What Color Is Your Parachute?: Chapter 8 (Review)

Chapter 8 talks about a big truth for the desperate job-hunters out there, a truth that may give you happiness for your professional life. "You Get To Choose Where You Work" is the title of the 8th chapter, and it gives you simple steps on how to do it. I'm going to explain the first step, which is in my consideration the most important one.

FIRST, YOU NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT CAREERS OR JOBS YOUR (SKILLS) POINTS TO.

1. Choose the top three of your favorite Knowledge or Field of Interest: e.g. Music, Management, and Marketing.

2. Then, choose your top five Transferable Skills, or in other words, remind yourself how skillful you are in your three Field of Interest options.

3. This step is very important for the continuation of the process. Take what you have done so far and show it to at least five friends, family members, or professionals whom you may know. Ask them what jobs or works this page suggests them . Ask them, "What career fields do these suggest to you?" Write down whatever suggestion they make and do the following:

EXAMPLE: Lets use the three Field of Interest options from above, and put those three favorite Knowledges on a series of overlapping circles.

Your mission is to find the center point where you can find a job that has all three your favorite skills included. Next step, recognize which one of the three is the one you have worked the most to and have more experience. Let's choose Marketing. So you go visit a marketing professional that you know (or set appointment with one. Pay them if necessary), and ask them how you can combine those three fields of interest in one.

Lets analyze the three of them so we can come to a conclusion for an imaginary situation. As, a marketing professional, you can create events that involve music, choose to promote musicians for certain label company, take care of the social media for musicians or bands that need promotions,etc. If you wanna include Management, then think about managing a musicians career, or create your own business where you give management assistance to different bands that may want to rise in the music industry.

4. Write down every little thing the marketing professional may tell you. You will need it for your job search.

5. After a week of doing this. Sit down and revise your notes. Find out what you like the most and see if that is a career path you are willing to choose. If it is, in the end it will be worth it.

After reading the other steps, you can strengthen your attitude toward the future you want and it will create expectations and motivate yourself to achieve it. This process is only one step closer to your dream job. 

Week 8 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 7 (Review)

Chapter 7 talks about 6 different ways that you can learn to describe yourself. The purpose of the chapter is to make the person who seeks for jobs to understand more fully who he is, therefore he can approach multiple job-markets. You must understand that you are a person who has different set of skills besides the one you use to find jobs. Understanding this can help you be open for other job positions that you never thought would be profitable; plus, you would perfomr your job with more energy because you are doing something that you really enjoy. 

The chapter goes down by describing yourself with a self-made question "I Am a Person Who..."

- Has had these experiences.
- Is skilled at doing this or that.
- Knows a lot about this or that.
- Is unusual in this way or that.

A different set of exercises inside the chapter will help you go through this questions easily and efficiently, so that by the end of your reading you would have found the truth of your prefered type of job, work environment, and co-workers.

Week 7 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 6 (Review)

"It's common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something new." - Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

I start this blog with former president of the U.S. quote telling us to not give up, but to find some new way to reach your goals. It is perfect for this chapter that is titled "What to Do When Your Job-Hunt Just isn't Working" and a few little rules that I found here are:

- Never Give Up
- Never Give Up
- Never Give Up

In this chapter, the author explains that there are two ways to hunt for a job: The "Traditional Way" in which the job seeker behaves like a "job-beggar", thinking only what to do to impress them and only worry about their satisfaction in order to get the job. Then, there is the "Parachute Way", a method where your mind is more

selfish but for the good of your future. This method wants you to "figure out what kind of job you would die to do, before you go out hunting", and after getting a second or third interview, it wants you to be honest to yourself instead of desperate and answer the question, "do I like them? Do I enjoy this work environment?". And of course, end the interviews with a thank-you note.

According to the book, the "Traditional Way" fails between 50-86% of the times, while the "Parachute Way" has a success probability of 86% of the time. 

Apparently, this book has a secret recipe to find yourself a job... your dream job.

Week 6 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 5 (Review)

This chapter talks about how to negotiate a salary during an interview. It is an interesting chapter because, as a freshly graduated student from college, I didn't think I was in a position to negotiate salary (maybe I am not), but it is always important to acknowledge the fact that it is very possible to negotiate a higher salary than the one the employer thought you would take. The book shares 6 secrets which I have chosen a few to explain and make a short summary.

