Catch Up with Recent Career Key Newsletters

Happy New Year! If you haven't signed up for our newsletter or missed our most recent ones, feel free to catch up with these links.

• Your Students' Priorities and Holland, September
• Avoid College Ranking and Scorecard Tricks, October/November
• Happy Holidays and Special Offer, December

I try to put career development research, humor, Career Key news, cool links and downloads in one short package!

If you like what you read, sign up here.

New College and Career Readiness Infographic from Career Key

Career Key's new college and career readiness infographic shows the American School Counselor Association's (ASCA) new ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors for Student Success covered when students take the Career Key's career interest inventory. Counselors can use the infographic to easily visualize how their use of Career Key aligns with these research-based standards.

The assessment, based on Holland's Theory of Career Choice, helps middle and high school students make sense of career choices and choosing classes by identifying careers that match their personality and interests.  Research shows this match leads to higher levels of engagement, satisfaction and success.

New Career Key Test and Activity Booklet Published

We just reprinted and updated the Career Key Test and Activity Booklet, now available for sale on Amazon. (Free shipping!) They cost about $2 apiece and are sold in sets of 35 booklets.

These booklets are perfect for when you need an easy, printed activity that covers the career essentials for students and adults in classes and workshops...

The 20 page, color booklet includes the self-scoring Career Key test, a description of Holland's Theory of Career Choice including the hexagon, and recommended activities with worksheets to further engage in the career exploration process, like:

• Learning more about occupations
• Learning more about yourself
• Creating a career portfolio, and
• How to make a good decision.

Find your academic tribe! July's Free Agent, the Career Key Newsletter

Is helping others find their academic tribe, the right college major environment on your Fall list for working with high school or college students? Good for you - research says it's worth the extra time to delve into. To read the feature article about it, visit the July 2015 issue of our enewsletter, The Free Agent.  Be sure to subscribe on Career Key's home page, www.careerkey.org, if you like what you see.

The newsletter has Career Key news, humor, and research you can use.  There are links we've come across we think are worth sharing, in addition to free downloads.  Enjoy!

New Fanshawe College Pathfinder Uses Career Key's Career and College Major Test

We're proud to announce that Fanshawe College, one of the largest colleges of applied art and technology in Ontario, is now using The Career Key's valid career and college major test to match prospective students to Fanshawe's programs of study.  The online Fanshawe Pathfinder is the first college recruitment and admissions tool in Canada and the U.S. to use Personality-Major MatchTM. The Pathfinder gives students valuable information in choosing a program that fits them best and how to make a successful education decision.

Large published research studies show a close personality-major match predicts higher grades, greater persistence in a major, and higher rates of on time graduation. The benefits of this match are described in a free Career Key eBook, Choose a College Major Based on Your Personality.

Fanshawe licensed The Career Key to create the Pathfinder for their admissions and recruitment efforts. The Pathfinder will also be used in academic advising for current students and featured in public open houses and career fairs.

About Fanshawe

Fanshawe’s main campus is located in London, Ontario, about two and half hours outside Toronto. Approximately 17,000 full-time and 26,000 part-time students attend Fanshawe at five campuses. Fanshawe has a demonstrated commitment to student success. Results of the Government of Ontario’s 2013 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) survey show that Fanshawe College is above the provincial average in student satisfaction, graduate satisfaction, and graduate employment (86% of graduates find jobs shortly after graduation). To learn more about Fanshawe, visit Discover Fanshawe.

New College and Career Readiness Kit for School Counseling

Career Key's new college and career readiness kit is complimentary, designed for school counselors and other education and career development professionals. In this downloadable kit, we included free eBooks and learning activities related to helping students get college and career ready.

Topics covered:

• Common Core Standards and school counseling
• Choosing a college major in high school
• Learning activities that combine ASCA and Common Core Standards
• Meeting ASCA National Standards using career and college major exploration activities at the Career Key website.

