The Parachute Flower

Choose a petal and add ideas that fit. See how each pick changes the suggestions.

Interactive prototype
0 / 7 petals filled
Pick any petal to explore.

On this petal
Add your own

Ideas to tryBigger = closer to your picks

My Parachute Flower

A snapshot of your entries. Longer lists and phrases may be shortened to fit. See page 2 for ways to use your Flower.

Using Your Flower

A companion for a career conversation

The Flower is a self-inventory from Richard N. Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute? It puts what you can do, what you enjoy, and what you need from work on one page. Use it to describe a good fit before you start looking at job titles.

If you’re coaching someone, ask for a real example behind a phrase they chose. If they get stuck, offer the Flower Options sheet and invite them to adapt one prompt.

What the seven petals tell you

  • People: Who brings out your best work?
  • Working conditions: What helps you do good work day to day?
  • Transferable skills: What can you do well and want to keep using?
  • Knowledge and interests: What subjects do you want to work with or learn more about?
  • Compensation, responsibility, and rewards: What pay, benefits, and ownership do you need or want?
  • Geography: Where can you do the work, and what needs to be nearby?
  • Purpose: What do you want your work to contribute?

Find a theme across petals

Circle two or three entries that reinforce each other. If you like explaining technical ideas, enjoy working with patient teammates, and want people to feel more capable, one theme might be helping people learn to use technology.

Explore roles that might fit

Turn the theme into a few search phrases. For the example above, try technical trainer, customer education, or developer education. Read real job descriptions and ask someone doing the work what a typical week looks like.

Compare the opportunities you find

Mark which entries are requirements and which are preferences. For each opportunity, write down what fits, what conflicts, and what you still need to ask. A role can use your favorite skills and still be a poor fit for your schedule or pay needs.

Choose one next step

Pick one thing you can do this week: ask for a short conversation, compare two postings, or revise a résumé bullet to show a skill the role needs.

My next step:

Based on Richard N. Bolles’s Flower Exercise in What Color Is Your Parachute? (Ten Speed Press, 2022). The examples and prompts on this page are a practical companion.

Flower Options

Use these prompts when a petal feels hard to fill. Borrow a phrase or put it in your own words.

Common offers familiar starting points. Uncommon gets more specific. Rare invites a less obvious thought. The tiers show different ways to think, without ranking answers or saying how often they occur.

1. People

Common

  • Reliable teammates
  • Supportive managers
  • Friendly customers
  • Patient mentors
  • Independent coworkers

Uncommon

  • Peers who share credit
  • Leads who give clear feedback
  • Partners who honor handoffs
  • Customers who ask questions
  • Peers who teach as they go

Rare

  • Colleagues who welcome dissent
  • Leaders who admit mistakes
  • Peers who spot who’s left out
  • Teams that share hard news early
  • People who think aloud together

2. Working conditions

Common

  • Predictable hours
  • Quiet workspace
  • Flexible start time
  • Remote work days
  • Clear deadlines

Uncommon

  • Meeting-free mornings
  • Written handoffs
  • Rotating on-call duty
  • Protected training time
  • A dedicated workbench

Rare

  • Fewer projects at once
  • Time to review mistakes
  • No after-hours messages
  • A choice of tools
  • Permission to pause unsafe work

3. Transferable skills

Common

  • Write clear instructions
  • Explain an idea
  • Plan a schedule
  • Repair equipment
  • Track a budget

Uncommon

  • Map a workflow
  • Lead a group discussion
  • Test a prototype
  • Resolve a complaint
  • Summarize interview notes

Rare

  • Catch missing assumptions
  • Translate across specialties
  • Design an effective handoff
  • Recover a stalled project
  • Turn a workaround into a routine

4. Knowledge and interests

Common

  • Cooking and food
  • Computers and software
  • Art and design
  • Health and fitness
  • History and culture

Uncommon

  • Building restoration
  • Wildlife conservation
  • Language learning
  • Public transit design
  • Renewable energy systems

Rare

  • Museum collections care
  • Soil and water testing
  • Assistive technology
  • Disaster logistics
  • How food supply chains work

5. Compensation, responsibility, and rewards

Common

  • A steady salary
  • Health coverage
  • Paid time off
  • Retirement match
  • Paid overtime

Uncommon

  • Own a project budget
  • Supervise a small team
  • Set project priorities
  • Get paid for training
  • Earn a team bonus

Rare

  • Know the pay bands
  • Keep health coverage in transition
  • Return part time after leave
  • Take a funded sabbatical
  • Share in company ownership

6. Geography

Common

  • Short commute
  • Near family
  • Affordable housing
  • Near public transit
  • Work from home

Uncommon

  • Bikeable route to work
  • Near a major airport
  • Same time zone as the team
  • Within a school district
  • Near walking trails

Rare

  • Access to specialist care
  • Year-round road access
  • A backup internet provider
  • Easy trips to an aging parent
  • A route that avoids highways

7. Purpose

Common

  • Teach useful skills
  • Make people safer
  • Help people find work
  • Build things that last
  • Care for the environment

Uncommon

  • Make services easier to use
  • Reduce food waste
  • Keep local history available
  • Help families navigate care
  • Make public spaces welcoming

Rare

  • Prevent avoidable rework
  • Keep essential services running
  • Help people challenge a decision
  • Pass on a disappearing craft
  • Restore trust after a mistake