  I worked at a company where they made everybody read this, the idea being that everybody should be working like an entrepeneur... for the company. Bet they never thought some employees might think they might as well become an entrepenuers for themselves!

"Who Moved My Cheese" was the most patronizing, demeaning load of f***ing horse shit to hit the career mentoring scene!

An adult's terror at their life's economic foundation crumbling is reduced to a cute fairy tale and they're made to feel broken.

F*** everyone who pushed this book!  Assholes. >:( >:D
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unix

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2018, 05:35:14 am »
*this* is why I love this forum.
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ilconsiglliere

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2018, 06:29:24 am »
Quote from: The Gorn on March 07, 2018, 06:36:23 pm
Quote from: benali72 on March 07, 2018, 05:48:45 pm
Reminds me of "Who Moved My Cheese?"  I worked at a company where they made everybody read this, the idea being that everybody should be working like an entrepeneur... for the company. Bet they never thought some employees might think they might as well become an entrepenuers for themselves!

"Who Moved My Cheese" was the most patronizing, demeaning load of f***ing horse shit to hit the career mentoring scene!

An adult's terror at their life's economic foundation crumbling is reduced to a cute fairy tale and they're made to feel broken.

F*** everyone who pushed this book!  Assholes. >:( >:D

Its garbage. I read it and it made me feel like shit. As I tell people that parrot that crap - have your job outsourced, get laid off and than bring in foreigners on visas. Let me know how you like it.
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unix

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2018, 04:54:46 pm »

Plus one.
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JoFrance

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #9 on: March 12, 2018, 03:50:44 pm »
I never read "Who Moved My Cheese", but I did read "What Color is Your Parachute" many years ago.  I suppose its always good to take a self-inventory, but that book never affected my career one way or the other.  My experience was in network administration and tech support and that's what drove my career because that's what was in demand and made me the most money.

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I D Shukhov

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #10 on: March 12, 2018, 03:57:41 pm »
Quote from: JoFrance on March 12, 2018, 03:50:44 pm
I never read "Who Moved My Cheese", but I did read "What Color is Your Parachute" many years ago.  I suppose its always good to take a self-inventory, but that book never affected my career one way or the other.  My experience was in network administration and tech support and that's what drove my career because that's what was in demand and made me the most money.
My story is about the same:  WCIYP didn't have much impact on me either, although I'm not faulting what the book was trying to do.  I "became" a computer programmer because I could do it and I could find work.  The purpose of the self-inventory is to get you thinking about your general -- as opposed to what you "became" -- skills.  What *else* might one do if the door has closed on the old career and/or you've grown tired of it?

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G0ddard B0lt

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #11 on: March 12, 2018, 07:36:23 pm »
I D, here is a reality check.

You started this thread in 2014.

http://archive.computerconsultantsforum.com/discussions/book-the-case-for-working-with-your-hands/

(This was a thread that I saw in the "Users Online" list.  As I mentioned in a recent post that nobody engaged with, I'm scraping that list whenever my PC is running every 10 minutes. The bots on the web seem to isolate extremely interesting old threads in this list.)

The gist of the thread was a book about returning to careers where we work with our hands.

Back then you were looking for a direction. Here we are 4 years later and you're kind of in the same situation. Actually, you appear to be less concrete now than in this old thread.

Two thoughts I have, and I hope this is not getting too personal:

1) Inductive logic to arrive at a career direction doesn't appear to be working well for you, given this apparent lack of progress.

That point is well worth noting because I have to stop myself because I was over engineering or over reasoning things. I say you need to take some action. You say you need to study more. I don't see where this is progressing.

2) You may actually be more suited to being a philosopher, writer, or some sort of pundit than you are to a client-centered or customer-centered occupation.  You definitely aren't cut out for B2B.

NO - there is NO business or career format that puts teams or self realization first. None. I would have found it by now!!!

Actually, there may be a possible career on the teams thing, but you'd probably need a different life long focus such as counseling or coaching or one of the social work fields.
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I D Shukhov

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2018, 04:22:46 am »
Quote
1) Inductive logic to arrive at a career direction doesn't appear to be working well for you, given this apparent lack of progress.

I can't disagree with this.  Action -> learning -> making mistakes -> improving -> repeat  beats paralysis by analysis. 

The "working with your hands" thread was interesting for a while and then got tedious to read.  Much more interesting would be an "I'm doing X" thread.

I'll report back when I'm doing something and not thinking about it.










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G0ddard B0lt

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2018, 05:22:21 am »
You thought it got tedious? I re-read the entire thread. All of the comments were fascinating.  The thread was a case of debugging the reasoning process of selecting careers.

One other thing that I see just now after skimming it again:

You're all the time looking for guarantees, assurances, silver bullets. At least in that article. Well, this thread, too.

At the time I recommended "try building a website". Because it requires some tech skills but balanced by having to organize ideas and render them. I still think that's a good idea.

I'm not a website construction evangelist. Just that websites are one way - there may be others - to build something that represents your thinking and ideas that others can view and commend on and engage with.
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I D Shukhov

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Re: What Color is Your Parachute -- some thoughts
« Reply #14 on: March 13, 2018, 07:38:26 am »
Quote from: The Gorn on March 13, 2018, 05:22:21 am

You're all the time looking for guarantees, assurances, silver bullets. At least in that article. Well, this thread, too.
I wouldn't say I'm doing that in this thread.  I was trying to point out that WCIYP is a useful process for career hunting or job changing and it doesn't hurt to review the steps, especially as we are going to be doing this for a long time if we live until 90.

As for looking for guarantees, assurances and silver bullets in the past I suppose it comes from not wanting to make a decision I'll regret.  I completely understand the need for deciding and acting though.  Of course we can't be sure about anything -- that's what options and risk mitigation are for.

Quote
At the time I recommended "try building a website". Because it requires some tech skills but balanced by having to organize ideas and render them. I still think that's a good idea.

I think that's excellent advice.  I have a WordPress project going on at the moment.  I first thought I'd use Wix, but then realized I'd learn almost nothing from doing that.  It's also worth noting that WordPress shows up on http://archive.computerconsultantsforum.com/all-consulting-biz-and-career-discussion/number-of-jobs-for-random-technologies-typed-into-indeed/ -- amazingly, above J2EE .
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