Finally, there is a link to access a free trial of the Career Key career and college major test (a $150 value).

Related articles:

Career Activities for School Counseling

Common Core Standards and School Counseling

Achieving ASCA National Standards using the Career Key

New Career Key Career Test Launched

Career Key's updated career test is now live! This scientifically valid, career interest inventory has a new design, an updated list of career options and now includes college majors and training programs. The Career Key test now helps those wondering "What should I major in?" There are over 400 careers and 700 majors, easy to explore by Holland personality type and Career Key work group of traits, skills and abilities. Each major is described with a link to external sources to find more information and the colleges that offer the major (no promotions or marketing).

Here is a sample report page:

To learn more about group purchases and the new group administration features, see our Group Purchase Discount.

Career Key Test's new version - a video demo for group customers

If you are interested in video demos of the new version of the Career Key test going live later this month, start with this video. It's specifically for Career Key's group customers. For more information about the new version of the Career Key test, visit Career Key's Group Discount page.

What Job is Best for Me? 2014: New Edition of Popular EBook

What Job is Best for Me?, Career Key's most popular eBook, has just been updated for 2014. For people choosing a career, it is recommended as a companion to the Career Key's valid career test.  This career interest inventory is based on the respected Holland's Theory of Career Choice.

In the eBook, Career Key author and nationally recognized counseling psychologist Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC focuses on helping people narrow their career choices and how to make the best career decision.  It include a free decision balance sheet and many articles on ways to learn more about career options and career specific networking.

Dr. Jones also shares his personal career journey in photos and words.  His background and experience as the first in his family to attend college and graduate school gives him a unique perspective on the challenges of taking risks in career choices.

"What Job is Best for Me?" 2014 is available for purchase in the Career Key Store for $8.95.  There is a special 20% discount when the Career Key test and What Job is Best for Me? are purchased together, for $14.50.

New 2012-2022 BLS Employment Projections: What Career Counselors Need to Know

The U.S. 2012-2022 Employment Projections provide new data for career counselors and career development professionals to rely upon in helping people make career and education choices.  I put together a summary of resources to help you incorporate this new information in your work. You can make your own expert “take” on the data based on your experience and geographic area.

Start with the Basics and the Big Picture

You will find helpful summaries about the projections in the Winter 2013/14 issue of the Occupational Outlook Quarterly. The graphics are great for people (like me) who need a visual boost to understand data. If you are short on time, read the Introduction and the Occupational Employment section (the PDF versions are easier to read).  For those of us who do not work with these numbers every day, it helps to get reminders on how to interpret the data.  For example, “faster growth” does not necessarily mean a greater number of new jobs.

Trends and Highlights 

• Occupations related to healthcare are projected to have the fastest growth and add the most new jobs.
• Most growing occupations require a degree or post-secondary training/certification.
• Workers make more money with a degree or post-secondary training/certification.
• More older people will be working and working longer (the 65-75 age group more than any other group).
• The labor force continues to become more diverse with Caucasians’ share declining and Hispanics’ share to rise.
• The construction industry is recovering, but not yet to 2007 levels.
• Most job growth is coming from replacing workers, not new jobs. 

Most of the trends are unsurprising given technology advances and the state of our economy.  Issues continue with unemployment, underemployment, and most job creation in poorly paid retail and service occupations.

Best Graphs to Look At

The best graphs to understand job outlook by occupation are in the Occupational Employment Section of the OOQ I mentioned earlier.  If you want to drill down to promising occupations by degree level, scroll down to the last half of the article (page 13 on the PDF).

Differences between the 2010-2020 and 2012-2022 Projections

Laurence Shatkin nicely summarizes in his Career Laboratory Blog the differences between the employment projections two years ago and the new ones just released.

