Choosing a career can be a challenging and overwhelming process for anyone who faces it. While there are a number of tools and services out there to help make such decisions (including JVS Toronto’s career exploration services), the hardest challenge for many is narrowing career choices to the final one.
There is an excellent selection of career information online, but it does offer some challenges: it can be hard to find enough detail and useful information and it can be overwhelming and difficult to sort through and find quality, relevant, and up-to-date career stats.
Here are some high quality online resources to help career deciders make a good choice:
Read through job advertisements:
The experience of looking for, finding and reading through postings can be a useful guide to learn career information. Find job postings on:
- Company sites – Make a list of companies you are interested in, find their websites and read through the jobs that are posted in their career section.
- Job Boards – Indeed, LinkedIn Jobs, Job Bank.
- Sector specific websites — We have compiled a comprehensive listings of job boards here for more job sources
Sign up for email alerts for specific jobs and mine job postings to gather specific information about the availability of certain jobs, the skills required, potential employers and salaries.
Look for career sites:
Some of the best and most detailed information about careers can be found on government sites, where data gathered through various programs are collated into useful career profiles:
- The US Department of Labor has a detailed Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) https://www.bls.gov/ooh
- Career Cruising is a useful tool for up to date and detailed career information. Many school boards and libraries give users access to Career Cruising. The Toronto Public Library has access through its website.
- Government of Canada offers detailed career and labour market information on its Job Bank site.
- The Ontario Government offers labour market and career information as well. Remember that the more local the information, the more accurately it will reflect the jobs that you will get.
- The Canadian National Occupational Classification (NOC) describes itself as “the authoritative resource on occupational information in Canada” and provides excellent information about careers.
Podcasts:
Podcasts are an enjoyable way to learn about your career of interest. Listen to interviews with people in various fields, as well as advice from experts in the career sector.
- Scott Anthony Barlow offers the informative The Happen to Your Career Podcast which is a useful basic guide to careers, providing information about finding a suitable as well as well paying career.
- Slate’s podcasts titled Working describes itself as “A podcast about what people do all day”. The podcasts contain interesting, detailed and current information in easy to listen-to episodes.
- How did you get into that? Is podcast about interesting jobs and how people found them. The host, Grant Baldwin, aims to inspire people to find their passions and go after their dream jobs.
- Tim Ferris, who is best known for the New York Times Bestsellers’ book titled “The 4-Hour Work Week”, offers The Tim Ferriss show, a popular podcast where he interviews successful people about their work and lives.
- The Best Part of My Job is a podcast created by a recruiter with a focus on more corporate careers. It interviews leaders in various jobs with the goal of gaining insight into their personal experiences on the job.
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