Richard Nelson Bolles · 1970 · career search
What Color Is Your Parachute?
A job search gets stronger when it starts with a clear inventory of skills, people, fields, and working conditions.
Core idea.
Bolles treats career change as field research. You are not begging a market to define you. You are building a practical map of where your abilities, preferred problems, and real constraints intersect.
interactive tool
Career Flower Builder
next interview prompt
Pick a petal.
Turn a vague career question into something you can ask a real person.
Ask one person what problems this role solves every week.
What readers keep.
"The flower exercise is a constraint tool: it narrows the search without shrinking ambition."
Practice the search.
List ten proven skills
Write skills with evidence: what you did, for whom, and what changed.
Pick three fields
Choose three fields worth researching this week, not committing to forever.
Request one information interview
Ask a person in a target field for twenty minutes of reality, not a job.
Define work conditions
Name the schedule, pace, location, autonomy, and team style where you work best.
Rewrite one story
Turn a past job into a problem-solution-result story.
Map adjacent roles
Find five roles that use your existing skills in a different setting.
Send a useful follow-up
After a conversation, send one specific thanks and one resource or reflection.
Build a target list
Create a short list of organizations that match your field and condition map.
Review the flower weekly
Update one petal based on what you learned from real conversations.
Build your mini action book.
Pick setup actions and daily habits from What Color Is Your Parachute?, choose a start date, and download a printable checklist with real calendar pages.
Frequently asked
What is What Color Is Your Parachute? about?
A career-change manual built around self-inventory, informational interviews, and practical job-search strategy.
What are the key takeaways from What Color Is Your Parachute??
Readers on HourLife most often highlight ideas such as: “A better job search starts with self-inventory, not job boards.” “Skills become portable when you can name the problem they solve.” “Informational interviews turn a fantasy career into observable work.”
Who should read What Color Is Your Parachute??
It's a strong pick for readers exploring Build a Career You're Proud Of and Career Direction. HourLife distills its core idea into community-voted insights and one practical action worth trying.
What's one thing I can do after reading What Color Is Your Parachute??
List ten proven skills — Write skills with evidence: what you did, for whom, and what changed.
How long does it take to read the What Color Is Your Parachute? summary?
About five minutes. The HourLife summary distills What Color Is Your Parachute? into its core idea, 7 community insights, and 9 practical actions you can apply right away.
Downloads & shareables
Print it, pin it, post it. Ways to take What Color Is Your Parachute? off the screen and into the world.
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Read the text summary
The core idea, key takeaways, and how to apply What Color Is Your Parachute?, as one clean, readable page.
Read summary -
Action checklist
Every action from this page as a printable to-do list, with a 7-day tracker.
Download PDF -
Book summary card
A shareable card with the book and its top-voted insight, for saving or posting.
Resource library
The summary card and every quote card in six sizes: Instagram feed, Story, Pinterest, YouTube thumbnail, phone wallpaper, and link preview.
Turn this book into a daily practice.
Save the insights that land, build the habits that stick, and keep what you learn from What Color Is Your Parachute? working long after you close the page — inside HourLife.
