Best and Worst Ways to Find a Job

Chapter 6 in What Color is your Parachute by Richard N. Bolles talks about twelve different ways to find a job. Bolles discusses the best and worst ways to find a job and explains a little bit about each way. I was surprised that there were actually twelve different avenues to take when job searching. I always thought there were only a few basic ways, such as performing an online search, or getting a promotion, or having a connection. One important statement Bolles makes in this chapter is that you should never give up, no matter how many different ways or times you have tried to find a job you should always keep looking.

The first way to find a job that Bolles talks about is performing an online job search. I was extremely shocked when he said that online job searches only work 4% of the time. I thought that was the best way to job search because it seems so convenient for both employer and potential employee. The second way to find a job, that Bolles mentioned, was to send out your resume via the mail directly to the employer or post your resume online. Bolles says that this approach only works 7% of the time, which again was very shocking too me. Everyone always says that you need to get your resume out there, yet it does not seem that putting a resume out is very effective. Answering newspaper ads or going to an employment agency only works 5%-25% of the time. This was not quite as shocking in my opinion because I feel that we are really moving away from newspaper job postings especially with the increasing use of technology.

One approach that seems to work a little better than others is asking friends, family, and coworkers for possible job leads. Bolles says that this method works about 33% of the time. I find this statistic very believable because asking people is something that you do from your first part time job through to your very last career. It seems that the way to be most successful is to find what you are really interested in and contact those business in person to see if anything is open. If you are invested in what you do and the company you contact is just as invested you may be a perfect fit for each other.

Job hunting is never easy but with the tips that Bolles suggest, it can be a lot less stressful then you would think.

Book Credit:  Bolles, Richard. "The Six Secrets of Salary Negotiation." What Color Is Your Parachute? 2016 ed. Ten Speed, 2016. Print.