Page 63 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

Testing the Waters

of this chapter, so pick out what seems important to you and have
it readily at hand.

By entering a job title you’re interested in, you will find the following:

•A definition of the job and explanation of the responsibili-
ties it entails, down to the smallest details of what the job
requires.
• Listings of jobs that are closely related to the title you enter,
so that if that occupation isn’t right for you, you can view
another similar one that may be.
• The usual education, skills, and experience required for
breaking into the job.
• Work environments and working conditions.
• Professional organizations that have more information
about the occupation.
• Career paths (how one would advance in the career).
• The labor market prospects (the relative ease of breaking in
to that position).
• Average range of earnings in the United States. Figures for
these salary amounts and forecasts are taken from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tabulations for both state and
national averages are available.
• A forecast of the job’s continuing popularity in the future.
• Work values. (I call these satisfiers and we’ll be covering this
essential component of job satisfaction later in this chapter.)

Because having a concrete understanding of
what a specific job is like is crucial to knowing
how well you’ll like it, plan to take a good
chunk of your time to really plumb the depths
of data on the O*NET.

The O*NET and the Occupational Outlook Handbook may not be
an exact mirror image of you, the job, the requirements, or the

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