Four decades past, Richard Nelson Bolles got canned from his job as an Episcopal priest, starting a chain of events that ended with him penning what many consider the bible for job-seekers and career-changers.
Losing the plum assignment at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco – he was laid off during a budget crunch – and subsequently finding work ministering to college students gave Bolles the impetus to write “What Color Is Your Parachute?”, a self-published volume that he thought might be some help to students worried about their job futures.
That modest tome has blossomed into a career-advice juggernaut. The best-selling career guide in history, “Parachute” has sold over nine million copies, spawned a number of ancillary books (including editions for teens and retirees), and was named by the Library of Congress as one of the 25 books that have shaped readers’ lives – putting Bolles in the company of Malcolm X, Robert Louis Stevenson and God, whose own Bible is a perennial bestseller.
Today “Parachute” is still a top seller – last year’s edition spent six months on Business Week’s bestseller list – and it remains the go-to guide for everyone from midlife-crisis boomers looking to change their careers to college students looking to start one. (Placing a copy on a layabout grad’s pillow has long been a favored way for fed-up parents to hint that it’s time to start cobbling together a resume.)
Now 80, Bolles says the book’s legacy is “all the lives that have been changed. I get letters all the time that say, ‘I would not be who I am today if it was not for your book.’ ”
Part of the guide’s appeal is that it’s not set in amber. Each year, Bolles updates “Parachute” (the title is a wry reference to “bailing out” of a lousy job) to the point where readers of the 2005 edition “haven’t really read the book” in its latest form, he says. The just-published 2008 edition includes, among other things, two new chapters (one on problems faced by retiring baby boomers and another on jumpstarting a career change), a list of the ten biggest mistakes people make in job interviews, an expanded chapter on the changing job market, and a six-page “Starter Kit” to help job-hunters identify their skills and accomplishments.
Though it’s chockablock with nuts-and-bolts advice, the philosophical underpinning of “Parachute” – and a big reason for its success – is Bolle’s contention that a job-seeker should consider himself a valuable resource, as opposed to Oliver Twist pleading for porridge. He also emphasizes the value in networking to find “hidden” jobs rather than relying on want ads.
“The book emphasizes that every single person that is a resource for some employer. And therefore you have to go out as thinking in your own mind, ‘I need to find where that employer is,’ ” says Bolles.
To do that, you must understand yourself – your skills, your values, your goals – and the book offers plenty of exercises toward that end. Bolles’ path to a great job runs not simply through networking, or a great suit. It’s a journey informed by the ancient Greek axiom “Know thyself.”
On the release of the 37th annual edition of “Parachute,” The Post tracked Bolles down at his home in the San Francisco Bay area to discuss tips for job-seekers, why there’s crying in career change and his predictions of a cloudy future for the job market.
You were one of the popularizers of self-knowledge being a key to finding a good job. Why is that important?
Because people’s self-knowledge is not as much as they think it is. They think they know very well who they are, but many people are blind to their own excellences. That is to say they see other people’s excellences very easily, but when you ask them what are their own, they don’t know. That’s why, when we stop to think of what it is we want to do in our lives and what it is we want to offer employers, we need to do this kind of analysis, or we’re going to be more limited in what we do and what we think we can do.
You also write about the importance of values, but a lot of people have trouble with the idea of squaring their values with a day-to-day work environment. How can somebody do that?
Just listen to your heart. Many years ago, I was pastor of a church in New Jersey, right near New York City. And I got a call one day from a member of my congregation and he said, “Dick, what do you do when you know that your company is issuing crooked contracts?” And I said, “How do you know this?” And he said, “Because I drew up the contracts.” And I said, “What on Earth did you do that for?” And he said, “Because I was told to or lose my job.”
I said, “I think you need to think out your values and [ask yourself whether] that’s the kind of place that is going to honor them.” Within about three months he quit and sought employment in a place where those values that he cared about would be honored. So I think values definitely affect how you feel about where it is you work.
Did he wind up in a fulfilling career?
Yes. In fact, he became ordained.
What are the pluses and minuses of using the Internet to find a job?
The part of the Internet that is very successful is when you use it to research companies you’re thinking about applying to. And you’re going to see Facebook and MySpace and some other sites being more and more used for networking. But posting a resume on the Internet hoping somebody will see it, or looking for openings from particular employers – that’s not as effective. In fact, the research indicates that about somewhere between four and 10 percent of those that go on the Internet looking for vacancies actually find a job thereby. It’s not a very spectacular success rate, to say the least.
You also have some pretty amazing statistics about those boards where people post their resumes online.
One out of every 1,470 resumes [is seen by employers]. And that’s a figure that’s generous. There are other statistics that suggest it’s even less.
You say job-hunters’ biggest fear is that they’ll never find a job. How do you handle that?
It all comes down to their expectations. In fact, the number of people who give up looking for a job within the first month and a half is astounding.
Successful job-hunters understand that typically the job hunt may last, depending on the economy, 18 or 19 weeks. I went to visit a former boss of mine who was out of work. I said, “Ted, what are you doing about your job hunt?” And he was a very funny person, but he was also dead serious beneath his humor. And he said, “I’m sitting in my house waiting for God to prove he loves me.” I do think that’s death to the job hunt.
Is the thank-you note dead?
It’s dead in terms of job-hunting, for sure. People just don’t think it’s important to thank the secretary who got them in to see the employer, or to thank the employer for the interview and so on. And what’s silly about this is that employers think thank-you notes are tremendously important. I know somebody who got to be the public relations agent for a major baseball team. She went to the boss and said, “Why did I get hired over these people? Some of them sound remarkably more talented than I am.” And he said, “You were the only person who wrote a thank-you note.”
We’re getting a lot of mixed economic indicators.
How do you spell “mixed”? D-o-w-n?
How do you see the job market over the next year?
I think it’s going to get tougher. Historically, the unemployment rate is very low. It used to run eight, nine percent. And now it’s always in the fours. So people are not going to get upset about unemployment getting worse as long as the figure stays relatively low. But the greatest difference I see between now and 37 years ago, when the first edition of my book came out, is there are two breadwinners in many, if not most, families. So unemployment isn’t as terrifying to people today. It’s certainly just as terrifying for single mothers and others who have to depend totally on themselves to support their kids.
I don’t think the news is going to get very good during the next year, because the subprime mortgage mess is getting deeper and deeper every week. It’s almost like a house of cards that’s tumbling.
You’re a big proponent of directly contacting employers, whether or not they have an opening. But a lot of people are shy. How can they overcome this?
You do informational interviewing and just find out what the lay of the land looks like. You do that before you interview for jobs so that you’ll know what the advantages and disadvantages are of a particular field. And during that time, you can take anybody with you. Obviously, you can’t take your mother with you. But you can bring a friend that’s less shy and get accustomed to how it is you conduct yourself.
What’s the best way to approach somebody for an informational interview?
Call them up and say, “I’m dying to know more about this field. I’ve already read everything I can on the Internet.” Because they want to be assured that you’re coming to them only because you’ve already picked up as much information as you can without them. So you ask for 10 or 12 minutes of their time, and swear you won’t take more. When 12 minutes have elapsed, you say, “I promised I would only take 12 minutes of your time. I want to keep my agreement. Thank you so much for this information, and do you know somebody else that I could go talk to?”
In job-finding, there’s a lot of rejection. What’s the best way to handle it?
Cry a lot.
And when you’re done crying?
You have to understand that the job hunt is nothing but a process of rejection. You go from employer to employer and what you hear is “no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” But eventually, you will come to somebody who will say “yes.”