When it's full of holes, who cares?

In his famous book, What Color Is Your Parachute, Richard Nelson Bolles asks you to lie down on the couch and figure yourself out before deciding what to do with your life. Not bad work, if you can get it.

Meanwhile, the rest of you are broke and desperate for work. While you do occasionally dream of the life you would have if you had only learned to play the guitar at six, or ice skate at five, let's face it: you are the person in the mirror. All grown up and no place to go.

Right now what you need is a job. A good-paying job. To get it, you don't need to read hundreds of pages of psycho-babble. Just answer these questions:

  1. Can you do anything really well? Do people compliment you on this thing?
  2. If "yes," is it a profession?
  3. If "yes," does it pay the kind of money that you need to make right now?
  4. If "yes," you have your chosen profession. At least for the moment. You can shop your dream job while you're working your day job.

If you've said "no" to any of these questions, then you have a dilemma:

  • Is there anything you have always wanted to learn or do, but haven't had the nerve or motivation to follow through?
  • Is it a profession that pays the kind of money you need to make right now?
  • If you're still nodding, you have your dream job. You just don't know how to do it.

Now here's the clincher:

  • Is there any link or bridge between the things that you can do and the things you want to do?
  • Is this link strong enough so you can use your existing strengths to give you a "foot up" as you venture out into this new arena?

If "yes," you may be better off seeking your dream job than your practical job. This book will teach you how to get to an interview and how to sound like you know what you're doing. You'll have to get up to speed fast so no one catches onto you. And in spite of the difficulties you are about to face, you are actually better off than someone with more focused skills and a better job history. They have the luxury of security, but the probability that they will never really get their dream job. You have no choice, yet possess an ironic sort of freedom.

If "no," then I can't help you. I didn't write this book so you could land a job and then get fired the first week. That doesn't help anyone. In fact, it hurts everyone. I wrote this book to help good, otherwise-honest, hard-working people to get a job in an environment that abuses and betrays them at every turn.