Within the next few blog posts, I will be discussing and analyzing the book What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles and how it helps with the current job market and how to maximize your potential when it comes to things such as resumes, job hunting and interviews, and other helpful real world career tips. The first chapter starts off with a description of how this current job market and realm is changing and how we need to react and change in order to compete for jobs. The second chapter revolves around how Google is used as another tool that interviewers use in order to learn more about you. Chapter three is somewhat contradictory to the first chapter in saying that the job hunt has not changed since 2008, but in chapter one he talks about how the specifics of job hunting have changed, but in chapter three he starts talking about job hunting as a whole and how it as a science has not changed. In the final chapter for this week, chapter four gives a list of sixteen interviewing tips.
In chapter one Bolles starts off by talking about how the job market is changing and how we as potential job hunters need to adapt to these changes. He outlines these changes in seven broad headings that are as follows: employers changed, job hunters didn't; the length of the average job hunt has increased;the length of time the average job lasts has decreased; the way jobs are done is changing; job hunting is becoming more repetitive for more people; job hunting has moved more towards online, and job hunters and employers are speaking two different languages. His first point shows how the way people looked for jobs ten years back isn't going to work today. In order to optimize job hunting success. Also it shows that we look for jobs the same ways, but when employers need people, they change their ways of looking for people based on if they are in good times or if they are in bad times. The next point gives data that from 2008, there has been about a 20% increase in people that are unemployed and looking for jobs for more than a year. The third point shows the data about how the time on a job is decreasing. For different age groups there were upwards of 30% of people that have jobs that last less than a year. These numbers of decreasing time on the jobs has increased drastically, and the projections show that by 2020 about 40% of the US workforce will be part-time workers. The fourth point is that how jobs are being done is changing. This is prevalent due to the increase in technology. More and more things are being done by machines and computers which means that there are going to be less and less people needed to do the jobs. The fifth point is about how job hunting is becoming a repetitive task for most people. This is similar to point three since more people are out of work for longer periods, they job hunt on a regular basis. Another point is how job hunting is moving online. This is true since there are plenty of different job searching websites that offer people an array of available jobs in one easy to navigate website. The final point is how employers speak in such a way that the job hunters aren't able to understand completely what the employer wants. In order to stand out, the job hunters need to be accustomed to the talk of the trade and be able to communicate with the employer well.
The second chapter talks about how Google is being used in order to get more information about potential employees. A simple Google search can offer more than enough information about any person. And now with the clouded technology and an increase in social media, employers can see just about anything that a potential employee puts online. So this is saying that people have to be more careful about what they do and say online because one stupid or irresponsible action could cause for one person to be looked over even if they are extremely qualified for the position. But Google can also be used to help your odds of getting a job. Using tools such as LinkedIn and other forms of social media, you can showcase what your skills are and how you can be a huge help to any company. Looking professional and having superior writing skills make any profile look exponentially better, so taking time into making any type of social media page that shows up on Google can be the difference between getting a job and still having to hunt for one.
Chapter three details how job hunting in general is a science had that aspect of it hasn't changed and probably won't change. Earlier in chapter one, Bolles spoke about how specific things about job hunting have changed and how the hunters need to adjust. But this chapter talks about the general idea of job hunting and how it hasn't changed. The essence of job hunting will never really change due to the fact that people will always be looking for jobs and employers will always be looking for people to hire.
The final chapter of this discussion gives sixteen interviewing tips and hints on how to prepare and excel in interviews for jobs. What was shown throughout this chapter were general tips such as prepare for every interview, average times that each person should talk, and other helpful tips that will ultimately help and interviewee nail any interview. One of the more helpful tips that I took from this section was the one that states that small non-verbal things that can kill an interview. Things ranging from appearance, nervousness or lack of self confidence, to your personal values. All of these things can kill an interview if not diligently done.
These first four chapters really helped lay a groundwork into how the current job market is changing and how we need to adapt to it in order to help our chances of getting a job. If we as job hunters can see these adaptations and make necessary adjustments we can get our foot in the door to our dream job. These tips and helpful hints give an insight to help people get ahead in life.
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