Secret #1.- NEVER DISCUSS SALARY UNTIL THE END OF THE WHOLE INTERVIEWING PROCESS... That means that when they have decided you that they need you and they are going to make an offer, then it is the time to discuss figures. Before, it would just give them the wrong idea that you are just here for the money and don't really care about the organization's mission and goals.

Secret #3.- DURING A SALARY DISCUSSION, NEVER BE THE FIRST ONE TO MENTION A SALARY FIGURE: Similar to secret number one, always wait for the interviewer to initiate the recompensation talk.If they ask you first "what kind of salary are you looking for?" try to get away from the question by responding with something like "well, you created this position, so you must have some figure in mind, and I'd be interested in first hearing what that figure is". This strategy is for you to know from where to start going up.

Secret #4.- BEFORE YOU GO TO THE INTERVIEW, DO SOME CAREFUL RESEARCH ON TYPICAL SALARIES FOR YOUR FIELD... So, let's say you got a call to interview for the position of "XYZ", and after a few interviews the employer offers you a certain amount of salary for the job- let's say $30,000 a year. Now, you remembered that you searched online, e.g. "average salary for the position XYZ in (your city, or state)", and the results showed you that the average ranges between $35,000 to $45,000. Now that you know this, you are in a total position to negotiate your salary with the interviewer. Why is it worth it? Because by the end of the year you will be making $15,000 more than you would have if you hadn't done some research online.

Of course, all of this negotiating would be useless if by the end of the interview, once both parties had made a deal, you didn't suggested to sign a "letter of agreement". Why? because this document is a promise that all your effort and achievement in negotiating a salary won't be changed. You usually do this because the employer can forget, regret, or simply back off from what was agreed. And that is Secret #6.

Week 6 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 4 (Review)

Before the day of a big job interview everybody wonders what can they do to nail it, and with chapter 4 "Sixteen Tips About Interviewing for a Job" there is a good chance that you can walk in to the employers office feeling confident. After reading the chapter, I came up with a few short tips that I found to be the most relevant from my standard point of view:

Tip #2.- AN INTERVIEW SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR, BEFORE YOU EVER GO: This means that your first step after being invited to a job interview is to google the company and find out what they do in the "About Us" page. After you know what they do, prepare yourself by analyzing your strongest skills that you believe the employer is looking for on the person who can fill the job position.

Tip #4.- AN INTERVIEW FOR A JOB IS A LOT LIKE DATING: It all comes down to "do I like you?".Do not think for a minute that the only person allowed to ask that question is the employer, because after all, you are looking for a job that you will feel comfortable in years to come. Exactly like dating...

Tip #5.- QUESTIONS TO EXPECT FROM THEM, THEN QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK: This one caught my mind, mainly because I have experienced it and can put you through HELL if you don't know how to answer it. Most of the times, the first question they ask is "Tell me about yourself"... and God as my witness, I hate that question. The only thing to do here is to take 15 minutes of your time before attending to the interview, sit down with a pencil and paper, and write down what you think about yourself, professionaly-speaking. After you have come up with a short but clear answer, now it is time to memorize it. This is the only perfect way to nail that question. But, what can I ask? Something that it can catch the employer's attention that demonstrate your involvement for the job position: "What do you seek in a person who holds the postion?" or something similar to that. That way, you are letting them know that you are very interested in them.

Tip #7.- THE TWENTY-SECOND TO TWO-MINUTE RULE: Even if you are an introvert or a never-in-silence extrovert, it is highly recomended that the answer to their question stay in between 20 seconds and two minutes.

Tip #16.- THANK YOU NOTES MUST BE SENT AFTER EVERY INTERVIEW: It is as simple as it sounds like, ignored by most of job-hunters out there, and as succesfull as ever. It shows courtesy and respect, and it will be a plus that can help you get a second interview. You don't believe it? Last month, my girlfriend was about to head for a job interview when I came up with the last tip before she left. I mentioned it to her and she was skeptical. After the interview, she decided to send a thank you note, and wished for the best outcome of a situation that she felt there was a low chance on getting a second interview. Long story short, after 3 weeks of suspense, she recieved another call from the employer saying that they had received the thank you note and that they wanted her to come back for a second interview. It is like you'd have never thought it could work, but it does.

