Career Key Offers New College Match Up! Service: New Participant, Community College of Rhode Island

We're pleased to announce our new service, College Match Up! for U.S. and Canadian college/university career services, academic advising, offices of retention and admissions. 

For each college or university participating in this new service, we create on The Career Key website a Match Up! page that will:

• Publicly display online that college's majors by Holland personality type and Career Key work group, helping students scientifically match their personality to majors,
• Provide information about each major,
• Link visitors to important departments like Advising, Career Services, and
• Give sound advice based on best practices and research in the field.

As usual, our websites have no ads, no registration requirement, or marketing to students.

Community College of Rhode Island, the largest community college in the Northeast, is the first to take advantage of the service. This is their new Match Up! page:

"Choose a Community College of Rhode Island Major and Related Career That Matches Your Personality"

To see a short YouTube video overview of the new service...

It's easy to participate and affordable. If you'd like to learn more, please contact me!

Study in Canada: 7 Tips to Canadian Career & Education Success

If you’d like to study in Canada, start by looking at who you are, your career interests and options, then choose the right college/university major to make your dream career and life in Canada.

1. Learn More About Yourself.  Take valid career interest assessments, like Career Key Canada or the Strong Interest Inventory. Unfortunately, none of the Canadian government websites offer a valid career test and neither do any of the “free career test” websites.  But don’t just take assessments; try the other recommended activities too. 
2. Identify Your Skills. Find out what skills you enjoy using the most, what's marketable, and how to choose a career that uses them.
3. Learn About Canadian Occupations and Careers. 
4. Learn More about the Canadian Jobs that Interest You. 
5. Match Your Personality to Canadian Majors and Educational Programs. See how Holland’s Theory can help you relate your career and education interests to the real world of work. Our new e-Book, "Match Up! Your Personality to College Majors" contains over 1,400+ Canadian and U.S. college/university majors to explore - organized by Holland's 6 personality types. Download the free "Choosing a College Major Based on Your Personality" report from our home page.  It explains how the personality major match is related to college success.
6. Learn More about the Majors that Interest Me.
7. Make a Good Decision about Your Major and Where You Want to Study in Canada.

Also explore our recommended web resources with Canadian career and education information.

Career Key Canada Test Adds New Canadian Career Information

The Canadian version of our career test, Career Key Canada, now links to the most up to date Canadian career and occupational information available from "Working in Canada," the Canadian government's newest resource.

After choosing Canadian occupations that match your personality, we link you to specific careers from "Working in Canada." You can look up, by province or territory, important information like:

-       Job and skills requirements,

-       Main job duties,

-       Licensing and certification requirements,

-       Job outlook,

-       Wages,

-       Education and training requirements, and

-       Current job openings

 

If you'd like to see an example of the occupations we use in our career test, look at "Match Your Personality with Canadian Careers".

3 Steps to Finding a Promising Career in High-Tech or Any Growth Industry

In choosing a career or changing careers, consider all the career options and choices in a growing, promising industry. Don’t assume you know all an industry’s possible careers. There are likely more types of occupations that fit your personality than you might think. To show you the wide variety of careers available, I’m using the High-Tech industry and employer Amazon.com as an example. It’s not just for software engineers.

I’ll focus on three steps to exploring a growth industry that interests you to find the right career path.  I’m assuming you’ve taken a valid career test to measure your Holland personality types like The Career Key or Career Key Canada.

1. Learn more about a growth industry from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Career Guide to Industries.
2. Make a list of occupations in the industry that match your personality.
3. Think “big picture” about your interests and how they fit into a promising industry.

But first, my inspiration for this post...
Last week, I took my young son to visit and have lunch with Dad on a workday. My husband works for a software company (not Microsoft) here in Seattle as a senior developer.  Seattle’s lunchtime streets are crowded with very well-dressed (mostly) men and women, from 20 somethings to 50+ year olds, who work in the software and technology industries. I see workers’ Amazon, Google, and Adobe work badges as we walk by.

Not all are software engineers.  Many work in sales, finance, human resources, customer service, and graphic design to name a few fields. And yet many people assume that you need to be a math whiz to be a part of the high-tech industry. Make sure you’re not limiting your career options.

