An Effective Approach that Leads to Your Ideal Work

I am often asked about figuring out what career path to follow. One of the resources I have found useful is the book “What Color Is Your Parachute”, by Richard Nelson Bolles. Particularly helpful is the companion publication “The What Color Is Your Parachute Workbook – How to Create a Picture of Your Ideal Job or Next Career”. The end result of the workbook process is a “flower” – a model for the picture of the “Ideal Job”. Each petal of the flower addresses an important aspect to consider:

1. My favorite kinds of things that I like to work with
2. My favorite kinds of information that I like to work with
3. My favorite people to work with
4. My favorite rewards at work
5. My favorite spiritual or emotional setting
6. My favorite outcomes, immediate and long-range
7. My favorite physical setting
8. My favorite transferable skills

So after working through the entire process you end up with a “flower” where each petal displays your preferences, prioritized in order of importance to you.

The key here is that if you can find work that incorporates (ideally) your top choice in many of these categories, you will have a very satisfying job and career.  Herein lies the difficulty: how do you identify such work?

Here is a process that has worked well for many of my clients: invite to your home 4 or 5 diverse friends and associates for a brainstorming session. Come after dinner for coffee and cake, then an hour or less of discussion. Explain the purpose ahead of time. At the session, have a copy of your “flower” available for each participant.

1.    I have invited you here for a bit of brainstorming/creative thinking: to generate ideas, share information, provide insight, that will help me to move forward, toward a fulfilling career targeted to my preferences.  To help us to open up, there should be no judgments as to the value of any of the ideas.

2.    My background is as follows;  here is what I liked best about the work I did; here are some of the factors I liked the least.  I do not want to embark on a career that incorporates these factors in large measure.

3.    Here are my preferences: explain each petal of the flower.  My ideal job will incorporate as many of these as possible.

4.   I will talk little and listen a lot. OK to record?

5.   What does this flower suggest to you?  What types of work come to mind that incorporate a lot of these preferences?  Can you imagine an ideal job (does not have to exist today)? Another? Another?

6.   What are the issues/barriers here? How might these be removed?

7.   Who do you know that knows something about this field and could provide additional information?  Can I use your name when I call?

8.   Record items on easel as they come up.  Keep flower visible at all times.

9.  Summarize at end. Thank them for their input.  Invite them to add thoughts as they occur (give out email address, business card).

10.  Document results and insights.

At the end of the session thank them for their insights, tell them how worthwhile this has been and that you will keep them informed of your progress.

Now lay out all of your notes and start “cutting”. There will have been several ideas that are not a good fit… but there are likely to be some juicy nuggets to explore further. That is where you want to start your research and your search.

Go get a copy of this workbook – it is not expensive and certainly a worthwhile investment. Try it out!

So… did you try it? How did it work out for you? Would you like to share your insights with others? I’d love to hear from you!!