The first time I read What Color Is Your Parachute?, the classic career-finding treatise by Richard Bolles, my high school’s vice-principal made all the seniors check it out of the library in lieu of seeing a guidance counselor. (Though, at 18, most of us weren’t even on fixed flight paths to careers, much less ready for parachutes.) The next time I looked at this book — having recently graduated from grad school with an MFA in writing, which I fondly refer to as my "vanity degree" — I viewed it with needier eyes. Indeed, for three decades, this book has been the first stop for anxious people seeking new careers or making mid-life job transitions. But what if you’ve already read it — say, the last time you were job hunting?

There are alternatives. The latest generation of career-finding books owes a great debt to Bolles, who pretty much established the market. (Many of the newer books come with his endorsement.) But what they really seem to reflect is the ’80s — many of them combining New Age spirituality, self-help lingo, and corporate-training maxims. If you crossed a PowerPoint presentation with The Tao of Pooh, these books are what you’d get.

But are they useful? That depends on what you’re looking for. I’ve broken up some of the current offerings into three categories: philosophical, personality-based, and pragmatic. Whether you’re at the beginning of the job-finding process or ready to send out résumés, there’s likely a book in the mix for you.

Philosophical approaches

The most New Age–y of these books approach career-finding as an inner journey of self-examination and personal discovery. They focus less on the nuts and bolts, and assume that your process will work itself out just fine once you know who you are and what you need.

The mother of all philosophical job books is Laurence G. Boldt’s Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design (Penguin Compass, 1999). First printed in 1992 and one of the genre’s bestsellers, the book’s premise is that "everyone is the artist of his or her own life." Boldt intends to help you identify what would qualify as "deeply satisfying work" and then offers steps to finding or creating that work.

The tips are not so much of the tweak-your-résumé variety as they are visioning tools, which come in the form of 120 worksheets. Boldt has peppered the book’s pages with countless inspirational quotes from sources famous and obscure. (The precept, "Above all, don’t wobble!" is attributed to someone named Yun-Men, without indicating who that is.) Running 600-plus pages, the whole enterprise requires stamina. And some of what Boldt has to say may amuse you — as when he suggests giving yourself a "Doctor of Audacity Award." But you might also find that his holistic take gives you a new perspective on the process.

At half the length, Bob Griffiths’s Do What You Love for the Rest of Your Life: A Practical Guide to Career Change and Personal Renewal (Ballantine, 2001) covers similar emotional terrain, with the added credibility of coming from a man who left Wall Street finance after 25 years to become a playwright, which may be the most downwardly mobile trajectory imaginable. (Now, of course, he’s an inspirational author and speaker.) With sections titled "The Journey Inward," "Overcoming Fear," and "Towards an Essential Spirituality," Griffiths mostly talks about the heart and not the wallet when giving career advice. He explains that in using the term spirituality, he doesn’t mean religion; he means "the sacred space within, leading to our higher selves." Given such exalted language, it seems odd, then, that his section on "Trade-offs" — deciding what you can give up when changing careers — is entirely about salary and benefits. Griffiths writes from the assumption that most career moves will be like his: less lucrative. He’s best at helping readers draw distinctions early on between their professional and personal identities, and then examining how those selves intersect.

Personality-based strategies

The books in this category also want to make sure you find yourself before launching a career search. But they approach the path of self-discovery by focusing more specifically on personality types. These authors have thoughtfully divided the world into simple categories that, once understood, may unlock the key to better job placement.

Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type (Little, Brown, 2001) comes from the pens of Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger, a married team of career specialists who claim to have helped 500,000 people find "truly satisfying work" over the past 20 years. Their book has you rate yourself on various personality attributes, which are divided into four "dimensions" and then combined into 16 "types," which are recast into four different "temperaments" that at long last suggest your "function." It takes 100 pages to get to how your function pairs up with specific fields, but you may be surprised by how accurate (if a little obvious) the results are. (Its quizzes determine that I am roughly what the book calls an "Extroverted Intuitive Feeling Judger," and thus I am told I could be an educator — which I am.) Because it seeks to clarify why you react to certain tasks or settings in certain ways, the book’s greatest value may lie in helping you to avoid those fields most likely to crush your spirit.

Carol L. McClelland’s Changing Careers for Dummies (Hungry Minds, 2001) is essentially the beach-novel equivalent of Do What You Are. Breezy and word-simple, this book also suggests pairing your personality with a career, but McClelland’s categories are ultra-basic. If, for instance, "you thrive on words," she lays out a dozen ways to become a writer — not exactly a gem of insight. But she also surprises occasionally: suggesting that people who "connect well with others" need not look only at becoming social workers but perhaps travel agents or security guards; and suggesting that if "you have a good eye," you might consider becoming ... a pilot. She emphasizes having a game plan that fits your personality and desired career, but she is also realistic about the length of the process. While waiting for the day these general suggestions pay out, readers can use her "10 Tips for Staying Sane" and "10 Tips on Staying Motivated," subjects none of the other books dwells on at any length.

Pragmatic plans

If you think you’re already pretty self-aware and are impatient to find work, consider books that are oriented toward helping you land the job you already know you want. With industries in mind and plenty of strategic tips to match, these books are geared to getting your job search up and running.

In his book Switching Careers (Kiplinger Washington Editors, 2001), Robert K. Otterbourg profiles people from their late 20s to 50s who have left behind "foolish consistency" and switched careers (as he once did), but he spends less time on motivation and more on strategy. He explores how job-seekers can recycle existing skills and thus repackage themselves for a new market. And individual chapters are devoted to breaking into specific job fields, with stories from those who have entered them. Otterbourg doesn’t cover every field, but he hits biggies — from information technology to nonprofits. And he includes self-employment as a viable alternative to taking a new job. Occasionally, his supporting tales (neuropsychologist makes jewelry) are not quite universally applicable, but he does make a strong case for self-reinvention.

The most practical volumes of all are found in the JobBank series; the local edition, Boston JobBank (Adams Media, 2002), edited by Michelle Roy Kelly, is a goldmine of contact information. With 1300 Massachusetts companies represented, as well as 330 employment agencies, it’s an excellent resource for those eager to get their résumés in the mail. From aerospace to utilities, fashion to finance, the book classifies employers by industry, providing current salary ranges for specific jobs within each field. One caution: though Kelly includes names of personnel-department contacts, it may be risky to depend on them due to turnover in this economy. But the book also lists each company’s home office, which may help you strategize when applying.

Don’t Send a Resume: And Other Contrarian Rules to Help Land a Great Job (Hyperion, 2001), by Jeffrey J. Fox, goes a step further: it trusts that you believe so strongly in yourself that you can shoot right past traditional résumé submission. Applying the logic of marketing, Fox encourages readers to learn a company’s language, then use its jargon in phone calls or interviews. He makes clear that if you know what a company values, it’s easier to pitch yourself as someone who’s already in sync. Fox also suggests "dollarizing" yourself, which means packaging yourself in such a way that a company can justify hiring you as an excellent use of its resources. If marketing is already your expertise, there may be few earth-shaking concepts here, but for all the non-MBA types seeking jobs, Fox’s approach may well make a difference.

David Valdes Greenwood can be reached at valdesgreenwood@worldnet.att.net