3 Steps to Finding Your Career in a Growth Industry (the High-Tech Example)

1. Explore the Career Guide to Industries (CGI) at the U.S. Department of Labor website.  For each industry, they have a list and description of “Occupations in the Industry”. Like...
Software Publishers (Microsoft, etc.)
For Software Publishers it says that in addition to computer programmers,

“[a] substantial number of marketing and sales workers also are employed in this industry. In order to compete successfully in the online world, the presentation and features of software and other content related to information technology becomes increasingly important.”

Similarly, look at, Computer Systems Design and Related Services

In addition to the CGI, look around your geographic area (if you don’t want to move) and see what employers are hiring and doing well. What types of jobs are they filling now?

2.  Make a list of occupations in the industry that match your personality. When you take The Career Key test, you’ve seen and explored careers that match your personality. Our “Match Your Personality with Careers” article has that list.  With that list in mind, make a note of the occupations you see listed in the Career Guide to Industries (see Step 1).  For Investigative occupations like Software Engineer, that will be easy. But don’t overlook Realistic engineering occupations like, Engineering Technician.

What kinds of occupations can you find at a real High-Tech employer? Amazon.com
Amazon.com Careers.  These are current job openings as of today - with an "All" search for "All" locations. (Education requirement in parentheses) Personality type in bold - in RIASEC order (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional).

• Fulfillment Center IT Technician, computer repairer, (work experience & training), Realistic 
• All occupations in Career Key’s Investigative, Computer Science and Technology group of careers: Computer programmer, Computer software engineer, Computer Support Specialist...
• Hardware Quality Technician (BS in Computer Science), Investigative
• CAD Sculptor/3D Modeler (BA in Fine Art, Industrial Design, etc) Artistic 
• UI (user interface) Designer (5 yrs experience in graphic design, or related) Artistic 
• Advertising Manager, Display advertising (BA in Marketing, Advertising, or Business preferred) Enterprising
• Corporate Counsel (BA, J.D. law degree) Enterprising
• Investigation Specialist with Chinese language skills (no education requirement, but knowledge and skills like Chinese language, knowledge of Chinese banking systems, etc)  ... to authenticate customers and complex transactions/accounts. Enterprising.
• Assistant Buyer, Fulfillment Center - (HS Diploma plus work experience) Enterprising
• Marketing Manager (BA in Business, Marketing, Math/Statistics or related field) Enterprising
• Leave of Absence Associate (BA or equivalent HR work experience, Human Resources Administration) Enterprising
• Payroll Analyst (BA in Finance or related field) Enterprising
• Human Resources Business Partner (BA - no required field) Enterprising
• Costa Rica Site Trainer (BA in Learning/Development, Adult Learning or related) Enterprising
• In-Stock Manager, Inventory Supply Chain Planner (Degree in business, engineering, or supply chain) Conventional, Enterprising 
• Employee Resource Center Associate, customer service & support (work experience, BA preferred) Conventional

3.  Think "big picture" about your interests and how they fit into a promising industry.   If you’re Artistic, what needs do industry employers in your area have for Artistic services? Check your matching careers at the “Match Your Personality with Careers” article, Artistic. You might even come up with some self-employment ideas - ways you can sell your Artistic talent to companies with money to buy them. The Self-Employment Key website has more information for becoming self-employed.

In Internet focused companies, visual presentation is very important. They need workers in the visual arts, like graphic artists, modelers (see Amazon job openings above).  Content writing companies need writers, etc.  Technology companies that manufacture consumer devices (like the Kindle) will need modelers and designers.

After you find some attractive career options, find out more recommended actions to learn more about the jobs that interest you in “Getting Started Choosing a Career”; and get tips for your career decision making process.  Good luck!

Make Career and College Major Decisions Based on Research: What we might learn from Bill Gates

Given our obsession with using research to help students make better career and college major decisions – this particular quote stuck out to me from Bill Gates’ Wall Street Journal interview last weekend, “Was the $5 BillionWorth It?”:

"I bring a bias to this," says Mr. Gates. "I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts." Compared with R&D spending in the pharmaceutical or information-technology sectors, he says, next to nothing is spent on education research. "That's partly because of the problem of who would do it. Who thinks of it as their business? The 50 states don't think of it that way, and schools of education are not about research. So we come into this thinking that we should fund the research."

Fortunately for people making career and education decisions, a huge amount of peer-reviewed research has already been done.

