Career Key Career Test & New Career Information Links to the 2012-2013 Occupational Outlook Handbook

The Career Key's valid career test and online career assessment now links to the latest career information from the new 2012-13 Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) released late last week. When Career Key test takers create their personal job option list of matching occupations, each job or career is linked with career information (job requirements, education and training, salary, etc) from the new OOH.

New entry and look for "High School Teachers" in the Occupational Outlook Handboook.

Our career information update was also made to one of our most popular articles, "Match Your Personality with Careers." It shows hundreds of occupations by Holland personality type and Career Key work group.  Users of our paper-pencil Career Key career test often use this article to get online career information about matching careers and jobs that interest them.

Best features of the new OOH, in my opinion:

• It's easier to read, with the most important information clearly up front in the summary. (Pay, Education, Job Outlook);
• A Tab format for browsing with easy to understand labels like "What They Do" and "How to Become One";
• More attractive, photo-heavy listing of "Similar Occupations,"
• The content in "What They Do", "Work Environment," and "How to Become One" - the details are practical and helpful, truly giving a flavor of the work environment.

We have preferred the career information in the OOH to the O*NET for quite some time. There are some content differences and advantages to using both, which I explained in a June 2011 post:

"Comparing Top Career Information Resources: Occupational Outlook Handbook and O*NET's My Next Move."

Taking into account the new OOH look, my advice for exploring government career information is still the same: 

• Start with the OOH for better detail and quality of information; the new OOH format just makes it a lot easier to explore and navigate. 
• Use the O*NET (or America's CareerInfoNet) for links to more specific, local (state and metropolitan area) salary and education information.  

Join Career Key on Facebook to Share Fun, Interesting Career Choices

Starting today, Career Key is inviting our fans on the Career Key Facebook page to share success stories about people and their career choices who they think showcase Holland's Theory of Career Choice in action.  Our first suggestion is a person who combines his Social/Artistic personality with an occupation he created --  "Educating Rapper" - come watch the video! Sound interesting? Come and participate (we are offering free Career Key products to early birds). 

Embracing Facebook's new timeline look, Career Key's Facebook page has recently changed so if you haven't visited in awhile or haven't visited us yet, please do! I worked hard to figure out Facebook's new look so I appreciate any feedback.

Finally, if you "Like" us or leave comments, I promise we won't spam you (Honestly, we don't know how. I'm too afraid to offend people anyway).  We post about 2-3x a week - but we try for quality, not quantity.  So you won't be bombarded with messages in your news feed.

If you're big on social media, we have a Twitter Account too:  @TheCareerKey

Thank you for engaging with us!

Personality-College Major Match Research in NCDA's February Career Convergence

The National Career Development Association (NCDA) looks at "personality-college major match" in the February issue of its web magazine Career Convergence, in the feature article, "Research Reveals that Personality-Major Match Strengthens Students' College Success."  In it, Career Key author Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC describes the impact that personality and Holland's college major environments have on college performance.

The article also refers to two important, free white papers in an e-book format that explain the research and how to apply it to career and education decisions:

• "Personality-College Major Match and Student Success"(2011), (cover at left), a 28-page guide for professionals, and
• "Choosing a College Major Based on Your Personality: What does the research say?" (2010), a 29-page guide for students, adults returning to school, and parents.  

Career Clusters, Career Pathways & Our Updated E-Book

"5 Steps to Choosing a Career Cluster, Field, or Pathway" has just been updated. It includes the most recent updates to The Career Key test and the most recent assignments of Career Clusters and Career Pathways found on O*NET OnLine.

Found in our eBookstore, "5 Steps" costs $9.95 with a special discount for purchasing both the Career Key test and the e-Book together.

Career Key's approach is to use its valid assessment of Holland's six personality types to match students to occupations, then to the clusters and pathways related to those occupations.

Our e-book is the only one that matches students' interests in this way. We also have a free online article called "Choosing a Career Cluster, Field or Pathway" with a free downloadable Career Key Map of the 16 Career Clusters.

The 16 Career Clusters and 79 Career Pathways are not organized by interests (but by industries and required skills, knowledge). So it's important to give students a scientifically valid way to match their interests to occupations within those clusters and pathways.

I uploaded to YouTube a video overview of Career Key's Career Clusters and Career Pathways resources, including the new version of the e-book.



If you are interested in Career Clusters and Career Pathways, you might read these related blog posts:
Career Clusters Interest Survey Validity Questioned by Study
NCDA Article on Using Interests to Organize Matching College Majors, Career Clusters and Pathways
NCDA (National Career Development Association)

Please see the related press release, "Career Key's Updated e-Book Enables Students to Choose the Best Career Cluster and Career Pathway."