The Job-Hunter's Survival Guide 1st (first) edition Text Only

by Richard Nelson Bolles

One Hundred Pages of Lifesaving Advice for People Out of Work When over ten million people have needed help with their job-hunt–or with figuring out what to do with their life–there is one person they have turned to, more than any other. He is Richard N. Bolles, author of the #1 job-hunting book of all time, What Color Is Your Parachute?His name is well-known around the world. Just during the last twelve months, he has appeared in Time (“10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now,” March 2009), U.S. News & World Report (deemed “savior of the nation’s unemployed,” October 2008), NBC’s Today Show (broad-cast in April 2009), and many other publications and shows. His book was the #1 best-seller on Business Week’s paperback list as recently as last November.Never has his advice been more sought than during these brutal economic times. He has responded by writing a completely new The Job-Hunter’s Survival Guide, designed particularly for people who are hanging on the ropes, who haven’t time to do a lot of reading but need help desperately–and now. Early reviews have called this little Guide “brilliant” and “tremendously helpful.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Self Help, Reference

Paperback

First published June 16, 2009

About the author

Dick Bolles, more formally known as Richard Nelson Bolles, was a former Episcopal clergyman, a member of high-IQ society Mensa, and the author of the best-selling job-hunting book, What Color is Your Parachute? The book remained on The New York Times best-seller list for more than a decade and has sold over 10 million copies.

Reviews

[Dawne · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read this book in an evening, and I did. It contains a nice combination of inspiration and practical advice. Excellent and timely information and links to help a job seeker avoid the Black Hole of Internet job searching and find the ways the web can be most useful. Now that I have read it through, I intend to work with each chapter individually, though it almost seems as though one should work it as though it were written in Hebrew -- back to front. Readable, funny, this book is at times inflected with the writer's religion, which I assume to be Christianity. I did not find this disturbing or intrusive, only reflective of the author's values which seem to reach beyond the confines of his particular faith community. I like it when religion works that way, when it expands one's views instead of narrowing them. Well worth buying if you are unemployed -- especially long-term unemployed.

[Mauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5 stars.

Pros
Speedy read - less than a hundred pages? Yes, please!
I felt motivated, okay? I discovered last year that I am motivated and inspired by motivational self-help books. I don't get it myself, but yeah, I read the book and I felt reassured and more confident about what the hell I'm doing. I did the flower exercise. (oh god, teenage me scoffed super hard at me just now) I feel like I can better describe myself and what the hell I'm looking for.

Cons
Obviously written in a massive rush to take advantage of the 2008 financial collapse.
Targeted more towards people in their 40s? 50s? People who did not expect to find themselves out of work after so many years/so close to retirement.
Web URLs in the text! WEB URLS IN THE TEXT! Like, http://tinyurl.com/yqt7pc just hanging out at the end of a paragraph. Frankly indecent.
The author has an aol email addy.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Job-Hunter's Survival Guide" is a short concise guide that, although slightly outdated, is highly relevant for the current COVID-19 era. Written in 2009, this book was designed to help job seekers handle the stresses and challenges of the economic downturn of the time. Twelve years on it is again relevant, although some of the internet links are outdated and the book does not focus as much on the internet itself as a modern book would. An added benefit is the book's length. At 100 pages this is an easily digestible book that offers useful advice on every page.

[Laura Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obviously, this is 9 years old, which means the information in it is mostly outdated (especially from a online/website perspective - it mentions Yahoo, AOL, and Myspace). I did find a few items toward the end of the book good.

[Anthony Zitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very short read, less than 100 pages. Much of the information is out of date, but the theme is clear, don't lose hope, search for alternatives, take inventory of yourself.
Rating it 3 stars just because it could use an update with more current information.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent tactics! However, not all of these would be useful, especially in a post (kinda also ongoing) COVID world

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is a basic job-hunting guide for the growing number of people who are unemployed, and don’t have the time, or desire, to read a lot of details.

Among the first things you should do is to do a Google search of your name, to see what the Internet says about you. If there are any drunken, or racy, photos of you on Facebook, for instance, restrict their availability or delete them, now. You can plan on a potential employer doing the same search.

After that, take some time and do a through self-inventory of what you do best and enjoy most, and your skills that are most transferable. What did you like most about your last job? What would be your dream job? (Please don’t say "A job with high pay and no responsibilities.") That way, you can be absolutely detailed about the type of job you are seeking, and use that to focus your job search.

Most people want to limit their job-searching to replying to online job vacancies, mailing resumes, answering newspaper ads or using private employment agencies. Their rate of success is small, so don’t make them your only job-search methods. Much more effective job-search methods include asking your network for job leads, knocking on the door of any employer that interests you (whether or not they have a vacancy), and using the Yellow Pages, alone or with others in a job club, looking for fields of interest.

