What Color Is Your Parachute? 2017: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers

There is a self-examination type questionnaire that you can fill out, at Working Solo (www.workingsolo.com/faqstarting.html#Ans1). It encourages you to ask yourself the hard questions.

There is also a website called Checkster (www.checkster.com). Scroll down to the bottom of its home page. There you will see “Solutions. Talent Checkup.”

Just remember, it takes a lot of guts to try ANYTHING new (to you) in today’s slowly recovering economy. It’s easier, however, if you keep these things in mind:

There is always some risk, in trying something new. Your goal, I hope, is not to avoid risk—there is no way to do that—but to make sure ahead of time that the risks are manageable.

As we have seen, you find this out before you start, by first talking to others who have already done what you are thinking of doing; then you evaluate whether or not you still want to go ahead and try it.

Have a plan B, laid out, before you start, as to what you will do if it doesn’t work out; i.e., know where you are going to go, next. Don’t wait, puh-leaze! Write it out, now: This is what I’m going to do, if this doesn’t work out.

One final word of caution here: if you’re just graduating from high school, don’t go get a college degree in some career field just because you think that this will guarantee you a job! It will not.

If nothing inspires you, try Daniel Pink’s prescription:2

Make a list of five things you are good at.

Then make a second list of five things you love to do.

Then make a third list of where the first two lists overlap.

Read that list. Ask yourself, “Will anyone pay me to do these things?”

The best work, the best career, for you, the one that makes you happiest and most fulfilled, is going to be one that uses: your favorite transferable skills, in your favorite subjects, fields, or special knowledges, in a job that offers you your preferred people-environments, your preferred working conditions, with your preferred salary or other rewards, working toward your preferred goals and values. This requires thorough inventory of who you are.

If you are young, or relatively young, it’s okay to make a mistake, in your choice. Bucky Fuller used to always say that Man was the only creature that learns primarily from making mistakes. You’ll have time to correct a bad decision. Most of us will have at least three careers during our lifetime, and eight or more jobs.

In moving from one career to another, make sure that you preserve constancy in your life as well as change, during the transition. In other words, don’t change everything.

If you can, you’ll do better to start with yourself and what you want, rather than with the job-market, and what’s “hot.” The difference is “enthusiasm” and “passion.” Yours. You’re much more attractive to employers when you’re on fire. Maybe times are just too tough where you are, to start with your vision of what you want to do with your life, for now, anyway; but try.

Go for any career that seems fascinating or even interesting to you. But first talk to people who are already doing that work, to find out if the career or job is as great as it seems at first impression.

Every man and woman may see their vocation in a different light. Don’t assume that the way the person you are interviewing defines it, is the way you must, also. Beneath any job-title, there is often lots of room for you to maneuver and define that job in a way that uniquely suits you, your gifts, and your creativity.