PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
In the previous section, ‘getting it all together’, you looked at interests and abilities and in searching the ONET Center (and other research tools) were provided some insight
into interests, skills, abilities, etc for job possibility goals. You need this self assessment process to help you in determining your career goal.
In this part of the career process, you need to look not only at yourself historically, which you did in the ‘who I am presentation’ tool, but inwardly at your own self, boundaries, financial situation, geographical preferences, and many other variables which will determine your suitable goal. Also, you will need to take a look at your
accomplishments, write some statements which describe those accomplishments and
what difference it made. This will help in developing/expanding the introduction
statement you will use on your resume, and in the interview which will be
referenced later on.
In short, this is the self assessment process. Take a look at the financial aspect, then take a look at yourself and identify what you would like to do, what you do well, what makes you valuable to an employer, and what kind of work bests suits you. The self assessment process will enable you to gather insights that will influence your career direction. You will want to look back at the ‘getting it all together section’ to be honest with yourself and decide what you want (and don’t want) in you next career position.
Personal Financial Assessment
Even though you accept work to make a living, you will also want to search for the right career opportunity. This may take longer than you have anticipated so you may want to do some financial planning now.
By analyzing your past expenses and income, you’ll be more realistic in estimating future cash flow needs. The exercise following this page has budget data. To explore your own situation, you may want to follow these steps:
Monthly unchanging Expenses. For each category of monthly expenses (food, rent, mortgage) fill in your best estimate across the page. Put current mortgage across page, food costs.
Periodic expenses. This will be for expenses which come periodically such as real estate taxes, doing your best to put them when they come in to be paid.
Continuing pay. Fill in this pay under income; extending it as far as you estimation goes that it will continue (ex. Unemployment, company severance pay).
Savings. Add up your monthly outgo and income figures to see when you will have to draw on your savings. Will you want to do this? If not, what expenses can be cut back, postponed, or eliminated?
Exploring Occupations
To further explore career options below you will find websites which will help you access information.
These resources can link back to the preferences you may have for the job your decided upon previously or the resources can help you identify what preferences the jobs you explore may or may not be of interest to you.
This is really a continuation of the assessment process in order for you to make a decision as to what job/career choice you will seek.
The main focus in this section is informed career decision-making. As you think about your career, it is helpful to know as much as you can about occupations you are
considering. The tools in this section will help you learn whether the job being considered really does match your interests, abilities, likes and dislikes and whatever other considerations may be more appropriate.
There are different approaches to finding occupations on the websites. To find out about an occupation or career field without knowing the official name of it the O*Net
online is available 24/7 to help. http://online.onetcenter.org/ takes you to the O*Net homepage.
Click on Find Occupations.
In the Quick Search area enter a keyword that relates to a career or occupation that might interest you.
Click on Go to see a list of occupations for the keyword you entered. There will be many occupation options.
Click on the title of the occupation of interest to you to access a report that provides you with lots of helpful information about the occupation.
You may also research this source for a set of skills.
Once in the site Click on Skills Search which will display a listing of basic skills.
You will click on the left of the skills you have or plan to have to see occupations that match those skills. There are many options available through O*Net online for you
to research careers. You may check according to knowledge requirements, ability requirements, interests, and work values.
www.acinet.org is a good source for license requirements, fastest growing occupations, occupations with most job openings, and high growth, high demand occupations.
Federal Government Occupations can be researched through http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/
For Military Careers go to http://www.careersinthemilitary.com and find the basic information site for those careers.
To watch videos about occupations go to http://www.careerinfonet.org
Click on Videos to display a list of the different categories of videos.
In summary, we have looked at several interactive tools that can help you find out about occupations and careers to explore and to make decisions about your
preferences and set your goal for your career.
Remember Career includes all aspects of our lives, our home, our family, our interests and abilities, location preferences and the like. Our global economy requires us to look at careers from a broader perspective. We can ‘peck open our shells’ and look out at broader horizons, greater possibilities.
