No Parachute Required : Translating Your Passion Into a Paycheck and a Career

Rating:
Summary: Help for the confused graduate
Review: As I get closer to graduation I have some serious concerns about what comes next: Do I go straight to graduate school? Do I get a job, but what kind? Do I do both? No Parachute Required has given me the inspiration to grab my diploma and then take charge of my life. I now feel I have the tools I need to turn what I learned in class into something meaningful for my future. I only wish I had read this book a few years ago, while I was still in school ... I think I would have done a few things differently.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book--Truthful, Challenging, AND Entertaining!
Review: I just recently finished this book, and all I can say is "WOW!" Jeff Gunhus writes in a very straightforward, down-to-earth style that is very conversational. It's like having a wise older friend show you the ropes in life.

Filled with inspiring quotes, the book made me excited about life and about career choices. Having grown up a great deal in the past few years out of college (I'm 25), pretty much everything Gunhus wrote rang true for me. Trust me, you younguns' still in college can USE THIS BOOK! If I had read it, it might have saved me from a lot of heartache and depression, upon graduating from university with a 3.8 GPA and being totally unable to find a job in my field (that challenged and motivated me.)

This book is a great investment. It's very inspirational, and gets you excited about life. Most importantly, YOUR LIFE. Mr. Gunhus pulls no punches. He makes it clear to the reader that if you want success and happiness, YOU MUST PURSUE IT. Cuz it ain't gonna just come to you, folks! That perfect job isn't gonna come a'knockin' on your door!

One of the most useful parts of the book to me was the section on resumes and cover letters. You must be tenacious and direct in order to get a job these days. BUY THIS BOOK and you'll be on your way!

PS: I also thought the first book reviewer wasn't too wise. I think Mr. Gunhus' book title is amusing and truthful. That other "parachute" book was boring to me, a young person.

Rating:
Summary: A career services professional's viewpoint
Review: It seems that the Library Journal review of Jeff Gunhus's "No Parachute Required" is rather mean-spirited, to say the least. It is seldom that one reads a book review in which the reviewer cannot cite any merit to the piece, and that makes one uneasy. The reviewer seems to take particular offense to the title and marketing, which she sees as a jab at the fine work of Richard Bolles, a motivator and guru with decades of experience. Perhaps it can be argued that the title slyly acknowledges Bolles as the standard.

I am a recently retired veteran of a thirty-year career in student advising and employer relations, including positions as Assistant Dean/Director of Career Services at UCLA, Southwestern University School of Law, and Loyola Law School. I have never met Mr. Gunhus, but was asked by him, via telephone, to look over an early draft and was subsequently contacted by the publisher to make a statement on an advance proof. I therefore feel qualified to speak about the unfairness of a cranky reviewer and, more importantly, able to state that the book has considerable merit. It is a book that speaks to its own generation, and that is one of its strengths. It is a young man's book about young people interested in entrepreneurial and creative careers, and the plain need to earn a paycheck, and it speaks forcefully and well.

Like most business-side writers, as opposed to academics or career services professionals, Mr. Gunhus speaks about his business and the lessons from that work. This seems valid enough. His use of quotes is a common motivational technique, and any quote-adverse reader can ignore the insets easily enough. I found them to be well-chosen when I read the final piece.

College grads and twenty- or thirty-somethings considering business or creative work frequently fall into passivity and confusion. This is understandable because of the complexity of choices, and the increased anxious parental pressures. Mr. Gunhus's enthusiasm about goal-setting and having faith in oneself is energizing to read. Perhaps this quality is what struck the Library Journal reviewer as excess, but the examples she presents of the author's advice seem to misrepresent his viewpoint.

The sharp sword of a book reviewer completing a critique by indicating that it is nap time for her may be a shade too trite, even harsh, to make some entirely trust her good faith as a critic. "No Parachute Required" is solid, standard career-planning and job-search material from a pleasing and lively author. It should be appealing to the under-35 audience without a childhood job dream in place. In this reviewer's opinion, it is well-written prose and should sell extremely nicely to the intended audience.

For a very young working man to research and draft a book, sell it to a publisher, and have a highly competitive piece in a saturated career-guide market is reason enough to trust his advice and purchase and read the book.