Author
Richard N. Bolles
The laid-off priest who turned job-hunting from résumé roulette into a disciplined search that starts with knowing yourself.
1 book on BookYol
The story and the impact
Richard Nelson Bolles (1927–2017) came to career advice by an indirect route. He studied chemical engineering at MIT and physics at Harvard, then went to seminary and became an Episcopal priest, serving at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. In 1968 budget cuts eliminated his position. Losing that job put him inside the problem he would spend the rest of his life working on.
He then joined United Ministries in Higher Education and travelled to support campus ministers, many of whom were also losing their jobs. He found little practical guidance to offer them, so he collected what he learned from people who had changed careers successfully. In 1970 he self-published a modest manual called What Color Is Your Parachute? The title came from a colleague's remark. When people spoke of 'bailing out' of their jobs, the real question was what kind of parachute they had.
Ten Speed Press began publishing the book in 1972. Bolles kept revising it for more than four decades, eventually issuing a new edition every year, and he added material as hiring moved online. It became one of the most widely used job-hunting guides in the world and was translated into many languages. In 2012 the Library of Congress included it in its 'Books That Shaped America' exhibition.
The signature
Bolles argued that most people job-hunt backwards. They start with the vacancies, the résumé and the employer's terms, and only later, if ever, ask what they actually want to do. He reversed that order. Before anyone writes a résumé, he asks them to identify their transferable skills by looking at stories of their own past accomplishments. They then name the fields that interest them and the conditions in which they do their best work. His 'Flower' diagram gathers these answers into a single picture of the work that suits one particular person.
From there his method becomes practical and somewhat contrarian. He considered mailing résumés to strangers one of the least effective tactics available. Instead he urged readers to talk with people already doing work they are curious about, to gather information before asking for anything, and to approach the specific organizations they want to join. He wrote like a pastor and an engineer at once: warm, a little playful, and always focused on what works in practice.