Career Planning Resources for your Students

Before your students start thinking about college, they should know more about career options and what careers or areas interest them. These five websites offer students ways to learn more about what areas their interests lie, best careers for their interests, college financial information and which colleges might best fit their career interests. Below are also some first steps students can take to think about careers and their interests.

Occupational Information Network or O*Net provides a wealth of information about different occupations in the United States. Developed as part of the US Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, the O*Net database contains information on hundreds of occupations. Most importantly, the database provides information on the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to prepare for and succeed at a specific career. Their Interest Profiler helps target which areas your interest is in and offers comprehensive information about careers.

Built on more than 30 years of ACT career research, the ACT Profile tool provides the user with insight into over 6,000 careers and 1,500 related popular majors. Most importantly, the tool provides research-aligned personality assessments to help guide the user in selecting a career and supporting educational pathway. Take insight inventories based on interests, values and skills to help students explore college majors and careers that match interests. Explore colleges through their college school search and different occupations. ACT Profile also has a social networking aspect to connect with other students.

College Measures helps students make informed choices on how their education after high school connects to their career aspirations. Most importantly, users have the ability to view how real graduates from 2- and 4- year schools perform in the job market following graduation through College Measures Economic Success Metrics Program. If you want to find out if the price for of post-secondary education is a smart investment, this is a good place to start.

NerdScholar is a part of the Nerd Wallet family which is focused on financial education and empowerment. Nerd Scholar provides resources to support sound educational financial decisions (including financial aid packages), college selection and career selection. Their “Choose a Career” database provides career advice, college major alignment advice, and even details on the earning potential of career choices by geographic region.

Unigo is a powerful college and career database that utilizes current student reviews, institutional data, and careers data to assist the user with locating the right career and supporting educational program. The college match function also incorporates your learning style and interests in major, location, school size to match students to an environment that will enable success.

Students First Steps for career exploration:

• Complete the ACT Profile and the O*Net Interest Inventory to gain insight into career fields of interest
• Explore specific careers online using one of these resources
• Talk to friends or family to learn more about their careers
• Set up a meeting to talk to a professional or shadow them for a day