EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY NEWS SERVICE
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The Employment Opportunity System is rich with tools that help students and others
to find their careers. These career resources include the newly updated and computerized
Guide for Occupational Exploration, an Interest Checklist, and a Career Genogram.
However, after completing the Employment Opportunity System, if you still require
additional convincing that you have selected the best career for you, there are two new
career-finding implements that you might try. Available in quantity from the
Superintendent of Documents, your counselor may provide these resources for your use.
The Work Importance Locator, from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment
and Training Administration, O*NET Program, helps you decide what is important
to you in a job. Such information may be used to identify jobs likely to satisfy your needs.
The career-seeker ranks different aspects of work that represent six important work
values: achievement, independence, recognition, relationships, support, and working
conditions. Values are represented by characteristics of jobs printed on 20 Work
Value Cards. Each of the cards is read, and based upon the importance of its contents
in the context of the reader’s ideal job, placed on a card-sorting sheet in order of
priority. Based upon the placement of each card, the cards are grouped by each of the
six values and their scores added together.
The two values with the highest scores are then carried over to a Score Report
publication. That instrument explains how the two values are expressed in terms
of specific jobs. For example, if achievement is one of your two highest values,
"look for jobs that let you use your best abilities, see the results of your efforts,
and get a feeling of accomplishment." Next, students determine the level of
preparation they have achieved or are willing to gain, selecting one of five Job
Zones. For example, Job Zone 1 occupations generally require a high school
diploma, while Job Zone 5 occupations require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree.
Occupations are grouped under the values they represent and by Job Zone.
Therefore, students finish by selecting occupations of interest under their two
highly rated values, and within their selected Job Zone.
An Interest Profiler, also from the Employment and Training Administration’s
O*NET Program, helps you find out what your interests are and how they relate
to the world of work. It accomplishes this goal by asking career-seekers to answer
questions that represent important interest areas. For example, " Would you like
to write reviews of books or plays?" Students circle "L" for like, "D" for dislike,
and "?" for unsure. The questions are color-coded to six major interest areas:
Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.
Each L response is scored as one point for the corresponding interest area and
the two areas with the highest scores are identified. Those occupations that
correspond to individual interest areas are listed under them within Job Zones,
as described above. Students then select occupations under their priority
interest areas and within their selected Job Zone.
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