Week #14 What Color is Your Parachute?

Have you ever thought about starting your own business? I know I have. In the most recent chapter of  What Color is Your Parachute? I read about starting a business. For some people, job hunting might not be going very well or maybe you've realized that you want to be your own boss. If any of those things apply to you then maybe starting your own business may be the right choice for you.

According to the book there are four things you should do before opening your own business. Those are; write, read, explore and get feedback. Write, write it all out. Write down your ideas, skills, interest, knowledge and anything that comes to mind. Read, read about whats its like to own your own business. Read things that you feel passionate about that will help you create your own business. Explore, explore your options. Explore how businesses like the one you are trying to create turned out. See what worked for the business and what didn't. Then think of ways you can use those things to make your business better. Finally, get feedback. The best people to go to for feedback is family. They know you better than anyone and will be able to give you the best advice. It's also important to explore whether staring your own business is going to require sacrifices from them, not just you. Also ask them how they would feel about if they needed to make sacrifices for your business. That feedback may open you eyes to realize if opening your own business will be possible. 

Pictured above in my grandmas dance studio. My grandma owns here own business and it's not always easy. She said she opened her own business because she wanted to be her own boss. Grandma Pat is 81 years old and still owns her own business today. Before opening her own dance studio she did just about everything I mentioned in the above paragraph. And that is because she read What Color is Your Parachute? She told me that she wouldn't have had any idea as to how to start a business if it wasn't for this book. Anyone can be successful as long as you take your time and are willing to learn from your mistakes.

Week #13 What Color is Your Parachute?

I'm sure everyone has had the thought of changing careers before. I know I have. In chapter 11 of What Color is Your Parachute? I learned the five ways to choose / change careers. Before I go into the list of ways to change careers I would like to say that there is no problem with wanting to change careers after. It's not a big deal. Some of my friends have made such big deals about changing jobs because they thought people would look at them different. That should not matter. You do what makes you happy. Ok rant over, on to the list.

1. The internet
2. Tests
3. Using the flower exercise 
4. Changing a career in two steps
5. Finding out what the job market may need

The job market is always a good place to look for a job. The only problem with looking into the job market is, you may not find a job you want but you'll find a job the job market wants. That could be good and bad. Good because you may get to experience a job you never thought you would do and bad because you might end up doing a job you hate. In my personal opinion I think looking to see what the job market needs is a great place to dig into. You never know what you could find. Heck I would totally apply for a job that the job market needs just to get my foot in the door somewhere. It's good to get all kinds of experience. That is what most jobs look for when you apply, what kind of experience do you have. The more experience you have the better shot you have at getting a better job. So, there is no shame going out and finding a job you may not want to do, you could end up falling in love with it. No matter what it'll be a learning experience. I think thats what matters most. 

Week #12 My grandma knows about, What Color is Your Parachute?

Tonight I was doing my homework at my grandma's house and she saw my What Color is Your Parachute? book sitting on the kitchen table. She picked it up and sad "Gianna are you reading this book?", I said yes gram I am reading this book for a class. She looked at the book and said, "You know what, I read this book before I opened my own business." I lifted my head from my computer and looked at her and said, "really?". She said, "Yes! I actually used tips from this book to help me with my studio.".

Little bit of background  my grandma, Pat Toniolo, opened up her own dance studio in 1979. When she first opened she had 800 kids and within a year she had to open a second studio because she was so busy.  My grandma is now 81 years old and STILL has her dance studio today, and she has no plans of closing the studio any time soon. She has been very successful in her 38 years of business. If tips from this book can help me be as successful as her I would be so happy.

The picture above is the front of my grandmas dance studio. It is located in Elmwood park IL.

After grandma looked at my book for awhile she started talking to me about it. She said that she remembers reading a lot of helpful tips from this book. I am in utter shock that she knew what this book was.  She even knew what the Flower exercise was! My dad on the other hand had no idea what the book was LOL. My grandma said she actually might still have her copies of the editions she read in the basement. If she does I plan on looking at them to see what has changed and what hasn't. I think that would be really cool. I will update everyone in the coming weeks on if I find the old What Color is Your Parachute? books.

Week 10: What Color is Your Parachute?