Help Others with Critical Thinking

It pays to help people evaluating career choices take a hard look at how “promising” and growing certain occupations are. For example, lawyers continue to get a high growth and median wage marks in the BLS data.  But the legal profession is going through big upheaval and change, due to technology, the Internet, offshoring, and businesses’ willingness to pay the high cost of using large law firms.  There is also a wide gap between the number of middle-class and low income people needing legal representation and lawyers who can afford to serve them. For example, the Washington State bar association magazine has had a number of articles about these changes and the difficulties for young lawyers to get hired.  So people should not just immediately look at the graph and say, hey – lawyers is a promising career. It may be for some but there are many variables to consider.

New Projections and Occupations Added to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH)

The new job outlook information is now available for specific occupations in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, just out yesterday (January 8, 2014).

As a consequence, Career Key updated its career interest inventory to include several new occupations added to the Handbook (see the Teacher’s Guide below) along with the new job outlook projections for all the test’s occupations.

There is a new version of the OOH “Not just for teachers” Teacher’s Guide, that includes a list of the new occupations listed in the Handbook. Counselors and other career development professionals will find the explanations and context for data helpful.

Funny Note: The OOH's occupational profile for legislators has been deleted, gone the way of textile occupations.  Hmmm. 

We are huge fans of both the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the Occupational Outlook Quarterly. As Mr. Shatkin points out in his blog, we are extremely lucky to have government resources like these. Even Canada, Great Britain and other countries you would think have similar resources - in fact, do not.  So give a cheer for OOH and OOQ author, the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and have fun with numbers! It only comes once every two years…

Common Core Standards and School Counseling

Why are Common Core Standards important to school counselors?  How do they relate to ASCA Standards?  Career Key answers these questions in a new website guide, "Common Core and ASCA Standards, School Counselors and Career Key."

Career Key's author and counselor educator Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC has written this guide to help school counselors collaborate with teachers in getting students career and college ready. Free resources include:

1. "Common Core State Standards: A Challenge and Opportunity for School Counselors." PDF eBook;
2. "Help Middle School Students Get Career/College Ready with Holland's Theory." Webinar recording (12/13/13) with Dr. Jones and myself. 100% of feedback survey respondents would recommend it to a colleague.
3. Learning Activities with Overlapping ASCA National Model and Common Core Standards, PDF Download; and
4. ASCA and Common Core Standards Addressed in Career Key Test Taking Scenario, PDF Download.

For more, visit our school counseling resources page at the Career Key website.

New Career Key Career Test Booklet Available

Career Key's popular career test is now available in a printed booklet form, the Career Key Test and Activities Booklet! Sets of 35 cost $75 (about $2 per booklet) and are available for sale on Amazon.com and in the American School Counselors Association bookstore.

This 20 page booklet includes Career Key's scientifically valid career interest inventory as well as activities covering career development's most important concepts, such as how to make a good decision. At the Career Key website, there is also a free PDF guide to using the Career Key Test and Activities Booklet to meet ASCA's National Model Student Standards.

Released with a new design and content in September 2013, it is full color and environmentally friendly, made with 100% recycled bright white paper and soy inks.

Free shipping and more sample pages are available at the booklet's product page on Amazon.com.

Career Key's Career Test Gets New Design and Update

The paper-pencil version of Career Key's popular, valid career interest inventory and career test has a beautiful new design and update.  Available in Career key's eBookstore, the self-scoring, paper-pencil Career Key career test helps youth and adults assess their personality and identify matching careers for satisfaction and success.

In addition to a professional graphic redesign, the test now includes advice for exploring matching college majors and education programs.  Research shows that a close personality major match leads to higher grades, greater persistence in the major, and higher on-time graduation rates.

Career Key's QR Code

The new test also includes a QR code so that test takers can use their smart phone or tablet to quickly access Career Key's online resources.  For example, in Match Your Personality with Careers, test takers can access all the test's occupations and links to current career information about each one from the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

The test takes about 15-20 minutes and is self-scoring.  Licenses to print individual and group copies can be purchased in the eBookstore for the same great price of $4.95 (individual) and $12.50 (group - 25 copies).

