Struggling with Career decision-making? The LWTC Employment Resource Center can help you with the career planning process.
The ERC’s “Career Choice Workshop” – a two-hour session, covers the career change process and introduces participants to resources for understanding and evaluating career options. The Career Choice Workshop is offered the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month. Please call the ERC front desk – 425-739-8113 to sign up and get the location.
Below is a list of websites with information to assist in the Career Planning process.
Occupational and Labor Market Information
WOIS (www.wois.org) – comprehensive career planning site with assessments, occupational information and information on education and training institutions in WA State. Call the ERC at 425-739-8113 to get LWTC’s site key for access.
Workforceexplorer (www.workforceexplorer.com) – Washington State’s labor market research site includes information on occupations, pay rates, and employers.
Washington’s Interactive Labor Market Access (www.wilma.org/wdclists/) information on occupations in demand, and in decline, in WA State.
Careerbridge (www.careerbridge.wa.gov) - eligible training providers in WA State.
Careeronestop (www.careeronestop.org) – the Federal government’s career information site.
O*NET (www.onetcenter.org) – site with information about occupations.
Assessment Sites
Outlined below are some of the free assessments available on publicly funded websites. The sites selected below represent the most useful sites and assessment versions.
WOIS (www.wois.org) This site has 4 assessments - Access to this site requires a code. Call the ERC front desk at 425-739-8113 for LWTC’s access code:
· 2 interest assessments (Career Interest areas, Interest Profiler)
· Skills assessment
· Values assessment (called Work Importance Locator)
Workforceexplorer (www.workforceexplorer.com/cgi/career/?PAGEID=3) This site offers some of the same assessments as WOIS above, with no required access code.
· Interest Profiler – the same as the WOIS assessment above, but has less explanatory information
· Work Importance Locator – same as WOIS above
Careeronestop(http://www.careeronestop.org/ExploreCareers/SelfAssessments/FindAssessments.aspx) Skills Profiler – complete an online skills checklist indicating what skills you have, and at what level of expertise – report relates scores to occupations.
Careeertrees (http://www.careertrees.org/asp/search.aspx) Allows you to select from 3 categories (RAISEC (Holland) code, industry area, education level) to get a matching list of job titles.
Learning Style Assessment (www.usd.edu/trio/tut/ts/style.html) A learning style assessment from University of South Dakota TRIO program
The Topic of Assessments (pros and cons):
Job Hunter’s Bible (www.jobhuntersbible.com/counseling/sec_page.php?sub_item=048) The jobhuntersbible.com website is a general career planning and job search site from Dick Bolles, author of “What Color is your Parachute?” Read the article “6 (unless I Think of More) Rules about Taking Career Tests” about the pros and cons of personality tests/career tests. The site also lists career assessment sites with evaluative description.
College Search
WOIS (www.wois.org) Excellent resource for information about 2-year college programs in the state. Access to this site requires a code. Call the ERC front desk at 425-739-8113 for LWTC’s access code.
Checkoutacollege.com (http://checkoutacollege.com/ReadySetGo/Set/CollegeSearch.aspx) Search by Program, college name, location or industry to find the Washington State 2-year college that meets your needs.
Careerbridge.wa.gov (http://www.careerbridge.wa.gov/) Lookup programs at state 2-year colleges throughout the state and verify eligible training provider status.
State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (http://www.sbctc.edu/college/workforce/matrix_2009.pdf) Program matrix lists programs at 2-year colleges across Washington State.
Petersons.com and Collegeboard.com are major sites for information on 4-year colleges and universities.
Career Planning, Job Search and Career Advice
The following is a general list of a few of the best sites with advice on successful job search and managing your career.
Job Hunter’s Bible (www.jobhuntersbible.com/) Job search and Career Advice from Richard N. Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute?
Quintcareers (www.quintcareers.com) - as stated by the site: “Quintessential Careers is the ultimate career, job, and college site, offering comprehensive free expert career and job-hunting advice (through articles, tools, tips, samples, and tutorials), as well as links to all the best job sites.”
Riley Guide (www.rileyguide.com) as stated by the site: “The Riley Guide introduces you to the online job search, listing many online sites and services that are useful for your job search. We do not post jobs nor resumes but instead point you to the places that do.”
Wetfeet.com (www.wetfeet.com) - job listings and career advice focused on college students and recent college graduates.
Careerbuilder.com (http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Resources/CareerResources.aspx) This is the Career Advice page of the job search site Careerbuilder.com. Avoid the commercial links (which are ambiguously labeled). There is a section of “Advice and Resources Articles” which contains dozens of articles with valuable information.
Employment Resource Center
