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Assess Your Skills

Whether you are new to the workforce or returning after a period of being out of it, before you start looking for a job you should think about what you need, want, and are good at doing. Identifying what you prefer or need in terms of salary requirements, working conditions, and professional growth opportunities will help you narrow your jobs search and have a good place to start.

Assess Your Needs

Learn About Career Options

Assess Your Personality

Assess Your Needs

If you're entering the workforce for the first time or after a period of being out of it, take some time to think about what you need, in practical terms, from a job. How much money do you need to make to pay your bills? Can you take work with variable hours, or do you need a set schedule? Do you have children, elderly parents, or other familial responsibilities that need to be balanced with your work life? All of your personal and financial needs must be clear to you before you begin your job search; keeping your needs in mind will help you make decisions about which jobs to apply for, and which career path is right for you.

If you are looking to make a career change, think about the reasons why you're leaving your current job. Do you need more money, more flexibility, or a better commute? Be sure that you know why you are unhappy in your current position, so that you can avoid entering a new job that has the same circumstances.

Learn About Career Options

Every job has different educational requirements, pay scales, and growth rates. Knowing the jobs in your geographical area that are expected to pay well or have high growth can be very helpful to you when making a decision about where to focus your job search. There are great resources online to help you do the research needed to make an educated choice.

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has several resources that can help you determine what careers are quickly expanding in your state. Click here to check it out.
  
  
• For a breakdown of the educational degrees required for different occupations as well as expected salaries, check out the Occupational Outlook Handbook: www.bls.gov.
  
  
• For employment information directed specifically towards women visit the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' page for women: www.dol.gov.

Assess Your Personality

A great way to explore career possibilities is to take a career personality test. This is a list of questions that when answered will help reveal your personality traits, strengths and weaknesses and the careers that best suit those traits. The following websites and books can help you discover your career personality.

• Monster.com offers a free, short test to identify what kinds of careers would fit your personality.

• www.humanmetrics.com — This free test identifies your core personality traits and suggests careers that coordinate with them.

• www.careerkey.org — Career Key offers a career aptitude test that ranks your job abilities in six different career areas and provides helpful links and information. This test is available for a small fee.

• Do What You Are, Paul D. Tieger & Barbara Barron Tieger — this book offers worksheets and quizzes to help you determine your personality type and then provides more detailed advice about possible careers that could enhance your life.

• Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham — this book helps you discover your strengths and find ways to use them in a job.

It is important to remember that these are just tools to help you identify careers or jobs that you might not have thought about before. Remember to follow your instincts if you are interested in a job that your personality test doesn't recommend.

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