What Colour Is Your Parachute?: A Practical Manual for Job-hunters and Career Changers (What Color Is Your Parachute?) [Paperback]

In 38 years I have had 16 jobs and 5 career paths trying to find something I liked. (sacked and won my tribunal once and redundant once) This book was great for three things.

1. Makes you really think about what you want to be when you grow up.
2. Focuses your attention on where you are going
3. Does not try to say it has the answers but puts the responsibility clearly on your shoulders where it belongs.

If you are looking for an easy way to find a job then don't buy the book. If you are looking for a real, practical guide to improving your life then buy it, get into the spirit of it and work at it.

No book has all the answers, you do, this book just makes you realise it.

I have bought and given away so many copies of this book over the years I should be on commission :o) I first bought it in 2002 when the corporate I worked for hit recession, I put my occupation into internet job sites with the result 'there are currently no jobs available within this category'. PANIC. This book then made me think totally differently: it made me realise I actually didn't want to do the career I'd finished and had an opportunity to do something else. It pointed out the accepted ways of job hunting (particularly the internet) aren't always the way people get jobs, and advised using each option as a tool to try, not just use one. I recognised myself taking rejections on my applications personally, losing confidence and applying for less and less demanding roles. One of the most important pieces of advice I took was to treat applications like lottery tickets - don't jump into the depths of despair if your ticket doesn't come up, enjoy the excitement of putting it on and, if it doesn't come up, think 'maybe next time - the right one will come up'. Enjoy casting your applications thick/fast and into challenging areas: stats are 'the more you cast the more likely you will hook something'. When you think 'no-one will want me, I'm too [insert here WHATEVER barrier you want -even 'just come out of prison'!] the book shows that isn't the case. It is a matter of selecting the bits of the book relevant to you and passing on parts which aren't. BUT ... it's not going to do it for you, and the important thing is if you do nothing, nothing will happen. Re the relevance of the book on `feeling lost' - you can only be lost if you want to be; even when lost, you are 'somewhere' and can only go 'somewhere else' - you can never be 'nowhere'. The book will show that you either know you don't like your current place and want to move on, or haven't found out whether you actually like where you are. Did it work for me? I decided on a complete career change to do the job I wanted: during the training and application process, my dream job suddenly came out of left field - just like Richard said: it wasn't on the internet, I wasn't actively looking for it, it was just in one of the places the book advised to keep checking. It combined my personal interests with the work I was skilled in (something else the book discusses), and I've done it ever since and loved every moment. The book will help you realise you CAN control change even when you think you can't, help make a new plan, think differently, avoid mistakes ... but it's not going to do it for you.

This book was recommended to me; indeed it seems to be well reviewed from a number of sources. However, if you are anything like me (background in British academia but wondering about the prospects of a non-academic future) you may well find yourself infuriated by the poor (and poorly excused) grammar and punctuation, and the fairly shallow content which is needlessly stretched out over 400 pages. I read on in hope of some pearls of wisdom and admit that there are *some* useful comments here but not enough to warrant paying for this book. Typically, advice will involve (say) typing `how to write a CV' (or, rather `Resume' - see below) into Google to give you an idea how to write a CV (p63).

While there is some helpful and reassuring advice on interviews and interview technique, I wish it had been made clear to me before I read this book (A New York Times Best Seller) that it will be of most comfort to a reader who is (a) American, and (b) religious. The chapter on working out your dream job, for example, emphasises that the decision is about you:

"Your agenda. Your wishes. Your dreams. Your mission in life, given you by the Great God, our Creator." (p240)

For at least some of you, this characteristic snippet might help inform your decision as to the kind of book you were about to `add to basket'.