New Career Key Website Design

If you haven't visited recently, please check out Career Key's new website design!  It's brighter, cleaner and with a new logo. A big thank you goes out to our new graphic design and IT gurus who made it happen: Barb Rowan Design and Circa Consulting.

At the same time, we revised and updated a number of our articles, including their URLs and content - in particular:

• Networking, 
• Identify Your Skills, which is now part of Be Job and Work Skills Smart,
• The Free Agent Outlook on Work,
• How Parents Can Help.

We are still committed to no advertising, 10% website sales donation to charity, and the best science and practices of career counseling. 

Please let us know what you think!  We have a new Connect with Career Key on Social Media page with all the ways to stay in touch with us. 

Military to Civilian Transition: Making It a Success

If you are making a military to civilian career change or advise people who are, Career Key has published a new online guide to making it a success.

In it, Career Key author Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC recommends five strategies for making the transition a success:

1. Anticipate potential emotional and psychological challenges - make a Military to Civilian career plan to minimize the adjustment.
2. Know yourself and your Military to Civilian Career Change- understand why you're leaving the military and what job satisfaction really means. 
3. Know your options in a Military to Civilian Career Decision - and identify career options that fit you best. Our valid career assessment can help.
4. Make a Good Decision using a science-based career decision-making method; and
5. Prepare for Cultural Differences - learn how military and civilian employers differ.

According to recent studies, one of the biggest challenges to veterans is translating their military skills to the civilian work world.  In addition to several government sites that do an automated military to civilian skills translation, we recommend our job skills article:
Be Job and Work Skills Smart
It walks you through the process of identifying your skills, including ones you enjoy using most, and how to communicate them to employers. It includes a free, interactive "My Work Skills List" to fill out.

Other related articles that might interest you:
Choosing a Military Career
Career Change
Job Satisfaction

New Work Skills List Helps with Job Search and Career Choices

Putting yourself in the driver's seat with work skills....

Career Key's new "My Work Skills List" helps people with a job search, choosing a career, career change, and keeping up to date with a current career path.

This new, free, fill-in PDF is part of 7 Ways to Be Job and Work Skills Smart,  one of Career Key's most popular self-help articles on identifying skills.

When you fill out the list, you'll identify Foundation Skills you have and those you need to strengthen. You'll also learn about Motivated Skills and Dependable Strengths, those skills you enjoy using most and want to do more of in future jobs, career choices, and in your personal life.

The "fill in" capability of the form allows you to copy and paste lists of skills you find using the O*NET Code Connector. Just follow the directions in the "Make My Skills List" section of the article.

You'll be surprised at the quick payoff from doing this list, and the other activities recommended in 7 Ways to Be Job and Work Skills Smart.

Strengthening job skills is a critical part of our Free Agent Outlook on Work - putting you in the driver's seat, in control of your work life.  I know this is a less warm and fuzzy view of employers and the world of work, but we tend to be more realistic and entrepreneurial towards work and careers. Career Key author Dr. Jones's personal story shows why.  Voting with your feet, if at all possible, is a great option to have when working for someone else. In demand job skills make that possible.

Click on My Work Skills List to download the PDF directly.

Finally, we intend to release a new, related eBook on job skills later this year - so stay tuned or leave a comment that you want to be emailed when it comes out.

PRWeb has the latest press release about our new job and work skills article and My Work Skills List.

What Job is Best for Me? 2013, Career Key's Most Popular EBook Now Available!

"What Job is Best for Me?" our most popular career eBook is now updated for 2013 and available in our eBookstore. It's an excellent, practical resource for people looking for guidance through a career decision. With real life examples, worksheets, and extra resources on networking and career information, this eBook will help boost your confidence in your career decisions.

Written by nationally recognized counseling psychologist, Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC, "What Job is Best for Me? costs $8.95 for one copy and $14.50 when combined with the Career Key career test (a 20% savings off separate purchases).

For feedback and reviews, please don't hesitate to email me or leave a comment.