Research shows what leads to job and career satisfaction – using Holland’s Theory to match your personality to careers and college majors. And for you to see the benefits, you have to use a scientifically valid assessment of Holland's 6 personality types. To learn more:

• Holland’s Theory of Career Choice 
• Choosing a College Major 
• Choosing a Career Cluster, Field or Pathway
• Choosing a College Based on Your Personality; What does the research say? (PDF for students, parents, counselors and career development professionals)
• Key Piece in College Completion Missing: Personality Major Match (PDF for educators, counselors, and policy-makers)
• The Career Key Manual (more about our scientifically valid Holland assessment and our personality match to careers, college majors, and career clusters)

Excellent Review for Career Key E-Book "Match Up! Your Personality to College Majors"

Choosing a college major? "Match Up! Your Personality to College Majors"(Canadian link), a popular Career Key® and Career Key Canada e-book, will help you make smart career and college major choices. Thanks to an excellent review from National Career Development Association President, Dr. Debra Osborn, you can be confident of our e-book's quality and helpfulness. 

The American Counseling Association just published Dr. Osborn's review in its July 2011 issue of Counseling Today.  Click on this link to see her Match Up! review at our website.

According to Dr. Osborn, 

“Match Up! will be of great use to students and counselors who quickly need a list of options related to personality.” 

She also found “the e-book makes reading not only easy and enjoyable but reader-centered.” She continues...

"The authors state that their goal is to “help young people and adults make the best career and educational decisions possible.” Jones and Jones have created an interactive book that provides a strong framework for accomplishing this goal. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for busy school counselors, and others who work with adolescents and young adults and have that same goal. It is a great resource that provides solid information necessary for making effective career decisions."

 In “Match Up!” readers see:

• Which majors fit their personality, 
• A description of each major,
• Related occupations, and
• How to find colleges that offer those majors.

 “Match Up! Your Personality to College Majors” contains over 1,400 college majors in the U.S. and Canada. It is available for sale in the Career Key eBookstore: Adobe® PDF, 343 pages, US $14.95, 2011. There is a special discount when you purchase both The Career Key test and the "Match Up!" e-book together.  For information on group discounts, please contact me.

More information...

“Match Up!”, by Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC and Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D., GCDF, is the first publication to show students and adults returning to school all college majors matching their Holland personality types.  All of the majors (1400+) currently used by the U.S. Department of Education (and Canada) were scientifically analyzed and organized according to the Holland personality types.  Studies show that the closer the personality-major match, the more likely students will earn good grades, persist, and graduate on time.

Comparing Top Career Information Resources: Occupational Outlook Handbook and O*NET’s My Next Move

When you’re looking for occupational information, which U.S. Department of Labor resource is better - the OOH or O*NET’s new My Next Move? My answer - use both, starting with the OOH for the best overall occupational information, then moving to the O*NET (or America's CareerInfoNet) for local salary and education information.   I found that:

The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) was better for:

• practical, detailed information overall about an occupation;
• understanding the variety of work someone might do in that occupation;
• learning about working environment - financial (private vs. public sector employers), physical (office vs. field work) and mental aspects (stress, number of hours worked);
• exploring related occupations, especially ones with lesser education/training requirements in the same field (compare Veterinarians in the OOH vs. My Next Move); and
  
• Understanding education and training requirements - learn more than just what degree or certificate is required.
  

O*NET’s My Next Move is better for:

• Lightweight, visually attractive career option browsing;
• Accessing and understanding local salary information;
• Finding local schools offering the education or training required by an occupation (I found it easier to use but more limited in options than the U.S. Dept. of Education's College Navigator);
• People or counselors needing lists of required skills and abilities, and technology use (i.e. vocational rehabilitation);
• Learning about green occupations and industries (start with our Match Your Personality to Green Jobs article); and
  
• Finding apprenticeship programs.

Note: Unfortunately, My Next Move’s “Tell us what you like to do” free career test is the invalid O*NET Interest Profiler.  So if you want to measure your Holland personality types accurately, take a scientifically valid, Holland-based career assessment. You can still use O*NET’s Holland interest areas once you have your valid score.

For ideas on how to learn more about occupations, explore these Career Key articles:
Learn More About Occupations
Learn More About the Jobs that Interest Me
Green Careers and the Green Economy

UPDATE April 2, 2012:  See my latest post on this topic, "Career Key Career Test & New Career Information Links from the 2012-2012 Occupational Outlook Handbook."