Bolles Richard Nelson - What Color is Your Parachute? : Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success 2021

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

DICK BOLLES more formally known as Richard Nelson Bollesled the career development field for more than four decades. He was featured in Time , the New York Times , BusinessWeek , Fortune , Money , Fast Company , the Economist , and Publishers Weekly , and appeared on the Today show, CNN, CBS, ABC, PBS, and other popular media. Bolles keynoted hundreds of conferences, including the American Society for Training & Development and the National Career Development Association. A member of Mensa, the Society for Human Resource Management, and the National Resume Writers Association, he was considered the most recognized job-hunting authority on the planet ( San Francisco Chronicle ) and Americas top career expert ( AARP ).

Time magazine chose What Color Is Your Parachute? as one of the hundred best nonfiction books written since 1923. The Library of Congress chose it as one of twenty-five books down through history that have shaped peoples lives. It appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than five years. The book has sold ten million copies, to date, and has been translated into twenty languages and used in twenty-six countries.

Bolles was trained in chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and earned a bachelors degree cum laude in physics from Harvard University, a masters in sacred theology from General Theological (Episcopal) Seminary in New York City, and three honorary doctorates. He passed away in 2017 at age ninety after a lifetime of service to job hunters across the world.

Website: www.jobhuntersbible.com

Online tools: www.eparachute.com

KATHARINE BROOKS, EdD is an award-winning career counselor and coach who is currently the Evans Family Executive Director of the Career Center for Vanderbilt University. She is a licensed professional counselor, a nationally certified counselor, and a board-certified coach. Previously, she had been the Executive Director of the Office of Personal and Career Development at Wake Forest University and Director of Career Services for the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas in Austin. She is the author of You Majored in What? Designing Your Path from College to Career and writes a blog Career Transitions for Psychology Today .

CONCLUSION

YOU DID IT!

Its hard to argue with success, and the millions of copies sold of this book are a testament to its value in the job search process. A system like this only works, though, if you do the work and follow it. As I hope you have learned, this is not a book you can just read: its really a workbook disguised as a book. The Parachute System requires a commitment of both time and energy, but theres also a spark of magic involved. And that magic is you and what you bring to the process.

• Were you able to create your Flower Exercise, and did you gain new insights or receive more clarity on yourself and your plans?

• Did you discover new career fields to pursue, put the internet to work in your search, or create new or better stories for your interviews or conversations?

• Even better, did using this system lead you to a new job, a better job, or whatever you were seeking?

My favorite hobby, aside from writing, is playing the guitar. A friend of mine wrote a wonderful song, and I had the occasion to play it for him. I was nervous playing it in front of him: afraid I wouldnt play it well or do it justice. I started playing the opening chords, apologizing for not performing it exactly the way he would. He stopped me cold, put his hand on my shoulder and said, Its yours now, Kate. Make it your own.

Well, friends, thats how I feel about this Parachute System. It needs to become a part of you that you can adjust and use in whatever way is helpful. Thats where the magic comes in: where you make it your own. Then you can truly succeed in the job market and the job search. You will have made your career your own and succeeded on your own terms.

Safe journeys and safe landings.

Katharine Kate Brooks

The Orange Pages

FINDING YOUR MISSION IN LIFE

From the Original Writings of Richard N. Bolles

There are those who think that belief in God is just some fairy tale that humankind invented, to fortify themselves against the darkness. Naturally, therefore, they think that anyone who says they believe in God these days is demonstrably feebleminded, or a pathetic child who has never grown up intellectually.

Given this view, they are horrified to find a section on faith or religion in a job-hunting book. They have written to me and said so.

Well, here it is, anyway.

Thats because the percentage of the worlds population that says they dont believe there is a God averages less than 18 percent (it varies from country to country: here in the US the figure is 11 percent, while in Canada that figure is 19 to 30 percent). Still, that leaves us with an overwhelming percentage of the US population (89 percent) believing in God. And my more than ten million readers are a pretty typical cross section of this country.

A comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Centers Forum on Religion & Public Life estimated that there are 6.1 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84 percent of the 2015 world population of 7.3 billion.

That demographic studybased on analysis of more than 2,500 censuses, surveys, and population registersfound there are 2.3 billion Christians (31 percent of the worlds population) in the world, 1.8 billion Muslims (24 percent), 1.1 billion Hindus (15 percent), nearly 500 million Buddhists (7 percent), and 14.6 million Jews (0.2 percent) as of 2015. (The most recent year for which we have figures.)

This book is used by ten million readers in twenty-six countries around the world. So, leaving out a section that 84 percent of my readers worldwide might be interested in, and helped by, in order to please just 16 percent of my readers, seems to me insane.

Indeed, according to the Pew Research Center, over 75 percent of the worlds population lives in areas with severe religious restrictions. Thats restrictions against Muslims, Jews, Christians, and other religions. According to the United States Department of State, Christians in more than sixty countries face persecution from their governments or surrounding neighbors simply because of their belief in Jesus Christ.

Christianshave now experienced the full impact of the worlds hostility and indifference. We are staggered and alarmed by the extent of it, and dumbfounded by its partial success. Numerically we are drastically reduced, proportionately to the enormously increased population, and we shall probably continue in that way; perhaps with even greater numerical reductions.No doubt we survive as a minority but by no means as a pitiful or contemptible minority. We die daily because of our own weakness and unworthiness, yet we live, nevertheless because God is with us.Modern man relies on nothing that will not some day be taken away from him. Those who are utterly committed to the Christian faith rely in the last resort on nothing that could possibly be taken away. That is why the Church, contrary to all appearances, is stronger than the world. And that is why it is the duty of Christians to be sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful in their dealings with their estranged brethren.

I do not want to add to that feeling by keeping silent. Faith is welcome in this book.

As I started writing this section, I toyed at first with the idea of following what might be described as an all-paths approach to religion: trying to stay as general and nonspecific as I could. But, after much thought, I decided not to try that. This, because I have read many other writers who tried, and I felt the approach failed miserably. An all-paths approach to religion ends up being a no-paths approach, just as a woman or man who tries to please everyone ends up pleasing no one. It is the old story of the universal versus the particular.