Richard N. Bolles Quotes & Sayings

I like the late Bernard Haldane's definition of an achievement. He says it is: something you yourself feel you have done well, that you also enjoyed doing and felt proud of. In other words you are looking for an accomplishment that gave you two pleasures: enjoyment while doing it, and satisfaction from the outcome. That doesn't mean you may not have sweated as you did it, or hated some parts of the process, but it does mean that basically you enjoyed most of the process. The pleasure was not simply in the outcome, but along the way as well. — Richard N. Bolles

Just because you can't find them doesn't mean they don't exist. You've got to change the way you're
looking for them. Because there are always job vacancies out there. — Richard N. Bolles

..in any situation we may ever find ourselves, no
matter how much we feel we are at the mercy of vast immutable forces that are totally beyond our control,
we can always find something that is within our control, however small, and work on that. Sometimes
that may only change a little, sometimes it may change a lot. You just never know. But what we do know
is that by working on even that 2 percent, it saves us from a feeling of complete powerlessness. — Richard N. Bolles

So many times you will see people wringing their hands and saying 'I want to know what my mission in life is,' all the while they are cutting people off on the highway, refusing to give time to people, punishing their mate for having hurt their feelings or lying about what they did. — Richard N. Bolles

The best parts of this world were not fashioned by those who were "realistic." They were fashioned by those who dared to look hard at their wishes and then gave them horses to ride. — Richard N. Bolles

The success of your job-hunt depends
on you - with a little help from your friends. You must be in charge of it. You must plan it. You must
direct it. You must know what works and what doesn't work. Your job-hunt is by its very nature a
"self-directed search. — Richard N. Bolles

Self-introspection is the way to improve any company, any marriage, any nation. And any job-hunt. — Richard N. Bolles

High tech needs to be complemented by high touch. — Richard N. Bolles

Most job-hunters (and even a few resume writers)
assume a resume's purpose is to "sell you," or secure you a job. No, no, no. Its only purpose is to get you
an interview.
Selling is what you do after you're in the interview room. It's your task, when you're face to face, not
that piece of paper's. — Richard N. Bolles

Call it anything else if you will - fear, anxiety, nervousness, sweating
- but "shyness" is the historic word for it. — Richard N. Bolles

I'm sure that a huge proportion of the situation you are facing, is out out of your control. There's nothing you can do about it. But that proportion can't be 100 percent. There's got to be some proportion--let's say it's even just 2 percent--that is within your control. You can work on that. Who knows what a difference that may make! — Richard N. Bolles

Passion plus competency, not just competency alone, is key to securing employment. — Richard N. Bolles

Inventiveness depends upon two habits of mind, which we can adopt and develop: attention and
curiosity.
Attention means paying attention.....
Curiosity means just that. Endlessly curious. Endlessly asking questions. Endlessly wanting to know
how, and why? — Richard N. Bolles

Not just one way to describe ourselves, but two ways, at least.
Not just one way to hunt for a job, but two ways, at least.
Not just one kind of job to hunt for, but two kinds of jobs, at least.
Not just one size company to go after, but two sizes, at least.
Not just one place we really would like to work at, but two places, at least. — Richard N. Bolles

..a disability is something within you. A prejudice is something within the
employer.

..don't look at yourself through their eyes. Look at yourself through your own eyes. — Richard N. Bolles

a vast majority of employers now Google your name - yes, Google has become both noun and verb - before they'll consider hiring you. There's your new resume, using the word resume loosely. Bye, bye, control. Statistics are hard to come by, and they tend to be all over the map. Some are from very old surveys or very limited surveys (such as 100 employers). What we know for sure is that somewhere between 35% and 70% of employers now report that they have rejected applicants on the basis of what they found through Google. Things that can get you rejected: bad grammar or gross misspelling on your Facebook or LinkedIn profile; anything indicating you lied on your resume; any badmouthing of previous employers; any signs of racism, prejudice, or screwy opinions about stuff; anything indicating alcohol or drug abuse; and any - to put it delicately - inappropriate content, etc. — Richard N. Bolles

Microcosm equals macrocosm. — Richard N. Bolles

Hope can give you wings, persistence, and energy. If you're out of work, and want to stay upbeat, then
greet the sunrise, go for a walk, count your blessings, listen to beautiful music, drink more water than
usual, eat simpler, exercise more, laugh with your family and friends, watch cartoons, take naps in the
daytime if you can't sleep well at night, but for heaven's sakes, don't obsess about depressing statistics.
Just determine to find alternatives for everything you are doing about your job-hunt and your life. You
want to be the exception to whatever the odds are, about anything. Hold on to Hope, and you can beat
those odds. — Richard N. Bolles

If someone out of work knows only three words about their impending job-hunt, I'm willing to bet those
three words will be: resumes/CV, interviews, and networking. — Richard N. Bolles

What the meaning of this period of unemployment is, now.
One way to get at that definition is to ask ourselves, "What is this time for? — Richard N. Bolles

..it is helpful to think of your
life not in terms of work but in terms of music - particularly a symphony. A symphony, traditionally, has
four parts to it - four movements, as they're called. So does Life. There is the first movement, infancy;
then the second movement, the time of learning; the long third movement follows, the time of working; and
finally, this fourth movement, traditionally called "retirement," though now that is an increasingly
complex concept. It is much better to think of it as the Fourth Movement, a triumphant, powerful ending to
the symphony of our life here on earth. — Richard N. Bolles

As most of us know, the proper attitude toward ourselves is called "good self-esteem." But self-esteem is
an art. An art of balance. A balance between thinking too little of ourselves, and thinking too much of
ourselves.
The name for thinking too much of ourselves is "egotism. — Richard N. Bolles

Unless you look dirty, wild, and disreputable, and smell really bad, if you know what your talent is, I guarantee some employer is looking for you — Richard N. Bolles

For many of us, the job-hunt offers a chance to make some fundamental changes in our whole life. It marks
a turning point in how we live our life.
It gives us a chance to ponder and reflect, to extend our mental horizons, to go deeper into the subsoil
of our soul.
It gives us a chance to wrestle with the question, "Why am I here on Earth?" We don't want to feel that
we are just another grain of sand lying on the beach called humanity, unnumbered and lost in the billions
of other human beings.
We want to do more than plod through life, going to work, coming home from work. We want to find
that special joy, "that no one can take from us," which comes from having a sense of Mission in our life.
We want to feel we were put here on Earth for some special purpose, to do some unique work that only
we can accomplish.
We want to know what our Mission is. — Richard N. Bolles

Designing is more appropriate because you can't possibly predict what is going to happen to you, even
next week, much less plan for it. Planning your life is becoming increasingly unreliable in today's world.
On the other hand, when you design something, it's like setting out on a journey: you assemble all the
elements necessary, even if you aren't sure which particular elements you will actually need, when the
time comes. You pack with all conceivable scenarios in mind. You may need this or that. You may not.
That's designing. — Richard N. Bolles

It is a great victory if you learn how to survive in today's hard times; it's an even greater victory if you
help someone else survive and find meaningful work. — Richard N. Bolles

Job-hunting is, or should be, a full-time job. If your job-hunt isn't working, you must increase the amount of time you're devoting to your job-hunt. — Richard N. Bolles