Post #7

          I found Brown’s chapter “Using Information to Facilitate Career Development” to be extremely useful. While reading the chapter, I decided to log onto The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) website and was pleasantly surprised by all the information that is available to everyone.  I was especially interested in the O*NET Interest Profiler that was available for download on the website. This can be a very beneficial resource to use in career counseling, especially for clients who are undecided in what type of career they are interested in pursuing. Through the interest profiler, individuals are given their Holland Code (that we talked about in previous classes) and can then view a list of careers that match their Holland Code. I think this is a very useful way for people to explore different kinds of occupations that they may have been previously unaware of.

            The chapter also described the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) which “provides predictions about the future of both occupational clusters and individual occupations, brief descriptions of the duties performed on the job, working conditions, average salary data, and information regarding preparing for each job listed” (Brown, 2012, p. 183). I can remember using the Occupational Outlook Handbook in middle school when I was working on a career project.  Looking back on it now, I wish that I had taken the assignment much more seriously or even been given a similar type of assignment in high school. I believe that both O*NET and the OOH would have been very useful resources for me while in school if I had taken career exploration much more seriously.

            Although the Occupational Information Network and the Occupational Outlook Handbook are both valuable resources for individuals exploring different career paths, I’m glad that Brown included other sources of career information in the text such as job shadowing, career days, and career fairs. These types of resources can give students more of a “hands on” approach to career exploration than websites such as O*NET and OOH. When describing job shadowing, Brown states “A visit by students to shadow an individual may offer students one of the best opportunities to gain insight into a job of interest” (2012, p. 186). I feel as if job shadowing is a necessary component of career exploration and should be included in high school programs. I believe that it is important for students to have real first-hand experience in their chosen career field in order to better identify if it is truly what they want to do with their lives.

Reference

Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10^th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.