Ch. 7

This chapter talks about finding out who you are and how you can use that to your advantage in the job market.

There are 7 ways that help us understand why this is important.

1.) Your job title isn't designed to explain that you could have many skills to provide. You must evaluate yourself and realize you have multiple skills. Take those and figure out how to place them in your resume along with collaborating in the job market. In this way, multiple markets can open up to you instead of just 1.

2.) By doing this, you can specifically say, in detail, what you are looking for in a career.

3.) Passion rises in the job hunt. Normally looking for 1 job title sounds more like a duty, but with your specific skill set, you have a vision and you will do anything to get this job.

4.) When you know what company you'd like to work for, you don't have to wait for a job opening. You go forward and approach them through your bridge person (like we talked about before). "More often than you would think, they will create a job for you," Bolles mentions in the book.

5.) "You will stand out because you can accurately describe to employers exactly what is unique about you, and what you bring to the table that the others do not."

6.) If you are considering a career change, there are multiple ways to learn about the new job you seek, or to create your own. For example, if you work retail, but decide you want to work in the food industry, you can google how those jobs can be. An even better idea is to talk to actual people that work in that field.

7.) Bolles words this last reason very well. "Unemployment is an interruption, in most of our lives. And interruptions are opportunities , to pause, to think, and to assess where we really want to go with our lives."

The rest of the chapter has about 20 pages of how you can begin to create your "Flower Diagram," which is a visual of  the 7 sides of you. The middle involves knowing your favorite knowledges or fields of interest, and it branches off from there to the petals. He helps you complete each petal through out the rest of the chapter.