Career exploration is an ongoing journey of self-discovery. Before exploring the world of opportunities, it’s important to first reflect on yourself. Using decades of psychological research, career exploration tools match your interests, skills, and personality to possible career paths. Interest inventories, through a series of questions, group the activities you enjoy and excel at into a score or rating. From there, you’re shown careers that best align with your top interests and strengths, which you can then explore further for details like education requirements, salary, and more.
Career Resource and Planning
When working with students on career development and exploration, some useful websites include, the College Foundation of North Carolina, NCcareers.org, Educationplanner.org, the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
The College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC) is a site you can start using as early as middle school to explore career options. To get the most out of it, you’ll need to set up an account. Once you’re logged in, head to the Plan Your Future tab at the top of the page and click on Plan for a Career. From there, you can choose Learn About Yourself to take an interest inventory, Explore Occupations, or try Reality Check, which is an online tool that estimates the income needed to support your ideal lifestyle.
NCcareers.org, in partnership with CFNC (you can use your CFNC log in with the NCcareers.org site), offers students a variety of ways to explore career interests, including details on education requirements and salary information for careers that align with their interests. The skills matcher helps identify careers that fit your abilities, while the work values sorter lets you understand what matters most to you in a job.
Educationplanner.org is a site packed with helpful information and resources for career planning. It offers self-assessments, an interest inventory, and tools to explore learning styles, study habits, and character traits. Parents can also find tips and guidance on how to help prepare their child for the future.
Careeronestop.org is a website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor that has tools for career exploration, training, and jobs. This site can be useful for students and adults in their career exploration.
Occupational Outlook Handbook
To explore careers with the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), start by browsing the 25 main occupation groups on the homepage to find fields that match your interests. You can also use the Occupation Finder to filter jobs by things like median pay, required education, and projected growth. After picking a career, check out the Summary tab for a quick overview, then dig into sections like “What They Do” for daily tasks, “How to Become One” for training or licensing info, and “Job Outlook” to see future demand over the next decade. For more ideas, use the “Similar Occupations” tab to find related career paths that use similar skills.
Roadtrip Nation
Roadtrip Nation is a nonprofit organization that helps young people explore career paths by connecting them with real professionals and their stories. Through road trips, interviews, and media content, it encourages students to discover their interests, define their own paths, and pursue careers that align with who they are rather than following a traditional or expected route.
Leave a comment and let me know if you discovered anything new about yourself after utilizing one or more of the career exploration tools.