“What Color Is Your Parachute?” Deep Dive: How To Choose And Be Chosen For Your Next Job

This deep dive is for those looking for a change—either in their job or career.

It’s coming out at a strange time—the job market seems overwhelmed by the highly skilled job seekers getting desperate to hear back from recruiters. Many have decades of diverse experience under their belts and the adjective “Senior” in their most recent job titles. Amidst the mass layoffs, high political uncertainty, and the rise of artificial intelligence, it sounds somewhat audacious to use the word “choose” when it comes to a job. The choice seems quite limited these days, and it is mostly found in the hands of employers.

But this is exactly why What Color Is Your Parachute? is such a valuable resource for a job seeker. When all the signs seem to tell you that you have no control over the job market (and you don’t), someone (if not yourself) needs to tell you that you have the power and control over your actions. And contrary to what you might be thinking—you always have a choice.

Now let’s dive deeper.

How Do I Choose?

In short, you find options that best fit your idea of where you want to be (now and in the future), evaluate them against each other, and choose the one that fits best. Easy, right?

The real life includes a few steps and some nuance.

It all starts with the self-inventory: What skills do you have? What knowledge? What do you value in life and the workplace?

You can use The Flower Exercise I described in last week’s deep dive, complete The CliftonStrengths? Assessment (my personal favorite), or take a pen and a piece of paper to your local coffee shop and write a list. Whatever you decide to do, don’t assume that you already know it and give it some thought and some notes. You will be surprised how much you change overtime and how many hidden pathways can reveal themselves once you get curious.

Remember—you are your main resource.

As for the next steps, here are a few suggested by What Color Is Your Parachute?

1. Find out what careers or jobs your self-inventory points to. Don’t limit yourself to an extrapolation (as in I am/was a Project Manager in manufacturing, I should look for a Senior Manager role in manufacturing). Type in “careers with [the skill/knowledge you have]” into your search browser or ask your friendly ChatGPT for advice. Check with the people who know you for some ideas or get a professional consultation from a career coach. Look at the intersection of your skills and their combinations. Is there a way to combine your leadership experience, compliance knowledge, and passion for mentorship? Dive deeper into the suggestions you get: do you know anyone who has a job that you might have good skills for? Can you learn more from them? What was their career trajectory?

"Don’t ever think to yourself: Well, I see it is that I would love to be able to do, but I know there is no job in the world like that. Dear friend, you don’t know any such thing… You’d be surprised at how much of your dream you may be able to find. Sometimes you will find it in stages.”—What Color Is Your Parachute?

1. Ask your doctor the experts if this job is right for you. How do you know if a job or career you identified in step#1 would be good for you? Just because it may use your skill or pay you well doesn’t necessarily mean it is worth the jump. Best way to find out? Ask those who already have it. Look on LinkedIn for people with relevant job titles and try to get a 19-minute coffee chat. Come prepared and ask questions that you wouldn’t find on their company’s website. What does their day-to-day look like in this job? How did they get there? Do they like it? What do they like about it? What doors are open to them next? Any training you might need? Do they know anyone else who you can talk to for more information? And please don’t use this solely as a networking technique! If you get a networking contact out of it—wonderful! But it should be a nice bonus—not the goal. I can’t stress enough how fake it feels for the person on the other end to sit through the Q&A session about their careers trying to genuinely help another person to find a way to switch their career only to find out that this whole conversation was a pretext to get to the potential hiring manager. It also deprives you of the knowledge you could have otherwise received.
2. Find out what kinds of organizations have these jobs. This is not yet about particular names but kinds of places. Some professions are more universally applicable than others (project managers are needed everywhere, although most places require industry experience), but even the most narrow ones can find adjacent application. For instance, my friend was a middle school English teacher when she decided to switch careers. Now she is a sales rep in an edtech startup offering English and Spanish education content.
3. Find specific organizations, research them, and approach them. This is typically where everyone starts their job search. But if you have completed steps 1-3, you will find yourself with way more options on your list, more contacts, more information, and more clarity. And remember—approach the companies you want to work for even if they don’t have any openings. Some vacancies open last minute, others get created with the people in mind, and just overall, now more than ever connections and network you establish matter more than any stellar resume or a timely job application submitted through a job portal.

"Another research discovery is that the further afield these contacts are from your usual social circles, the more likely they are to help your job hunt.”—What Color Is Your Parachute?

How To Get Chosen

Now this is a tougher question as a job application process doesn’t seem to work anymore, and while some companies are rewiring their interview process (see, for example, this HBR article), others are looking for the very specific skills and experience that only a small pool of candidates may have.

Nevertheless, here are a few tips from What Color Is Your Parachute? that you might find useful.

1. Make sure your online presence is reflective of what you are looking for. This goes beyond updating your LinkedIn profile which is crucial for you to be found by recruiters and head hunters. Make sure to keep in touch with your network, comment on relevant posts, share some thoughts, or write a few articles. Make sure that whatever you write is “on brand” for you and looks professional—you never know who will see it and when.
2. Update your resume with your measurable achievements and make it ATS-friendly. Unless you are an executive with a household name, you need a good resume. If you are applying online, make sure to do some research on the ATS systems; some AI platforms even offer to screen your resume to see if it’s ATS-friendly. For instance, those systems do not read graphs or diagrams and might see links you include (like your LinkedIn profile) as a potential threat so you need to include them as plain text. It’s a common complaint these days that adjusting your resume for each job application turns it into a word salad but this is the unfortunate reality of the ATS-driven job market.
3. Do your homework before the job interview. Look for the latest news about the company. Get in touch with someone on the inside to learn more about its culture. Prepare your questions.
4. Prepare your stories. One of the benefits of conducting a self-inventory first is that it equips you with stories illustrating your skills and experience. Lean into them and make sure you have them written down somewhere. Use the STAR technique for your story (Situation—Task—Action—Result) and keep them positive (focus on the lessons you learned if this is a question about your failure or weakness).
5. Listen, ask questions, and ALWAYS send a thank-you note. At the end of the day, whether you get hired or not, a job interview is a great opportunity to learn more about a job and a company, leave a good impression, and establish a connection. Never forget that it’s a two-way street—you are interviewing your interviewer as much as they are interviewing you, and the best interviews are those that are a discussion, not an interrogation.

To Conclude

"Always keep in mind your dream. Get as close to it as you can. Then be patient. You never know what doors will open up.”—What Color Is Your Parachute?

The times of cookie-cutter careers have passed—or are passing as we speak. Most careers nowadays are built in unexpected ways and are forged amidst uncertainties, high volatility, and increasingly unpredictable markets requiring a wide range of skills and approaches. To navigate such circumstances we need resilience, adaptability, and good knowledge of self. We also need courage and the ability to dream—for each human being can find his or her place in the rich tapestry of skills and experiences, you only need to find it or make an effort for it to find you.

So, are you ready to jump?

What color is your parachute?

Next week I will provide a quick overview of What Color Is Your Parachute? before we move on to the book that helped me with my own self-inventory—Tyler Parris’ Chief Of Staff: The Strategic Partner Who Will Revolutionize Your Organization. Stay tuned!

(1) The title image by Amore Seymour from Pixabay

(2) Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

(3) Image by kalhh from Pixabay

(4) Photo by Kamil Pietrzak on Unsplash