This week I read chapter 8. Chapter 8 was called self inventory part 2. This chapter builds on all the skills from the last chapter. On the first page of chapter 8 we learn about the flower exercise. The flower exercise consists of seven petals because there are seven sides to a person or seven ways we think of ourself. These seven petals are ways we can describe ourself. These petals consists of different categories.

1. You and people. 
2. You and a work place.
3. You and skills.
4. Your and your purpose in life.
5. You and the knowledges you already have.
6. You and salary/responsibility.
7. You and geography.

The chapter goes through each petal and uses chats, graphs and fill in the blanks that correspond to each category.  I love that each chapter comes with these tools that I am able to fill in and use for my personal benefit. Like I mentioned in my last blog post I am a visual learner. Writing things out and drawing pictures really helps me better understand what's going on.

The picture above is called the fisherman's net. The fisherman's net is used in petal five. This chart is used to map out all the things you've learned about yourself though your pervious job experience. I really like this chart because ultimately this chart may help you unearth a job or job fields that would be ideal for you. The book suggests that it is good to spend some time on this chart so you can really think about your answers before writing them out. There are many other charts that will help build a better understanding of where you want to be in the job world. If you want to fill out your own charts you can google the ones used in the book and print them out for free! That is something I will be doing so I can physically see how my job hunting career is going.

Week 9: What Color is Your Parachute ch. 7

If you are having trouble job hunting or you need to know how to job hunt, I recommend you check out What Color is Your Parachute. I am only half way though this book and I have learned so much about the job hunting world. Things that I will use for the rest of my life. The most recent chapter I read discussed doing a self inventory. The book lists seven steps as to why doing a self inventory is important. Before reading those seven steps the book states that 86% of people who follow these guidelines end up finding a job. Right away I was a little skeptical because; one I have never done a self inventory before and two I could not believe that t 86% of people found jobs just by doing this.  Then reading on I could totally see why these tips would work.

The picture above is called a prioritizing grid. This grid is the same one that was used in the book. The book recommends using grids, charts and visuals to help you match possible jobs or careers that will be a good choice for your self. I really liked this idea because I think everything is easier to understand if there are visuals. I also am a fan of making pro and con lists. With that being said I started to fill out my own prioritizing grid like the one above. I also make made a pro and con list of pros and cons of working in the job field that I plan on going in to. Making the list and following the gird made me feel a little bit better about my desired career path. After I graduate I plan on filling out this same grid to see if any of my answers have changed. 

Week 7: What Color is Your Parachute?

Back at it again with another chapter review from What Color is Your Parachute?. This weeks chapter was titled "The Six Secrets of Salary Negation", you all know how important this. The first secret I think could be the most important, "Never discuss salary until the end of the whole interviewing process at that organization, when (and if) they have definitely said they want you". I have always wondered when it was appropriate to ask what the salary is going to be for the place that I am interviewing at. In all honesty, for the few interviews I have had I never asked about the salary and that is because I was too afraid I was going to ask and sound stupid. Then again I also didn't know when I should ask either. But now it makes sense that I should ask about salary once you know for sure if you have been hired. Some interviewers may even bring up what the salary may be, which makes asking about it even easier!

Another secret that stood out to me was that you should research typical salaries for the job field you are interviewing for. This is something that I personally have not thought of. With the kind of technology we have now we can find all kinds of information on google about salaries. For example, I looked up the starting pay for a dentist right out of college, the average salary is about 40-50k a year. That is with no experience other than college. So if you were to have an interview for a dental company you would know that you should be getting paid around that much.

When it comes to an interview you can never be too prepared. It's always good to know more so you seem knowledgeable and interested in the job you are looking for. Happy hunting!!     

Week 6: What Color is Your Parachute?

Yet another great chapter from What Color is Your Parachute? This week I read about tips for interviews. I have never really been to an "official" interview before. All the jobs I have had thus far have not had a big interview process. The interviews I have experienced have not been longer than ten minutes and usually the person interviewing me made it seem like the job I was trying to get was not a big deal. With that being said I was happy to see a chapter dedicated to interviewing tips.

