Week 9- What Color is Your Parachute

 Chapter 7: Self Inventory, Part 1 talks about why knowing who you are and what you can do is key to helping you get a job. Richard Bolles has seven answers to why this works so well. 1. By doing this homework on yourself, you learn to describe yourself in at least six different ways, and therefor you can approach multiple job-markets. 2. By doing this homework on yourself, you can describe in detail exactly what you are looking for. 3. By ending up with a picture of a job that would really excite you, and not just any old job,you will inevitably pour much more time, energy, and determination into your job- search. 4. By doing this homework, you will no longer have to wait to approach companies until they say they have a vacancy. 5. When you are facing, let us say, nineteen other competitors for the job you want- equally experienced, equally skilled- you will stand out above them all,because you an accurately describe to employers exactly what is unique about you, and what you bring to the table that others do not. 6. If you are contemplating a career-change, maybe- after you inventory yourself- you will see definitely what new career or direction you want for your life. 7. Unemployment is an interruption, in most of our lives. And interruptions are opportunities, to pause, to think, to asses where we really want to go with our lives.


Now that we got those out of the way in order to do a self-inventory there's some things that need to be taken into account. First one has to mentally prepare. Preparing is thinking back to the past of previous jobs and what your skills are. Bolle says instead of saying "I'm an accountant you must think instead I am a person who.... has had these experiences"(Bolles.2018). Then once you got that is important to write down everything about yourself and put it on one sheet of paper. After that it's important to prioritize what you want and don't want at your place of work and what skills you will be able to bring. Lastly it is important to figure out what is most important whether its salary, location, the people, the degree of skills or, degree of the job in the field.


In the end its about how you take the self-inventory and it all comes down to where you are in life and what is most important to you. What may be important for you may not be for someone else. That's why it's called the self-inventory and not the We-inventory or the Us-inventory because it's about each individual.

Bolles, Richard N."Chapter 7: Self-Inventory Part 1" What Color is Your Parachute, 18th ed, Ten Speed Press, 2018, pp. 111-123.