By Bev Walton-Porter

Since 1970, Richard Nelson Bolles has published What Color is Your Parachute? for job seekers and career changers. His book has been translated into nine languages worldwide and is purchased by at least 20,000 people each month.

Q:  What changes or shifts do you see into the millennium in the job market landscape? How will people adjust to the market to meet their needs?

A: Contrary to most people's impressions, job hunting doesn't change that much from year to year or even from decade to decade. For example, people were using resumes as their primary job-hunting tool back in 1970 when I first came into this field. And they still are.

Q:  How does a resume fare when it's posted on the Net?

A: In a kind of "deja vu all over again," we note that in 1970, only one job was offered and accepted for every 1,470 resumes floating around out there in the world of work. And in 1999, with resumes on the Internet, the statistics were still depressing: one Internet site has 85,000 resumes posted on it by job hunters, yet only 850 employers looked at any of them in the previous three months.

Q:  So what can people do to increase their chances?

A: As in 1970, people need to find a more creative method of job hunting than resumes.

And let me add, the reason the job market needs to be approached through basically the same strategies today as 30 years ago is that job hunting is all about human nature, and human nature doesn't alter very much over time.

Q:  In your book, you talk about us being brainwashed since youth to let the job market determine the field we enter. You talk about finding your passion and mission on Earth. This is not always easy for young people, who are being bombarded by so many messages. What reassuring guidance could you give to young people who find the whole job-seeking dance utterly confusing?

A: Today's young people are as bright a generation as we have ever seen on the face of the Earth, but often lack life experience, as yet, to solve problems. One of those problems is learning to go after what you really want, rather than what the world allegedly has to offer. It takes time, it takes experience, to learn how to solve that.

But young people are behind the eight-ball in learning how to solve this one, because they are taught to focus on all the things they have done wrong, rather than to emphasize what wonderful skills they have.

Plus, their major decisions are often made for them, like what time to be home, when to do their homework, etc. And then when they reach 18 years of age, we suddenly say to them, "Hey, now you're an adult. Make your own decisions."

Q:  Can you list some beginning steps that can be taken?

A: There are baby steps with which one can begin, and they are to always ask, "What are my skills? Which ones do I most enjoy using? And what tasks do I most enjoy doing? When do I lose all track of time? What am I doing at that moment? What skills am I using?"

Thus they can begin to lay the basis for making decisions about life based on their passions, rather than on what others tell them.

Q:  Do you believe that the creative minority, with their different prescription about job hunting, will become the creative majority?

A: Generally speaking, the effectiveness rate of a particular method of job hunting is directly proportional to how much time and effort you have to put in on that method in order to make it work. The creative minority's prescription has the best effectiveness rate you can find, but it also requires the most work on the part of the job hunter.

Q:  Does that mean most people don't want to do the extra work required?

A: Since people almost always want the easiest, least demanding way to conduct their job hunt, the minority will always, in my opinion, remain a minority. However, I remain optimistic that at least over time the minority will grow in numbers.

Q:  Can today's young people realistically expect to influence and change the old ways of the job market so that more of them can find the career they're truly passionate about?

A: If one young person reads my book, does the exercises, follows its plan, and finds a good job, and then takes the time and trouble to go teach someone else how to do the same thing, they will have a chance to influence the old ways of the job market. When they become employers, they must remember all that they have learned and all that they have taught.

Q:  If young people can bring about long-term changes in the way businesses relate to first-time job seekers, what should these students begin doing now to approach this task in the future?

A: It all has to do with compassion. The purpose of most of the experiences in life is twofold: to give us experience in overcoming challenges and to teach us how to be compassionate toward others later in our life, when they go through the same experience we have.

Today's young people can best prepare for being employers who are "different and better" in their treatment of first-time job hunters, if they seek now to learn compassion in everything they do. How they act as employers will simply be an extension of that.

Q:  You say using the Internet is one of the five worst ways to find a job. Do you think the Internet will ever evolve into a viable source for finding a job?

A: Well, the five ways in which the Internet should help a job hunter are: job postings from employers, resume postings by job hunters, career counseling about how to choose a career that truly fits you, research about jobs, careers, companies, and finding, making and using contacts.

Now, I say the Internet is among the five worst ways to find a job if we are talking about the first two functions -- namely, job postings and resume postings. But if, over time, the Internet develops more resources to help with career counseling online and research online and finding contacts online, it could become a much more viable and helpful source in finding a job.

Q:  If you were counseling one of these young people, what one piece of advice would you give them?

A: My one piece of advice would be to regard all jobs today as:

• A temp job
• An adventure
• A seminar where the point is to learn; and one in which the satisfaction must lie in the work itself and not in some hoped-for future reward

Q:  Finally, what other suggestions or comments would you like to add regarding job hunting and careers?

A: That's easy, since I've raised five children:

1. Always believe in yourself.
2. Always believe you are highly skilled in some area. Find out what that area is with your hands, with your feet, your mind, your music, whatever.
3. Seek work that uses your favorite skills; not just your skills but your favorite skills.
4. Be the hardest-working employee they could possibly hope to find: come in early, stay late, work harder at solving difficult tasks or problems than anyone else. Never be content to say, "Oh well, I tried." Always remember, "They don't pay you for trying; they pay you to succeed."
5. If you don't like a job, since many jobs leave room for shaping them differently, try to shape that job so it fits you better. Ask for more tasks that are "right up your alley," and share tasks you don't like to do or don't do well with other employees who do them well.
6. If you must leave a job, try to have another job to go to before you leave. Always leave on good terms. Never blast the employer or get a load off your chest. It will come back to haunt you in some future job.
7. Keep asking yourself, "Why was I put here on Earth?" If you are religious, ask for guidance through prayer. Always pray as though everything depended on God, then work as though everything depended on you.
8. Be passionate about life.
9. Enjoy life. You were put here on Earth to enjoy life, as well as contribute to a better world.

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