Blog 7

Nathan Scarbrough

Week 7 Discussion: Brown Chapter 8 – Using Information to Facilitate Career-Development

                This chapter was incredibly beneficial for me, as it shed light on career-development resources I didn’t even know existed.  Until I read this, I had no idea that any of these resources existed, much less that there were a multitude of free, easy-to-use resources providing information on most job positions available in this country.  Being that the average citizen can only accurately describe roughly 6 out of a thousand available jobs in the country, it is shocking to me that this information is not more widely known.

                These resources can benefit people in almost any stage of life.  Children and adolescents can use it to realize what job opportunities there are and to prepare for these opportunities.  This would be an incredibly useful tool for educational systems to share and emphasize, as it will help to provide children with some sort of knowledge and direction to shape their futures with.  Adults will also find these resources to be useful, as it will help them in the same ways as children and adolescents, as well as help to inform them as to the skills they should develop to enhance their performance in their jobs, or other careers they may be considering.  Even retirees can find use for this information.  With a good portion of the elderly returning to work (for pay) as well as volunteering, this information can provide the same knowledge and direction to them that it does for their younger counter-parts.

                The two sources of career information emphasized most in this chapter were ONET and the OOH.  ONET (Occupational Information Network) is useful because it has data for over 906 occupations.  The OOH (Occupational Outlook Handbook) is a very similar tool, and available online and in print (for those of us who don’t have computers or prefer hard-copies of information. The information available from these resources includes worker characteristics, worker requirements, experience requirements, occupational requirements, and occupational characteristics.  As a potential career counselor, this site can be a useful tool, as it can be downloaded by any counselor or HR managers, and can then be used to help people find jobs that match their interests and skills.  Also, it can be used by companies to write job descriptions and set standards for employees in their company. 

                While the book put a greater emphasis on these two sources of information, they briefly mentioned other sources of information, such as military sites, computer assisted career guidance systems (which can be expensive and tricky to be, but well worth the effort), state systems, simulations, games, interviewing experts, direct observation, job shadowing, career days, career conferences, work experience programs, career fairs, apprenticeships, and post-high school opportunity programs.  If I took anything from reading these sections in the chapter, it would be that while technology is quite helpful, it is not the only option. Not everyone has computer skills.  OOH and ONET are free, user-friendly, and frequently updated, however, non-technological options, such as direct observations, interviewing experts, and job shadowing (to mention a few), can be fantastic sources of information as well.  Obtaining information directly from a worker in the field can be just as helpful in providing guidance as the other, more technologically advanced options.