Page 62 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

Fearless Career Change

The four activities are methods of gathering information
about you and the job you want. For some, the thought of gather-
ing information may seem daunting or even boring, but I promise
it will be fun and enlightening.

1. Career Options Research
2. Your Ideal Work-Life Day
3. Your Transferable Skills and Satisfiers Grid
4. The Long View

Exercise 1. Career Options Research
There are two reliable and up-to-date sources you can use to delve
into the details about the 10 job titles you’ve selected. I know of
absolutely no better resources for researching careers than these
databases to give you a fleshed-out picture of what a particular job
might really be like in the real world.
The first source is the O*NET, which is an interactive database
that can be found on the Internet and that can be used by anyone
at no cost. It is compiled and continually updated by the U.S.
Department of Labor. It is an absolutely invaluable tool for career
changers because you can search for a job not only by its title but
also by its industry and/or the skills needed to do it. You can also
explore the fastest-growing jobs, highest-paying jobs, wage and
industry trends, and much more on this site. No other source has
better quantitative or qualitative information about occupations
than this. This gold mine of information can be found at
http://online.onetcenter.org.
The second excellent source of information about a wide variety
of vocations is the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), which can be
found in printed form at your local library, at a college, or commu-
nity career center. It is published in book form by the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics. Basically, it contains much the same information as
does the O*NET. Its advantage is that if you don’t have access to the
Internet for the O*NET, you can find the OOH at the library. It’s also
available on the Internet at no cost at http://www.bls.gov/oco.
Look up each of your 10 career choices on the O*NET and
in the Occupational Outlook Handbook and take notes that you can
refer to later. You’re going to be using this information in the rest

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