Going to job interviews can be very stressful, therefore you want to be ready for the best. Chapter 4 of the book is a set of rules on how to make you confident in front of any employer from any company. Best of luck!

Week 4 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 3 (Review)

Chapter 3 of the book talks about the different angles from where you can see your situation. It tells us that nothing has changed since 2008 (contradiction to chapter 1), but it is true. The amount of jobs available per month hasn't decreased, or if it has, there is still a ridiculous number of job positions out there waiting to be filled.

I like the example that the author shares in the chapter, so I will explain it with my own words. Imagine you have a store that sells dresses, and in your inventory you have currently 100. Now, a friend comes to visit and notices that you have that amount of dresses, then leaves and comes back one month later. He asks, how many dresses do you have? and you say, 95. He mocks you by saying "Haha, you only sold 5 dresses in the last month", but the truth is that you increased your inventory in that month by adding 50 dresses more. Do the math: (100+50)-95= 55. You sold 55 dresses last month. 

You see, it is not that job openings only happen a few times a year, but it happen every month, more and more than you think. And if some of those jobs are taken, the next month more job positions will be open again. It's the way you see trouble, either the glass is half empty, or the glass is half full.

Week 3 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 2 (Review)

¨Google Is Your New Resume¨ is the name of the second chapter. My first thought was ¨that sounds pretty cool¨, afterall, Google has an enormous quantity of data that could help employers see me in different ways. But of course, it all depends on the things I have shared on my social media websites.
Can you actually get hired or fired over your Facebook page?

I don`t believe your Facebook page can get you hired, but i do believe it can get you fired. Facebook is a social media page where people share their beliefs, thoughts, emotions, and innumerable videos, pictures, or songs they could feel identified by. Now, the problem comes when the company`s mission or values go against your personal idealism over life itself. To make it more simple, here are some examples.

SWISS WOMAN CAUGHT SURFING ON FACEBOOK WHILE ¨HOME SICK¨ FROM WORK

The woman claimed to be unable to work ¨in front of a computer ¨ but her boss had lost the employer-employee trust needed to make a business relationship work, so she got canned.

NFL CHEERLEADER FIRED OVER PICTURE

Caitilin Davis, a cheerleader for the New England Patriots got fired at age 18 for sharing a picture on Facebook that shows her next to a man who appears to be blacked out from alcohol. The man had his body covered with vulgar graffitis and a quote that said ¨I am a Jew¨. Fired.

WOMAN BLASTS HER BOSS ON FACEBOOK

I think this pretty much says it all...

After reading this chapter, I think I will think twice before using my social media pages.

Week 2 - What Color is your Parachute: Chapter 1 (Review)

Interesting beginning: The first pages of chapter one makes you feel like life isn’t over yet. An anti-depressive combination of phrases that gives hope to the hopeless and courage to the ones who are afraid. It explains the situation of being out of job from the point of view of the job-hunters, and it sums up every feeling and stress a person who has been in this situation feels. It is safe to say that the author knows his target very well.

I have divided chapter one in two: the bad news and the good news. It starts by telling you everything that you have been doing wrong: From the old fashion methods on approaching employers to an incorrect way of how to use your resume. Who would have thought that “when the economy turns tough (for us), employers are finding it easier to fill a vacancy…”? People may think that it works the other way but it doesn’t. The author explains very clearly the different points of view from the job-hunter to the employers that make you feel like you’ve been there before. Thoughts you have had before, sayings you’ve said, and things you’ve done, the author knows it and mentions it.

 

The second part of the chapter brings you the good news. Finally some good news! The proof that life isn’t over yet, but it has just began. What I liked the most are “The Key Ideas for Successful Job-Hunting in the 21^st Century” or “The Parachute Process” in which one of the ones that I enjoyed the most was principle #4: “Search for What You Love, Not Just for What You Can”. It states “passion plus competency, not just competency alone”. Is that true? The legend of make-work-a-fun-place-to-go? Well apparently is up to the job-hunter. Another idea that caught my attention was #9 “Avoid HR Department”, and it makes so much sense! The number of applicants that are looking for the same job you are is enormous and HRs job is to cut that number down as quickly as possible. Try not to fall in their trap! Be extremely cautions and “say nothing that can get you eliminate”. Almost like a life or death sick game.

The main thoughts that chapter one has left in my head are: “This book has given me a different way on how to see the job-hunting world”, and “I gotta keep reading this”.