Career Services

There are many ways to identify occupations that fit your personal profile: reading about them, researching them on the Internet, using self-assessment instruments, talking with professionals in the field, and attending company presentations on campus. To make sure you have the most accurate picture of a career and/or occupation, it's best to use multiple methods to gather information.

These web sites present different strategies that you can use to gather information about occupational fields in order to make informed decisions.

• Occupational Outlook Handbook - Learn about hundreds of different types of jobs including the training and education needed, earnings, expected job prospects, what workers do on the job, and working conditions. Use the “A-Z Index” in the shaded paragraph to go directly to an alphabetical index of occupations.

• O*Net - Search for occupations based on your skills or simply explore different occupations based on different features.

• One Day One Job - Great site that will help you learn about careers and find job and internship postings. Every day we’ll introduce you to an awesome new company or non-profit. We’ll tell you what they do, who they are, why they’re interesting, and what kind of entry level jobs and internships they offer.

• Becomeopedia.com - How To Become Any Career - Find information about how to become hundreds of careers including education requirements, job descriptions, salary info, and future career paths.

• Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook - A searchable guide that describes what workers do on the job, the working conditions, the training and education needed, salaries, and expected job prospects in a wide range of occupations.

• Department of Labor Career Guide to Industries - Provides information on available careers by industry, including the nature of the industry, working conditions, employment, occupations in the industry, training and advancement, earnings and benefits, employment outlook, and lists of organizations that can provide additional information.

• Career One Stop - Site sponsored by the US Department of Labor that offers career resources and workforce information to job seekers, students, businesses, and workforce professionals to foster talent development in a global economy

• JobShadow.com - an ongoing collection of interviews done with people involved in various careers and professions.

• Jobstr.com - you can ask people anything about their jobs and answer questions about yours. It’s as though we took the classic “What do you do?” cocktail party question and turned it into a website…minus the awkward small-talk.

• Career Zone - Provides a list of six occupational clusters. Once a selection is made, a list of job titles is provided. Each job title has a detailed description with information on tasks performed, skills, knowledge and education required, wages, outlook and similar job titles. Although the wages are specifically targeted to NY, the rest of the content is relevant throughout the US.

• WetFeet - Provides information on specific companies, careers, newsletters, career and company comparison charts, salary benchmarking tools and numerous career discussion boards.

• Career Bliss – Make informed career decisions by reading the latest news about companies you are interested in, employee reviews, and advice articles that will help you land your dream job.

• NACE Occupational Salary Calculator Center - For nearly forty years, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has been the trusted source for employers' salary data.

• Career Thoughts - Learn about careers in a variety of industries.

• Career Options - by Academic Invest

• The Career Project .org

• Glassdoor.com - gives you an inside look at company salaries, reviews and interview questions for more than 100,000 companies.

• Career Guide to Industries

• Think Green Degrees - one of the leading Green Energy sites for the Green Energy sector.

• Career Resource Library

• Job Hunters Bible

• Inside Jobs - thousands of job profiles and articles to help people discover and pursue a career that excites them.

• Business Careers Info - For anyone looking for a general understanding about the various business careers, this article provides an overview of accounting/finance, management, and marketing. Anyone trying to assess the different major paths of business people will find the following information useful.

Informational Interviews:

Informational Interviews are a great way to learn what you could never learn online.  Talk to someone in a field that interests you...it'll help with your networking too!

Hands-On Exploration:

Learning about careers shouldn't stop at online research.  Now that you've window-shopped, it's time to try some things on.  Dip into a career field to get the best feel for how much you like it by doing some hands-on exploration such as internships, co-ops, volunteer opportunities, and part-time jobs.

NOTE:This page contains links to websites not under the control of Oregon State University Career Services and we are not responsible for their contents. We'd like to hear your comments about these sites; feel free to contact us.

On the recommendation of our counseling staff, Career Services lists job and career information sites that generally meet the following criteria: are of interest to OSU students, easily navigated, and require no fee or registration prior to viewing. New sites may be submitted for consideration and are typically reviewed on an annual basis. Please indicate the page on our site where you think your link would be appropriate.

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