Before you get on the Internet, know what kind of job you are seeking. There are a seemingly infinite number of sites to visit, including omnibus search engines, sites with jobs in specific fields, and social networking sites. Pick just a few sites, and monitor them (jobs are frequently cross-posted to multiple sites). If a site allows you to fill out a profile, or post your resume, do it. You never know who will read it. Employers prefer to fill vacancies from within, before they advertise for the opening, and deal with a bunch of semi-qualified candidates. If they already have your resume, or have seen you work as a temp or contract employee, your chances have greatly increased.

This book is short, and excellent. To those who bemoan the total lack of available jobs, the author asks "Have you done anything more than rely on the Internet or Sunday want ads for your job searching?" It is very much recommended for all job seekers.

[Gwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started reading the original What Color is Your Parachute? earlier this summer, and I had to put it down (before I started throwing it across the room). Bolles is just so darn hopeful about being unemployed for just a short period of time--or at least making unemployment manageable--and finding a good job.

Maybe I'm just a complete and utter pessimist (highly likely), but I really don't know how to keep the hope Bolles tells us to have alive. I'm not even unemployed yet, and I'm not at all hopeful about finding something in the next 5 months. Bolles doesn't address the problems of longer-term unemployment (although he does acknowledge that the average job seeker is out of work for 21 weeks...I'm not sure I can last for 5 months without working): financial issues, the toll on your personal life, or the staggering blow to your self-esteem.

I've checked out What Color is Your Parachute? out from the library again, and maybe this time I won't be as frustrated with it as I was before. 10 million people can't be wrong, right?

I did like this, though: "Out of this experience [being unemployed], however, was born great sympathy. I think this happens to every person with any 'character' who loses their job. You can never again look into the face of someone who has lost their job, without remembering, without feeling kinship and empathy, remembering how you felt when it was your time. You want to reach out to them. You want to give them a hug. You want to help them, in any way you can." (8)

[Kaye Cloutman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short 100-page book is actually very concise and thorough in its descriptions of the diametrically opposite behaviors of job-seekers and employers. While The Job-Hunter’s Survival Guide is not filled with humorous anecdotes, it is a very well-thought-out and well-organized work with enough reason for hope built into it to keep the reader moving forward. Author Richard Bolles uses statistics deftly to present reasons to stay hopeful in this desperate economy, and he also demonstrates a multitude of ways in which the reader might improve their odds in the employment marketplace. As I know all too well, it’s a full-time job looking for a full-time job, a point Bolles clearly makes in this Survival Guide. Bolles provides handy techniques for self-inventory, creating a plan of action, and looking for your dream job. Any reader who takes the time to practice these lessons will drastically improve their odds of finding employment and finding it soon. Another useful part of Bolles’ work is that the book reveals the many job-hunting methods that are a waste of time while also showing us good and rarely-used methods for finding work. The book is summarized with a great truism to help us stay positive: “What you believe is going to happen can help determine what actually does happen.” I highly recommend this book to all job-hunters facing these troubling and turbulent times.

[Earl Grey Tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was recommended this book by a woman giving a presentation about her struggles of finding a good job at a local networking event. This was one of the first books on her list that I was able to find available at the local library.

The book was a quick read that was written for the plethora of job seekers during the Great Recession. Overall, there were some interesting ideas that I had already reached on my own, but it was nice to hear them reinforced. For most of the book, I felt that the information presented wasn't really giving me anything new. There were some motivational examples and metaphors, but I was more interested in steps that I could take to help me reach my goal of finding a job after moving back to the United States.

I do have to say there was one section of the book that was a real big help to me. It was a few activities that help you organize your general and more specific transferable skills for a new job based on your previous employment and activities that you have done. This really helped me clarify what aspects of myself I need to bring forward when searching for a job.

If you just lost your job and feel completely lost, this would be a nice book to help you get started. If you are looking how to tweak your hunt to be better, you might find a couple of helpful hints, you might not.

[Elizabeth Cottrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Washington Post reviewed this book favorably, and since I have quite a few resume customers, I wanted to see if it had some good ideas for them. Definitely worthwhile--short, full of useful information, and easy to read for the most part. Even though I write resumes, I totally agree with the author's opinion that a resume is only a tool and cannot be relied on for getting a job by just "sending and forgetting."

There was a disconnect, I felt, between his repeated assertion that online methods for job-hunting only resulted in 10-12% of jobs and therefore should only account for 10-12% of your job-hunting efforts. Yet the action steps and advice he gave involved a tremendous amount of online research and work. If I were out of work and not comfortable surfing the net, this book would be frustrating--still worthwhile for the list of ways to look for a job.

The author did an excellent job of discussing the importance of self-analysis, taking control of the job-hunting process, tapping into other sources of information about jobs, and in general giving the reader a hopeful and "can-do" feeling about the process. I would encourage anyone out of work right now to read it.