One thing that stood out to me was that you are also supposed to ask the interviewer questions. Before reading this chapter I knew I was going to have to ask the interviewer questions I was just not sure of what I was supposed to ask. This section gives example questions; "What does this job involve?" and "What are the skills a top employee in this job would have to have?". I think asking the person who is interviewing you questions is important because it makes it seem like you are more interested in the job, which you should be. After reading this section I plan on making a list of questions to ask during my next interview. I know it will play a big role in getting the job.

Week #5- What Color is Your Parachute?

In this weeks reading of What Color is Your Parachute I learned about job hunting. Job hunting never changes, well the essence of it doesn't change. Everyone has to go on a job hunt at least once in their life. It's something we cannot avoid. According to the book there is no right or wrong way to go on a job hunt. To be honest your going to fail countless amounts of times before you find the right job, but that is okay. It's a part of life. This book is here to guide us through this big scary world of "big boy or big girl" jobs. It's a trial and error process.

One thing we do need to realize is that job hunting is a job in itself. Looking for a job is a full time job LOL. People these days think that finding a job will happen fast. Hate to burst your bubble but that is not true what so ever. The job hunting process is not meant to be speedy. How good of a job can it be if everything happens so fast. Not only do you want to hunt for a job you like but you also want to do some research on it to make sure it is the right fit for you. Look into the places you are hiring. Ask your self if you could see yourself working in this kind of environment or if you could see yourself doing that job. If one of those things seems iffy keep searching. One thing I have learned so far is that job hunting is mysterious, it works in weird ways. So don't be upset if one of the jobs did not work out because the best job you've ever had could be right around he corner.

Week 4: What Color is Your Parachute? Ch 2 review

Last night I finished reading chapter 2 of What Color is Your Parachute?. I really enjoyed chapter 2. It was very informative. This chapter was titled, "Google Is Your New Resume". What that means is during this day and age companies are using Google more than an actual resume. It is becoming more and more popular for a company to search your name before they select you for an interview. With that being said, the chapter gives us 4 ways to improve your Google resume. Those 4 ways are; edit, fill in, expand, and add. Each of those 4 ways will make your google resume look a lot better. For example, when editing you want to make sure you delete anything you've posted that seems unprofessional. I think that editing is one of the most important things when fixing up your Google resume because if a company is looking at you and sees that you post things about getting drunk, racist comments and etc, you have less of a chance of getting hired.

Since this chapter talks about Google so much I decided to Google myself to see what would come up.

 

When I search my name nothing bad comes up. All the links to all forms of my social media show up, which I don't think is a bad thing. If a company decides to look at my social media I honestly would not care. My Instagram is open to the public because I do not post things I shouldn't. Same goes for my Twitter. The only issue I stumbled upon was when I image searched my name. Things my friends tagged me in came up. They are not bad pictures or anything, but their captions for things is what makes it iffy. Because of that I will be un-tagging myself from those pictures. 

I cannot wait to continue making posts about this book. So far it's been a blast.

Week 3: What Color is Your Parachute?

This week I began reading the book What Color is Your Parachute? At first glance I thought this book was going to be boring and uninteresting. But I was wrong. (Never judge a book by its cover. I know). To be completely honest I have not thought a lot about job hunting. That's mainly because I am so focused on school I haven't had to look for any "big girl" jobs yet. All the jobs I have applied for were little part time jobs that my friends have introduced me to. After reading the first chapter I realized I need to start preparing myself to look for jobs after college now.

The first chapter of the book talks about how finding jobs are getting harder and will continue to get harder as the time goes on. ( Yay for me). Bolles states in the book that 22.6% of people who are looking for a job are spending six months or longer looking for a job. That is very concerning. This is why I think it is important to start preparing myself now. Another thing that concerns me is that the length of how long a jobs lasts has decreased. This section talks about because of the dramatic decrease of how long a job lasts there has been an increase of part time jobs. I don't know about you but I am trying to find a full time job. Sure, it's nice having a little part time job while going to school but that is not going to cut it after I graduate.

I want to refer back to my AI blog for a second. The book mentions the future and how computers are going to continue to play a huge role in the job world. This is the second time I have came across this topic in a week. Bolles says, "...robots will take away a net of 5 million jobs by 2020." 2020 is not that far away people! We need to be prepared for things like this. As mentioned in my blog about AI I think it will be essential for people to learn things like coding. It could give us a huge advantage in the job field. I can't wait to share more tips I learn from this book.