Comments on: What Color Is Your Parachute? How to Hunt for a Job

By: Cherokee

Cherokee — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:09:41 +0000

Informative and entertaining. I’ve added your blog to my “reading material.” Keep me updated!

By: Odchudzam sie

Odchudzam sie — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:48:15 +0000

I think it depends on the job you’re looking for. If you want to work in a big bank as na asset manager for example, the only way to do it is to send a CV via email to the HR dept, where it will be processed and send further and so on – no way to get a connction with the company before the initial interview.
But, if you’re looking for a job in a smaller firm or somewhere, where relations are more important, well that may be different..

By: Danny

Danny — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:05:44 +0000

Just picked up the 2007 edition at my school’s library. I don’t know if I can catch up, but I will try!

It seems to be just what I am looking for. I just switched majors/minors, and am just trying to figure out what to do.

By: razmaspaz

razmaspaz — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:11:49 +0000

@Thank you letters:

“You’ll also stand out distinctly from the horde that doesn’t bother to send one.”

When I was an intern several years back, I was talking with my then boss. She said that I was hired for the job because I followed up. I guess there was one other guy they were considering, but he never really did anything to show interest. I sent a letter saying I was excited about the job, and to this day I am under the impression that the letter is why I got the job.

By: Ryan S.

Ryan S. — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 01:32:18 +0000

As someone who is currently looking for a job, I appreciate this review greatly. I’ll see if I can get this one from the library….

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:24:19 +0000

I have done both: got a very good job because I knew someone there who was an old friend, AND found a job via the internet. I really wouldn’t discount either one, because everybody’s circumstances are different.

If you don’t have a friend where you are wanting to go, or if you unfortunately have enemies in that place, the old “network” idea is pretty useless to you.

My job now is a federal job, and while I can’t say that I love it, it offered decent and stable employment in the “good ole boy” area in which I choose to live. If I hadn’t found it, the BS politics of this place would have kept me unemployed FOREVER.

By: beth

beth — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:06:44 +0000

has anybody used librarything.com

it helps you catalog your books and network with others who have read same or similar books

By: KarenFLA

KarenFLA — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:44:06 +0000

I have helped people get jobs as part of my living for over 35 years. One thing has not changed. Want ads are one of the poorest ways to get a job. The best way is through someone you know and the next best is to contact a company directly. It used to be through the yellow pages, now it has expanded to include the internet. The concept has not changed. What kind of job do you want and what company hires people for that kind of job? If you work full time at finding a job (40 hours a week) contacting companies directly, you will get a job. If you just answer the want ads, you will be unemployed for a long time. I tell people to call the companies directly they find and ask if they can fax over their resume and to who’s attention. Often they are told to fax it to a specific department head. They can then call that person a week later because they have a name and the person has the resume. Also, the resume has to reflect the specific job they want like: to find a sales job where I can use my strong interpersonal skills. Resumes with goals like: “To work for a company that provides personal growth” get tossed in the garbage.

By: !wanda

!wanda — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:48:02 +0000

@MW: The trick is to be both- both the best person for the job and the best person for getting the job. People aren’t fair, and as long as people do hiring and not computers, hiring isn’t going to be fair either.

By: Lynnae @ Being Frugal

Lynnae @ Being Frugal — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:52:08 +0000

I’m going to echo Chris H. that it’s important to be prepared for the interview. My husband had an interview today, and he said it seemed like the guy who conducted the interview was pleasantly surprised at the intelligent questions my husband asked.

By: UltraRob

UltraRob — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:01:08 +0000

In the past 12.5 years I’ve had 5 jobs without counting the new job I started last week. 3 of them make up 12 years and the other 2 make up 6 months combined. The difference? I had connections to the 3 companies I stayed at longer. The oher 2 I didn’t.

I found the job that I just started on one of the big job sites although I was working some other opportunities through networking. I think the thing that made my resume stand out to the hiring manager was that I had started at one of her old jobs a couple years after she left. I have worked with a lot of people that she used to. Another long distance mountain bike racer I know works there although I didn’t realize it before I applied for the job. I may have found the job on a big job site but I think it was my connections that got me the job.

