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.
Printable plan
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. Nothing is stored.
Build Mini Action BookQuestions
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.”
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.
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