Career Information
- Planning a Career
is a guided tour helping students find out how to choose a career and how
to reach a career goal. Useful tips on job hunting, resume writing, and job
interviewing techniques are included.
- Do you want to take a step-by-step approach to exploring careers? Start
by thinking about a Career
Plan. Once you have a bit of a plan based on your interests and skills,
take a few minutes to do a Career
Interests Game. This game is based on the work of Dr. John Holland and
divides careers into 6 areas. See which areas seem to match up with your values,
interests, and skills. You can click on the career title links on that page
or you can look up career information on the Illinois
Career Resource Network's CIS page. On the Occupations
page, there is even a tab that allows you to compare two careers. Cool. Have
you ever thought about having a "non-traditional" job? Non-Traditional
jobs are those that are not "typical" for certain people. Examples
would be men teaching elementary school or women working as electricians.
These can be very rewarding jobs, so don't count them out. CIS has a listing
of non-traditional
careers for women. You'll have to go to another listing and scroll down
a bit for non-traditional
jobs for men. If you want more information on non-traditional employment,
including salaries, pros and cons, etc,., click back on "CIS"
and click on "Non-Traditional
Employment." You may know that people generally earn more as they
become more educated. "Learn
More, Earn More" is information comparing level of education to pay
in Illinois. Very interesting. Now, do you want to find out if the career
you are exploring would pay enough for you to have the lifestyle you desire?
Do the "Reality
Check" and it will spend that money for you! Should you wish to do
a more detailed career interest survey, several are listed in the next section
of this web page (below). If you know you want to go to college and major
in a certain area but you don't know what you could do with that major, check
the "Matching College Majors..." section of this page. Locally,
the State of Illinois Department of Employment Security has an office on Mattis
Ave. just north of Bradley. They have many, many resources and are quite helpful.
Parkland College has a Career Center that has an excellent web site (see below)
and that office is available for anyone to use. Career information is all
around you. Use this page as a start and get going on a career plan!
Career Interest Surveys
- The folks at Monster.com have a career asssessment tool that is very quick
and easy but only points the user in a general direction. "Perfect
Career" asks a few questions about your personality type, then matches
that to various career areas.This is just a few questions and is generally
pretty good. (Opens in new window)
- Princeton Review's Career
Quiz is free and quick. Make 24 choices and you get a career interest
summary and a style (personality) summary. This doesn't give you matches to
careers unless you register on the site. (Opens in new window)
- If you have the time to answer more questions, check out the Illinois Career
Information System's Interest
Profiler. One option offered does not require a login but only give users
access to career information, not assessments. The options that allow assessments
and give more choices such as being able to do sorts on your results and such,
do require login. There's a lot more than just the career interest profiler
on this site. Lots and lots of good stuff! (Opens in new window)
- ACT
has a career planning information site. This is particularly useful to students
who have taken one of the ACT assessments (Explore, PLAN, or ACT) and completed
the career interest survey. (Opens in new window)
- Another interest survey to help sort out your career interests is at CareerZone.
It is also based on the work of Dr. Holland and is a quick (4 step) survey.
Lots of information is available on each career match. This site is from the
state of New York, so be aware that characteristics such as salary and demand
would not be accurate for other states. (Opens in a new window.)
- If you went to a party and had a choice of joining any of six different
groups of people, which type of group would attract you? This is basically
the question asked in The
Career Interests Game from the Western Illinois University. (Opens in
a new window.)
Matching College Majors to
Careers, Jobs with People
- Have you wondered what you could do with a major in a particular subject
area? What
Can I Do With a Major In...? is a great site from the University of North
Carolina at Wilmington's Career Services office. The listings for the approximately
40 majors include related careers and web sites associated with those careers.Other
schools have similar sites worth checking: Ausin Paey State University in
Clarksville, TN has a site entitled "What
can I do with this major/degree?" Each area has a PDF document which
outlines common career areas, typical employers, and strategies designed to
maximize career opportunities upon completion of a four-year degree. Northern
Illinois University in DeKalb, IL has an extensive listing of links listing
careers
as they relate to majors. The University of Delaware in Newark maintains
a site called "Major
Resource Kits" which "... link academic majors to career alternatives
by providing information on career paths [and] sample job titles...."
(Each of these link will open in a new window allowing easy access back to
the UHS site.)
Illinois and Local Information
- Get information about the future of your employment in Illinois.
Labor market information for Illinois is available at LMI
Source. It has the latest news on wages and employment in Illinois. To
learn about occupations which have fast growth, lots of openings and high
pay for their required level of education, click on "Learn
More, Earn More." There, you can click on a link for the greatest
number of job openings by educational level or download a very informative
pamphlet that lists "best bet" jobs and their annual earnings in
Illinois.
- Are you looking for a career in the medical or health-related field?
A Guide
to Health Careers in Illinois is a comprehensive site with lots of information
on job characteristics, occupations, salaries/wages, education required, program
sites, and other links.
- The Illinois Dept. of Employment Security's
"One Source" page has some good career information with a focus
on jobs in our state. Internet CIS is for ages high school through adult.
It will ask for a user id and a password. User ID: iletc Password: etc99 If
you want to do a fun and educational activity in which you choose your career
or income and then apply "real life" to it with all the expenses
and such, check out "Reality
Check."
- The Career Center, at Parkland
College is dedicated to being a resource to assist community members
in career development. Sections on Career Planning and the Job Search are
worth a special look. Browse the local and area classified employment ads,
get tips on resume preparation, interviewing, and much more!
- Search for employment opportunities in the classifieds
of the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette.
- Local Volunteer Opportunities abound on CUVolunteer.org.
A partnership with the United Way, U of I, and others, this site will help
those looking for volunteer opportunities. Remember that more and more employers,
colleges, and scholarship agencies are asking what volunteer service an applicant
has done. This is a factor with growing importance, and this site will help
you locate service opportunities.
General Career Info , Job
Profiles and Salaries
- A useful career information site with information provided by the
federal government may be found by checking out the electronic version of
the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
- The College Board has some helpful information on careers, too. The section
on general
career information is good with its grouping of related occupations.
- America's Career InfoNet has
state-specific information on careers. Use this web site to: a) learn about
typical wages and employment trends across occupations and industries, b)
check education, knowledge, skills and abilities against requirements for
most occupations, c) search for employer contact information nationwide, cost
of living data, and call up state profiles with labor market conditions, and
d) find more than 4,000 external links to the most extensive set of career
resources available on the Internet. For information on a specific state,
click on the "state info" tab and select the state.
- For first-hand profiles of what people do on their jobs, check JobProfiles.
Here, experienced workers, people from chimney sweeps to top executives share
their motivations, basic skills and education needed, rewards, and advice
for those interested in a similar career.
- How
much do people earn? Look it up typical salary ranges for various career
fields at salary.com. This is a commercial site targeted at job hunters and
it lists thousands of jobs by title. Look up what you could expect to earn
in different cities around the U.S.
Military Careers
- The Military Career Guide
Online is a compendium of military occupational, training, and
career information and is designed for use by students desiring to
explore the military world of work. Some basic information on each
branch of service, including its enlistment, training,
advancement, and education programs is also provided here.
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and Counseling Home Page
Last updated:
Mon, April 6, 2009
Urbana High School
(www.usd116.org/uhs)
1002 South Race Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801
217-384-3505 | fax 217-384-3532