Book Byte #118 "What Color is your Parachute?"
Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success
📣 Curious Quotes from the Author
“Always define WHAT you want to do with your life and WHAT you have to offer to the world, in terms of your favorite talents/gifts/skills-not in terms of a job-title.”
“So many times you will see people wringing their hands and saying 'I want to know what my mission in life is,' all the while they are cutting people off on the highway, refusing to give time to people, punishing their mate for having hurt their feelings or lying about what they did.”
“I like the late Bernard Haldane's definition of an achievement. He says it is: something you yourself feel you have done well, that you also enjoyed doing and felt proud of. In other words you are looking for an accomplishment that gave you two pleasures: enjoyment while doing it, and satisfaction from the outcome. That doesn't mean you may not have sweated as you did it, or hated some parts of the process, but it does mean that basically you enjoyed most of the process. The pleasure was not simply in the outcome, but along the way as well.”
“..a disability is something within you. A prejudice is something within the
employer...don’t look at yourself through their eyes. Look at yourself through your own eyes.”
“..in any situation we may ever find ourselves, no matter how much we feel we are at the mercy of vast immutable forces that are totally beyond our control, we can always find something that is within our control, however small, and work on that. Sometimes
that may only change a little, sometimes it may change a lot. You just never know. But what we do know is that by working on even that 2 percent, it saves us from a feeling of complete powerlessness.”
“We want to find that special joy, “that no one can take from us,” which comes from having a sense of Mission in our life.”
“Call it anything else if you will—fear, anxiety, nervousness, sweating
—but “shyness” is the historic word for it.”
“Inventiveness depends upon two habits of mind, which we can adopt and develop: attention and curiosity. Attention means paying attention.....Curiosity means just that. Endlessly curious. Endlessly asking questions. Endlessly wanting to know how, and why?”
“Self-introspection is the way to improve any company, any marriage, any nation. And any job-hunt.”
“What the meaning of this period of unemployment is, now. One way to get at that definition is to ask ourselves, “What is this time for?”
“High tech needs to be complemented by high touch.”
“The best parts of this world were not fashioned by those who were "realistic." They were fashioned by those who dared to look hard at their wishes and then gave them horses to ride.”
📚 Cognition of the Book’s Big Idea:
If your job search is not producing results, instead of searching harder, try searching smarter. Begin by doing the Flower Exercise to determine what you want out of a career. Then, use your relationships to make the most of your internet profile. Brush up on interview techniques, and don't overlook the topic of your desired pay. Follow these simple steps, and you might be shocked at how quickly you can parachute into your ideal job!
Build your confidence through informational interviews.
To request an interview, you do not need to apply for the position. Have you heard of an informative interview? This is an informal talk in which a company employee informs you about their workplace culture and specific function at the organization. Asking your connections for informative interviews is an excellent strategy to establish relationships in your field. Interviews also provide an opportunity to learn about different firms while determining which ones would be a good fit.
🛠️Fixing the Tech Industry
The Tech Industry is in pretty dire straights right now. With layoffs happening in even the big FAANG companies, the more of them that occur, the harder and more difficult finding a job can become.
While you interview for jobs, don’t take it personally if you get rejected. It’s more to do with them than it is with you. Your first reaction might be to think “What did I do wrong” but it may have been just a place you didn’t fit into or heck, even wanted to.
Eventually we fall into the job we need at the time, but not necessarily the one we wanted. If you try to grow in the opportunities that are presented to you, you will always win, always.
🤝Collaborate with others with this Social Media Prompt:
What part of the interview process do you hate worse than anything?
My Software Stack: I use Skool for my Online Community Platform and ClickFunnels for my Landing Pages, Payments, and Email Sequencing. I use Substack for my Newsletter and Taskade for AI Note Taking/Second Brain/Project Management. I use my Personal Amazon Store for Tech and Book Recommendations.