Tools for Job Seekers

Posted by: Louis Lavelle on August 29

When you choose your major and embark on your chosen career, you probably have a pretty good idea about what the job prospects are. Now. But did you ever wonder about what they’ll be like a few years down the road? Or whether it really makes sense to pursue a career in dentistry in Duluth, or an acting career in Arkansas?

Well, the federal government can answer those questions, and a lot more besides.

At the CareerOneStop web site job seekers can browse occupations, learn about salary and benefits, get resume writing and interviewing tips, even learn how to negotiate a salary offer. You can also compare the wages for the same occupation in different locations—and yes, it does make sense to be a dentist in Duluth: they make $145,600 a year, a 10% premium over the rest of the country. You can even get a list of the fastest growing occupations. You’ll find, for example, that by 2016 there will be 1.6 million jobs in management, scientific, and technical consulting a 78% increase, whereas jobs at outpatient mental health and substance abuse centers will grow by a not-quite-as-spectacular-but-still-impressive 24%.

If your career isn’t on that list, mosey on over to Projections Central. There you can plug in an occupation and a state and find out what you can look forward to career-wise through 2014. Hint: you don’t want to be an actor in Arkansas—it’s expected to lose 60 of its 200 acting jobs in the next six years—but chemical engineering is enjoying something of a renaissance out west.

While you’re there, click on “related sites” and check out all the additional resources, including the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Career Voyages, which includes information on emerging and high-growth industries, plus videos.

Speaking of video, if you haven’t visited CareerTV recently, you should—it’s all video. (Full disclosure: CareerTV is owned by Universum, which provides some of the data used in BusinessWeek’s “Best Places to Launch a Career” ranking.) You can search companies by name, industry, or geographic location and watch independently produced 3 to 5-minute video segments featuring interviews with employees and company executives. There are dozens of companies to choose from, including many of the same employers featured in BusinessWeek’s “Best Places to Launch a Career” ranking. Here's one video on a company you may recognize: