November 2004
The Big "O" in Your JOb Search: O*NET
By
President of Workforce Associates
and author of
NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet
Available online and in print from Author House
November 2004
The Big "O" in Your JOb Search: O*NET
By
President of Workforce Associates
and author of
NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet
Available online and in print from Author House
The O*NET system is a powerful source for continually updated information on skill requirements and occupational characteristics. It was developed by the Department of Labor in the late 1990’s to serve job seekers, career changers, students, businesses, workforce investment staff, and human resource professionals to help them make informed employment, training, and business development decisions. O*NET information on related occupational interests and work values can help individuals to select career goals and develop education and training plans for work they are likely to find satisfying.
- Overview of the O*NET System
Using a common language and terminology to describe occupational requirements, O*Net supercedes the sixty-year-old Dictionary of Occupational Titles with current information that can be accessed online or through a variety of public and private sector career and labor market information systems. The O*NET system, which was significantly upgraded and improved in November 2003, includes the O*NET database, O*NET OnLine, and the O*NET Career Exploration Tools.
The specific value for job seekers of the O*Net is the following:
- Learn which jobs fit your interests, skills, and experience;
- Research specific job qualifications and/or compare skills currently held to skills required for a different position;
- Explore growth career profiles using the latest labor market information available in your geographic area;
- Maximize your earning potential and job satisfaction;
- Identify success factors in your current field and related occupations.
- View occupation summaries and details,
- Use crosswalks from other classification systems to find corresponding O*NET occupations, view related occupations, create and print customized reports outlining their O*NET search results, and link to other online information resources.
Take the 30 minute virtual tour of O*Net to discover the major elements of this powerful tool. HREF=http://www.onetacademy.com It’s well worth your time to learn all the aspects of the system. In addition, there are many tools available to the job seeker through one website: http://www.onetknowledgesite.com/jobseekers.cfm The main website to get an overview of the system is http://online.onetcenter.org/
- O*NET Database
The O*NET database is a comprehensive source of descriptors, with ratings of importance, level, frequency or extent, for more than 950 occupations that are key to our economy. The new O*NET 5.1 database represents a major milestone, adding new data collected directly from job incumbents for over 50 occupations. O*NET descriptors include: skills, abilities, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, experience levels required, job interests, and work values/needs. Each O*NET occupational title and code is based on the most current version (2000) of the Standard Occupational Classification System. This ensures that O*NET information links directly to other labor market information, such as wage and employment statistics. A Spanish translation of the O*NET database, developed by a special team from Aguirre International, is now available.
- O*NET Career Exploration Tools
The O*NET Career Exploration Tools are a set of career exploration and assessment tools that help individuals (workers and students) identify their work-related interests and abilities and what they consider important on the job, so that they can explore occupations that match their interests, abilities, and preferences. The Career Exploration Tools include:
- O*NET® Interest Profiler™ (paper-and-pencil and computerized versions);
- O*NET® Work Importance Locator™ and Work Importance Profiler™ (paper-and-pencil and computerized versions, respectively); and
- O*NET® Ability Profiler™. Users may download many of these materials by clicking on Career Exploration Tools.
For an excellent way to see how O*Net can be useful, check out http://www.njnextstop.org. It is designed for young people and their parents in New Jersey to learn about the emerging occupations in their state. From your standpoint as a job seeker and/or career changer, this website is a convenient place where you can learn about a wide variety of occupations in several quick clicks. Another excellent source is the Career Clusters website that was developed by the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium that also incorporates the O*Net concept into its materials about the 16 major clusters that almost all occupations center around.
If you prefer the case study approach, take a look at the example of a Broadcaster and related occupations in the performing arts and journalism.
You’ll quickly see how useful O*Net is for job seekers thinking about this field and how easier it will be to understand the related occupations, skills, daily activities, and education requirements for occupations in your own field.
Please let me know how useful you find O*Net in your job search or research to make a career transition. Happy Thanksgiving!
Jane M. Lommel, Ph.D.
jlommel@WorkforceAssociates.com
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