By: Brian C

Brian C — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:56:01 +0000

I have had a lot of success applying for jobs online. To obtain an interview (and eventual offer) for my last 2 jobs, I made the initial contact by applying at the company’s website; I did not have a contact at the company. Both jobs experienced engineering jobs.

By: Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:50:07 +0000

It’s not about hiring the best person for the job, it’s about hiring the person who is best at getting a job. I’m not into that inauthentic game.

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:45:44 +0000

I don’t think you can reiterate enough how important handwritten thank-you notes are to obtaining a job. Awhile ago I was by chance asked to help play host to a visiting lecturer while all the professors were busy (I’m in college). Even though I wasn’t searching for jobs in his city I sent a note thanking him for the conversation and lecture. Not a few days later I received a package in the mail containing a personal invitation to interview at his firm and some booklets. The remaining booklets were for the other students we dined with: who didn’t write thank-yous and whose names he couldn’t even remember, even though one of the students attended solely to network a job.

Thank you notes may seem like something that gets thrown away with only a glance, but I’ve spotted my thank-you cards sitting on the desks of my employers months after I sent them! It’s amazing the power and rarity of a handwritten letter.

By: natasha

natasha — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:57:36 +0000

The job search process has gotten more difficult to do without going online these days; it seems like just about everyone has their applications online, especially if you’re going for positions with larger companies or government entities. I got the job I’m just about to start at through online applications, and got two of the last three jobs I’ve had from online applications. The hardest part is when you have few to no connections, because then your method of “use your connections” doesn’t go very far– especially if your connections aren’t in a field you’re interested in or capable of working in. In the area I live in, the tourist industry is the largest industry in the area, and online applications are ubiquitous for even the most mundane or important positions. Then again, the jobs are mostly disposable and don’t pay a living wage. There’s definitely a lot to be said about what happens when most of the jobs in an area won’t pay enough for a person to survive on just one job alone.

By: Chris H.

Chris H. — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:29:25 +0000

I did something similar to Johanna, I looked at the jobs section of the websites of companies that I was interested in rather than the big job-clearinghouse sites and it worked great for me.

I haven’t read WCIYP for quite a few years, but I seem to recall the edition I read warning about the HR department and how a major part of their job is to screen you out. So true! The HR department at my current job was a total dead end for me, I dealt with excuses from them for months (Oh I lost your resume, could you send another…). My wife told me to give up, but I tried one last time- what I did was to find a scientist at the company (I was looking for a scientific position) and contact them directly. They weren’t the right person, but they passed my resume to the scientist who was hiring and I got a call for an interview the next day. They ended up hiring me even though they wanted postdoc experience, which I didn’t have, because I was tenacious going after the job and because I worked really, really hard to prepare for the interview. In some circumstances, you CAN get past the old ‘no-job-without-experience-but-no-experience-without-the-job’ problem.

I’ve participated in many interviews since, on the other side of the table, and I’m utterly shocked at how unprepared many of the candidates are. It’s scary to think that they’re the ones that made it past the resume screen! I love interviewing when I have a well prepared candidate that asks intelligent questions, I hate it when I have a ‘job moocher’ who clearly just sends a stock resume out to any job that even remotely matches.

By: Chad

Chad — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:18:22 +0000

In reading this I found it interesting to see the number of jobs that churned so to speak. I don’t have the book in front of me but it was like 40 mil or something like that.

Plus the bogeyman section. There is always something that has to be worrying so that employers get the upper hand. I have found that more outsourcing fails then succeeds but I am sure that trend will reverse itself as people are better at both managing and doing it.

It boils down to maintaining frugality so that you can pick a job that doesn’t require huge paychecks to live the life you want to live.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:29:53 +0000

I conducted my last job search solely by answering ads posted on the internet. I got six interviews and two offers, including one for my current job, which I love. So my resume was not getting thrown in the trash. Either I am extraordinarily talented (ha!), extraordinarily lucky (wouldn’t count that one out…), or else the internet isn’t such a horrible way to find a job after all.

One thing worth noting, though: I didn’t search for jobs on generic job-listing websites. I looked directly at the websites of organizations I admired and wanted to work for, and I looked at job-listing websites that are specific to my field.