[Barry Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subtitled “How to Find Hope and Rewarding Work, Even When ‘There Are No Jobs’”, this short (100 pages or so) volume provides insightful, fact-based advice on the state of the current job market along with some practical realities about how to seek and find your best position in these crazy times. Bolles (the author of the ubiquitous “What Color is Your Parachute?” for 30 plus years) says of this little tome, “The most essential stuff is in here.” Quoting the questions he feels the frustrated job seeker is likely to have, he provides solid insights and quotes percentages on the success of all kinds of job search methods. In addition, there is a panoply of useful websites for personal insight, job search, company research and related guidance. The book includes his famous “flower” for general career targeting and then applies it in reverse to identify the individual’s “dream job.” A skills inventory is also available to aid in identifying one’s most significant abilities. The book closes with a short, impactful review of the entire process entitled “A Plan of Action When You’re Out of Work.” The back cover calls the book “One Hundred Pages of Lifesaving Advice for People Out of Work.” I agree.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book that would have been helpful to me about 2 years ago. In my own personal irony, the day after I started to read this book, I got a job offer. However, reading this book showed me some errors that I was making over my personal unemployment nightmare. The positives of this book is that it helps give ideas for a person who may feel like he is out of ideas and/or gives hope to the person who may have lost or is in danger of losing hope. It helps the reader formulate a plan to be effective in their job search. It is short and to the point and I think that is helpful to the frantic unemployed job searcher who may not have the patience to read something more in depth. The big negatives are that it is very short and at times may feel 'rushed' and I believe the $9.99 is a bit pricey but even so, likely worth it to the job searcher.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously reading a book like this means I am in the midst of trying to find work. This is a short book from the author of 'What Color is Your Parachute?' designed to impart advice to those looking for a job. Bolles provides an overview of eighteen ways of looking for a job (i.e. networking, internet, want ads, etc), rating the least effective and the most. As might be expected, just circulating a resume online or uploading it to a company website is not as effective as establishing personal contact via phone or in person. Bolles number one way to get employed (about 86% effective), is by doing a personal inventory where you discover what you want to do, where you want to do it, and what transferable skills you have. Bolles says keeping your eyes on the prize (where you want to be vocationally) is the surest way to get there.

[Katherine Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

As many people know, I am in a period of transition, and anything that can help me find a new career is greatly appreciated. I picked this book up at the Cuyahoga County Public Library Fairview Park branch, home to the Career Counseling office. This branch has a huge number of career transition titles, and this was on a table. What a terrific read. It is a short verision of Bolles renowned Parachute books and it was written during the worst of the most recent Recession. Bolles has a brilliant exercise, and suggests using it with friends. I plan on having a party using this exercise. I am so looking forward to it! This is a terrific book, and I can't speak of it more highly. I've bought my own copy.

[Caryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in a day. I found it very encouraging. I knew a lot of what the author had to say, but the structure he offered, and the self-reflection exercises, were really inspiring to me, and I woke up the next day with a new attitude. I took a few steps I'd been putting off and saw immediate results by getting some ledes from my network that I hadn't uncovered before then. I am in a much more positive frame of mind, and I feel empowered, because of what I read in this book.

[Chanell · Rating 3 out of 5]

as i reflected on it, this book was actually pretty helpful. it's super short but he offers some practial tips on how to deal with unemployment, finding a job, and keeping busy in the meantime. i was expecting one of those: "if you do these 10 steps, i can guarantee you a job." but his book offers a pragmatic realistic approach to job-hunting that is definitely needed for the unemployed.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate any 100 page book that attempts to give me guidance I may or may not want. Good tips: take naps, find three or four different ways to look for a job, internet job hunts aren't the best way to spend your time, and that the way employees look for employees is the exact opposite way job hunters look for jobs.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent condensed version of information included Bolles' bestselling "What Color is Your Parachute?" In some ways, it's actually even more helpful because though Bolles has kept his upbeat, encouraging tone, he doesn't mince words. I read this after reading "What Color is Your Parachute?" and found it helpful in reinforcing ideas and plans of action included there.

[Marc David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title says it all "Job-Hunter's Survival Guide". In addition this book also provides insight and self examination to determine how close you are to you're dream job, all the while giving hints and tips on the way of attaining it.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet, it's given me some direction on how to drill down on the skills I most enjoy using, so I can find the next right place for me!

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those looking for a job, especially newbies. This book is very informative: short & sweet. Looking for a job in todays world vs twenty something years ago, has surely changed.

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise. Practical. Helpful. This book will give you hope and practical steps to take if you find yourself stuck in an endless, discouraging job-hunt.

[Lisa C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bolles accomplishes volumes with only 100 pages- very practical guide and I'm a career development professional.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a lot of helpful suggestions for looking for a job. It was a reasonable price, fit a lot of clearly written tips in just 100 pages, and had a very positive and friendly tone.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little outdated but a good starting point.

[Ronan Anthony O'Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent tips and strategies for finding rewarding work!

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good ideas

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this rather helpful in rethinking how to search for a job.