What Color Is Your Parachute?

Why is it called “PIE”?

P is for the warm-up phase. John Crystal named this warm- up “The Practice Field Survey.”[25] Daniel Porot calls it P for pleasure.

I is for “Informational Interviewing.”

E is for the employment interview with the-person-who-has-the-power-to-hire- you.

^{Copyright © 1986 by D. Porot. Used by special permission. Not to be reproduced without permission in writing from D. Porot.}

How do you use this P for practice to get comfortable about going out and talking to people one-on-one?

This is achieved by choosing a topic—any topic, however silly or trivial—that is a pleasure for you to talk about with your friends, or family. To avoid anxiety, it should not be connected to any present or future careers that you are considering. Rather, the kinds of topics that work best, for this exercise, are:

• a hobby you love, such as skiing, bridge playing, exercise, computers, etc.

• any leisure-time enthusiasm of yours, such as a movie you just saw, that you liked a lot

• a long-time curiosity, such as how do they predict the weather, or what policemen do

• an aspect of the town or city you live in, such as a new shopping mall that just opened

• an issue you feel strongly about, such as the homeless, AIDS sufferers, ecology, peace, health, etc.

There is only one condition about choosing a topic: it should be something you love to talk about with other people; a subject you know nothing about, but you feel a great deal of enthusiasm for, is far preferable to something you know an awful lot about, but it puts you to sleep.

Having identified your enthusiasm, you then need to go talk to someone who is as enthusiastic about this thing, as you are. For best results with your later job-hunt, this should be someone you don’t already know. Use the Yellow Pages, ask around among your friends and family, who do you know that loves to talk about this? It’s relatively easy to find the kind of person you’re looking for.

You love to talk about skiing? Try a ski-clothes store, or a skiing instructor. You love to talk about writing? Try a professor on a nearby college campus, who teaches English. You love to talk about physical exercise? Try a trainer, or someone who teaches physical therapy.

Once you’ve identified someone you think shares your enthusiasm, you then go talk with them. When you are face-to-face with your fellow enthusiast, the first thing you must do is relieve their understandable anxiety. Everyone has had someone visit them who has stayed too long, who has worn out their welcome. If your fellow enthusiast is worried about you staying too long, they’ll be so preoccupied with this that they won’t hear a word you are saying.

So, when you first meet them, ask for ten minutes of their time, only. Period. Stop. Exclamation point. And watch your wristwatch like a hawk, to be sure you stay no longer. Never stay longer, unless they beg you to. And I mean, beg, beg, beg.[26]

Once they’ve agreed to give you ten minutes, you tell them why you’re there—that you’re trying to get comfortable about talking with people, for information—and you understand that you two share a mutual interest, which is …

Then what? Well, a topic may have its own unique set of questions. For example, I love movies, so if I met someone who shared this interest, my first question would be, “What movies have you seen lately?” And so on. If it’s a topic you love, and often talk about, you’ll know what kinds of questions you begin with. But, if no such questions come to mind, no matter how hard you try, the following ones have proved to be good conversation starters for thousands of job-hunters and career-changers before you, no matter what their topic or interest.

So, look these over, memorize them (or copy them on a little card that fits in the palm of your hand), and give them a try:

Questions Shy People Can Practice With

Addressed to the person you’re doing the Practice Interviewing with:

• How did you get involved with/become interested in this? (“This” is the hobby, curiosity, aspect, issue, or enthusiasm, that you are so interested in.)

• What do you like the most about it?

• What do you like the least about it?

• Who else would you suggest I go talk to who shares this interest?

• Can I use your name?

• May I tell them it was you who recommended that I talk with them?

• Then, choosing one person from the list of several names they may have given you, you say, “Well, I think I will begin by going to talk to this person. Would you be willing to call ahead for me, so they will know who I am, when I go over there?”

Incidentally, during this Practice Interviewing, it’s perfectly okay for you to take someone with you—preferably someone who is more outgoing than you feel you are. And on the first few interviews, let them take the lead in the conversation, while you watch to see how they do it.

Once it is your turn to conduct the interview, it will by that time usually be easy for you to figure out what to talk about.

Alone or with someone, keep at this Practice Interviewing until you feel very much at ease in talking with people and asking them questions about things you are curious about.

In all of this, fun is the key. If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right. If you’re not having fun, you need to keep at it, until you are. It may take seeing four people. It may take ten. Or twenty. You’ll know.

CONCLUSION

In this post-recessionary world, networking is an essential job-finding survival skill. If you want to survive in this new world, you must master it. Fortunately, with the social media world in which we now swim, as a culture, this is much easier than it ever used to be. So many useful, helpful Internet sites. But they all depend, for their effectiveness, on your having done your homework… on yourself. Upon completing a self-inventory so that you know just exactly what you are looking for. Chapter 13 waits for you, ahead, to help you do just that.

And now, on to Interviewing.