Career Key Family Values and A Fresh Approach to Social Media

Happy New Year from Career Key! What's next in our social media this year - a more personal approach that shows how our family's values influence Career Key's approach to career guidance.

 

Over the last couple of months, I read some excellent books, talked with customers, and Dr. Jones and I had some strategic planning meetings. Insights from these will help focus us on what's important and better ways to help our visitors, customers, and licensees.  

I've got a fresh approach to blogging and social media that I'm excited about.  It includes using an editorial calendar so I can better plan research projects and posts. Also, I will try to show more of our unique voice based our family's approach to life and work.

Dr. Jones showing off Career Key's new mobile site on his new iPhone to my brother Mark.

We are a family-run business. Career Key's author Dr. Jones is my father and my mother, Jeanine Wehr Jones, is a big influence on us all. I changed careers in 2006 from practicing labor and employment law to career counseling and helping manage Career Key, becoming certified as a Global Career Development Facilitator in 2010.

How Career Key approaches career development  and our business/philanthropy is greatly influenced by our values:

• Science-based decision making;
• Integrity and honesty;
• Hard work, but balance;
• Optimism;
• Financial conservatism;
• Education; 
• Loyalty to one's family and community;
• Healthy lifestyle that reduces stress; and
• Improving access to professional career counseling (national and international).

Hopefully these come across on our websites and social media now - but I'll be working on making that more transparent over the year.  We'd love to hear from you on Career Key's social media channels, including following this blog:

Facebook - CareerKey

Twitter - thecareerkey

LinkedIn - The Career Key

YouTube - thecareerkey

Google+ - The Career Key

We appreciate your support and look forward to the new year!

New Promising Self-Employment Careers List by Holland Personality Type

Our new promising self-employment careers list on the Self-Employment Key website helps people match their Holland personality types to self-employed careers the U.S. Department of Labor forecasts to have a bright job outlook. If you're trying to decide whether self-employment is right for you, try our article, "Getting Started with Self-Employment Careers."

We also uploaded to thecareerkeyYouTube channel a short video overview about the list and the Self-Employment Key:

What made compiling this list a little more challenging is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tracks "unincorporated" and "incorporated" self-employed people differently.  So BLS counts an incorporated, self-employed lawyer as a wage employee, treating him or her like other lawyers working for an employer. I addressed this issue by looking at the new 2012 Employment Projections, industry trends and Mr. Hipple's excellent Monthly Labor Review article cited below.

With the new 2012-13 BLS data, we also updated the matching occupations shown during the Career Key Self-Employment Test.  These occupations contain significant numbers of self-employed people.

The Career Key Self-Employment test, developed by Career Key author Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC,  is unique in that it measures Holland's personality types, shows users occupations with a significant number of self-employed people in them, and measures two "Big 5" personality dimensions research shows are related to success as an entrepreneur. Click on "Research" to learn more about it.

Another great thing about the Self-Employment Key is that at no extra charge, test takers can use their RIASEC scores to explore more matching careers, green careers, college majors, and career clusters and career pathways at the Career Key website.

Sources: O*NET's My Next Move, the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and Steven F. Hipple's article, "Self-employment in the United States," Monthly Labor Review, September 2010.

Tips for Using College Navigator: New Career Key Video

On Career Key's YouTube channel, this new tutorial helps students and adults returning to school find schools that offer the college majors that interest them, using the U.S. Department of Education's College Navigator website.

Once students have narrowed their choices to college majors that match their strongest Holland personality types, they can use College Navigator to find schools that offer those majors.

College Navigator offers a variety of ways to filter searches for colleges and universities - by college major and program of study, zip code, to test scores to name a few. The site also has no ads and no "pay to appear" listings, making it a trustworthy resource.

Similar links that may interest you:
Career Key's YouTube channel playlist: Career Key Tutorials and Demos
Career Key's YouTube channel playlist: Top College Majors Resources: Tutorials
Personality-College Major Match: Why It is Important