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What Color Is Your Parachute: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters & Career-Changers Hardcover – January 1, 1997
Price | New from | Used from |
- Print length293 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDoubleday
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1997
- ISBN-101568657048
- ISBN-13978-1568657042
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Product details
- Publisher : Doubleday; 1st edition (January 1, 1997)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 293 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1568657048
- ISBN-13 : 978-1568657042
- Item Weight : 1.67 pounds
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,392,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,748 in Job Hunting (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Richard Nelson Bolles is the author of What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Guide For Job-Hunters and Career Changers, the most popular job-hunting book in the world, which has sold more than 10,000,000 copies since its first publication. Parachute is dramatically updated, reshaped and rewritten every year, and has been translated into 20 languages and published in 26 countries.
What Color Is Your Parachute? was chosen as one of the all-time 100 best nonfiction books by Time magazine, and was selected as one of 25 books that have shaped people's lives (throughout history) by the Library of Congress' Center for the Book.
A member of Mensa and the Society for Human Resource Management, Bolles has been the keynote speaker at hundreds of conferences. He holds a bachelor’s degree cum laude in physics from Harvard University, a master’s degree from General Theological (Episcopal) Seminary in New York City, and three honorary doctorates.
He is credited with founding the modern career counseling field, and is often described as the field's foremost authority. Bolles is a recipient of the National Samaritan Award, whose previous honorees include Karl Menninger, Betty Ford, and Peter Drucker. He is also one of LinkedIn's 300 "Influencers" or "thought leaders," and writes regularly for the site as well as a number of others. In 2014, he was named one of the "Wealth Wizards" in the U.S. by Forbes Magazine—along with Warren Buffett and 18 others.
Dick has three grown children, Stephen, Sharon, and Gary, and lives with his wife, Marci, in the San Francisco East Bay Area.
Learn more at parachutebook.com.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2019
Top reviews from the United States
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Every exercise isn’t needed for me but the summation of what the author guides you through on a path of self discovery that is about so much more than job hunting, is truly eye opening and life changing. I do not regret a single penny and have already sent copies to three friends and family members trying to sort their career ambitions.
This book is not for the faint of heart but if you take finding the right place for you at the right time in your life seriously, this book will really get you there if you work hard at the exercises that you need most. I even made my own online spreadsheets so I can refer back to it anywhere any time using Google Drive. I plan to revisit every year to see how I grow.
Highly recommended for job hunters, career changers, and those inexplicably unsatisfied with their day to day. Work makes up nearly half of our lives for the vast majority of us who work far beyond a standard 9-5 so it’s worth investing in the right choices when you can, for the sake of your own joy and happiness.

By L. White on May 18, 2019
Every exercise isn’t needed for me but the summation of what the author guides you through on a path of self discovery that is about so much more than job hunting, is truly eye opening and life changing. I do not regret a single penny and have already sent copies to three friends and family members trying to sort their career ambitions.
This book is not for the faint of heart but if you take finding the right place for you at the right time in your life seriously, this book will really get you there if you work hard at the exercises that you need most. I even made my own online spreadsheets so I can refer back to it anywhere any time using Google Drive. I plan to revisit every year to see how I grow.
Highly recommended for job hunters, career changers, and those inexplicably unsatisfied with their day to day. Work makes up nearly half of our lives for the vast majority of us who work far beyond a standard 9-5 so it’s worth investing in the right choices when you can, for the sake of your own joy and happiness.

TL: DR
This book is in the same class as "Live, Laugh, Love" if you would read that you may like this. If you would not read that you will hate this.
As you likely know and as other reviews attest, this is a tremendous classic book, updated annually. I bought my first copy ~25 years ago and have given copies to others several times over the years. I have also bought a couple updated copies for myself.
Easy to read. And what its core value has been is helping job and career seekers 1) learn how best to find a new job, and, 2) "What do I want to do in the next chapter of my life?: The 1st half of the book is about how to find that next job, which is almost totally the opposite of what most of us think we should do. And the second half helps you answer the question "What do I want to do in the next chapter of my life?" when at a job or career crossroad. The Flower Diagram that you complete if you go through the 2nd half I have referenced multiple times over the last 25 years. And it has helped me stay in touch with my core values and career desires.
Just can't beat this book. Possible the best book I've ever read for my life after The Bible! :-)
Top reviews from other countries

I have had a few updated versions together with the workbooks and I continue to recommend the book. It is powerful, full of great information and if you do the exercises you will be rewarded.



