Book Review “What Color Is Your Parachute?”

"If you think all the way back to this book’s introduction, you’ll recall that it’s been described as “a book of hope, masquerading as a job-hunting manual.” Given how much time we spend at work, and how demoralizing the wrong job can be, that hope is less of a masquerade and more of a shift in perspective."—What Color Is Your Parachute?

What Color Is Your Parachute? is an outlier on my blog which I mostly dedicate to leadership, management, and strategy. This book appeals to a broader audience and most of its advice isn’t quite applicable to senior leaders and executives. Much of its advice is directed to those who have to grind in their jobs, don’t have a large network (or don’t quite know how to make good use of it), recently lost their job, or aren’t happy with the one they already have. So I hesitated a bit before putting it on my list.

Then I kept it on anyway. More on this—below.

Key Ideas

"Most job hunters who fail to find their dream job fail not because they lack sufficient information about the job market, but because they lack sufficient information about themselves."—What Color Is Your Parachute?

The centerpiece of this book is YOU—the person with all the skills, knowledge, dreams, and desires.

What Color Is Your Parachute? avoids a typical approach to job search which offers two main options: either extrapolate your previous experience and aim to climb vertically or look at all the things you can do and attempt to make something out of them. Instead, this book turns to you and asks you kindly, “What is that you love doing?”. To explore you further, it offers The Flower Exercise, one of the best self-inventory exercises out there that, if completed diligently, will give you some surprising insights into what you can potentially do to be happier in your career.

The book then proceeds to give you some good ideas on what to do with those insights and how to find more opportunities. There is a decent chapter on resume building, a solid chapter on job interview preparation, and an introductory chapter on starting your own business.

The book concludes with the so-called “blue pages”—the author’s thoughts on the importance of finding a mission in life. Richard N. Bolles was an Episcopal clergyman after all, so this part addresses the spiritual part of life purpose with an emphasis on the Christian faith. This is an optional part, it serves more as an appendix and doesn’t affect the overall tone of the book, no matter where you find yourself on the religious spectrum.

Good Book Getting Outdated

Overall, What Color Is Your Parachute? contains some themes that don’t change over time and offers advice that, with a few tweaks, is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago when this book first became a bestseller.

You must start with yourself.

You should never give up hope. You should explore different options. You should talk to people to expand your network and learn more about things you can do. You should reach out to companies and their managers even if they are not hiring yet. You should make sure that you have a good resume (even if you are networking to get into a role), have a good profile online, come prepared for your interviews, and send thank you notes to the recruiters and the interview panels.

But that said, if you squint, you can notice this book’s age starting to show.

What Color Is Your Parachute? undergoes constant revision (my copy is from 2022; it mentions the pandemic and the drastic changes it brought to the workplace), but as I was revisiting it for my deep dives, it caught my eye how little techy this book feels. Perhaps, the future revisions will cover AI and ATS more but so far I felt a bit like I traveled back in time to the pre-COVID job markets. It doesn’t help that Richard N. Bolles passed away in 2017 and maybe this is why the book (whoever keeps it revised since) feels somewhat outdated.

Why Should You Read It Anyway?

1. This book is full of hope and inspiration to continue the life with purpose. This seems like a no-brainer but how many of us look at what we do as a reflection of our life purpose? Lucky are those who have figured out their purpose early on and were able to remain true to it. But what if we never found one? What if we had but it changed and we didn’t notice? What if we changed and didn’t realize it?
2. The Flower Exercise. This one is a great deep dive into oneself. Paired with some exercises from Authentic that I reviewed earlier this year, it gives you a powerful nudge toward self-discovery. Even for those of us who thought we knew exactly who we were, there are a few surprises.

Overall, this book is a great source of inspiration, motivation, positive reminders, and helpful job search tips. If you aren’t sure what next step in your job/career/life to take, start here—What Color Is Your Parachute? will point you in the right direction.

"This book really can work magic for you, but only if you’re ready to commit the time and effort to make the magic happen."—What Color Is Your Parachute?

Useful Links

If you missed my deep-dive articles:

• How Do You Approach Your Job Search?
• The Flower Exercise—Do You Know Who You Are?
• How To Choose And Be Chosen For Your Next Job

To continue your journey of personal and career fulfillment:

• Authentic by Prof. Stephen Joseph: my review and purchasing link
• I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was by Barbara Sher (fun read after WCIYP? if you still aren’t sure how to apply yourself) – Book on Amazon
• The Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment
• To purchase?What Color Is Your Parachute??on Amazon:?link.

Next week we will move to the next book that I wished I’d read back in 2020 when I moved to Business Operations—Chief of Staff by Tyler Parris. See you then!

(1) Photo by henry perks on Unsplash