One of the all-time 100 best nonfiction books —Time Richard N. Bolles

What Color is Your Parachute?

YOUR GUIDE TO A LIFETIME OF MEANINGFUL WORK AND CAREER SUCCESS

About the Book

The groundbreaking, indispensable guide to rewarding work and a fulfilling life—more than ten million copies sold!

For more than fifty years, What Color Is Your Parachute? has transformed the way people think about job hunting. Whether searching for that first position, recovering from a layoff, or dreaming of a career change, What Color Is Your Parachute? has shown millions of readers how to network effectively, compose impressive resumes and cover letters, interview with confidence, and negotiate the best possible salary—while discovering how to make their livelihood part of authentic living.

More than a job-hunting book, Richard N. Bolles’s timeless wisdom and famed self-assessment exercise clarifies seven key dimensions, so you can uncover your greatest passions, most valued traits, and transferable skills to design a life that enables you to flourish.

With the job market in constant flux, people everywhere have found that understanding who they are—what they care about, where and how they do their best work, and the most effective way to express their abilities—is the best compass to navigating an ever-changing and challenging professional landscape. It is also how their work can become part of a life filled with passion and purpose.

Using the trailblazing advice and enduring guidance of What Color Is Your Parachute?, job-hunters and career changers will have the tools to discover—and land—the work, and life, most meaningful to them.

Download a sample list of coaches here.

Job Interview Tips

Reviews & Testimonials

“Parachute still soars with practical advice. This book is a steady seller, always making the USA Today annual list of top-selling books. No wonder: Parachute is practical and trustworthy. ”Jacqueline Blais, USA Today
“Parachute remains the most complete career guide around… It covers all the ground less ambitious guides do, as well as some the others don't, mostly in the realm of the psyche.”Barbara Presley Noble, New York Times
“Ideally, everyone should read What Color Is Your Parachute? in the tenth grade and again every year thereafter.”Anne Fisher, Fortune
“What Color Is Your Parachute? has been the job-hunting classic for decades …Bolles always goes beyond the routine, including things like useful Internet sites and how to select a career counselor. It's virtually always the best-selling career book, and with good reason.”David Murphy, San Francisco Chronicle
“A career-advice juggernaut. The best-selling career guide in history…. Parachute has sold over nine million copies, spawned a number of ancillary books (including editions for teens and retirees), and was named by the Library of Congress as one of the 25 books that have shaped readers' lives—putting Bolles in the company of Malcolm X, Robert Louis Stevenson and God, whose own Bible is a perennial bestseller.”New York Post
“What Color Is Your Parachute?… has been around so long we forget the author… helped define not only an industry, but a national perspective.”Amy Lindgren, Working Strategies Syndicated Career Columnist
“An extraordinary annual book.”Joyce Lain Kennedy, Tribune Media Services
“I would trace back a lot of my accomplishments to doing [the exercises in Parachute]. …Bolles's ideas have served the highly mobile American workforce well. His book just becomes more relevant in time.”Bestselling Business Author Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, as reported in U.S. News and World Report
“Best Overall Career Guide”Career World
“Like the Energizer Bunny, Richard Nelson Bolles keeps on going .... Throughout this iconic book, Bolles gives sound advice to people looking for employment and those attempting to build meaningful careers.”The Toronto Star

About the Author

Richard M. Bolles, Author of What Color is Your Parachute?

RICHARD N. BOLLES led the job-search field for more than 40 years. A member of Mensa and the Society for Human Resource Management, he served as the keynote speaker at hundreds of conferences. Bolles earned a bachelor’s degree cum laude in physics from Harvard University, a master’s degree from General Theological (Episcopal) Seminary in New York City, and three honorary doctorates.