The most important step in finding a right job is to look for one that is most suitable to your requirements and most compatible with your personality. This may sound easy, but often we don’t have a clue about what each job provider has to offer and what would work best for us. Resources for career counseling can be a great help in this process of identifying the next career move.

Web Resources

The Internet is an exhaustive information source that allows us to select from a large list of options. Most organized online resources help job seekers find a viable job based on their personal preference and skill. An interested candidate needs to key in some specifications to narrow down the search that is applied to a massive job database. It is very important to know what to key in when checking online resources for career counseling as selecting the right keyword will get you the desired information.

Identifying What Is “Really” Important To You

There are many factors that may affect the kind of resource you can find on the web. Geographic preference can narrow down the response. Personal preferences such as amount of travel involved can further focus the results. Its important to note that if a user puts in too many preferences the result may be zero help, so its important to keep key factors in mind. This kind of “what if” analysis is possible when using automated resources and is generally not available when using counselors.

Too Much Information Can Confuse You

Web can be a boon or a curse to a person seeking career counseling. The curse of the information explosion can confuse rather than help. Therefore, for some, the old fashioned personal approach is more suitable.

Benefits

A beneficial aspect of career counseling resources is that they help job seekers understand their shortcomings and prepare accordingly. Most jobs that are posted online usually mention what an applicant’s ideal profile should be. This enables job seekers to see for themselves if they fit in or not. It can also spur self-development efforts such as enrolling for additional training, education, and certification or licensing.

Aside from this, resources for career counseling offer useful advice on career related issues. There are forums and message boards on most sites where one can post a query. A counselor answers these questions to help you choose accordingly. Some of the specialized career counseling companies evaluate your current earnings and analyze your potential to help you land a better job.

What Information To Look For

You could make a job choice based upon recommendations, reviews, write-ups, word of mouth or rankings, but the most important is personal need. The American School Counselor Association plays an important role in ranking or recommending job sites. Many graduate schools refer to these online career-counseling sites to build their own database.

Tools That Can Help You

Self-assessment and interests, values inventories, self-assessment tools, personality and IQ tests, and aptitude quizzes help analyze your true potential.

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter test helps gauge your personality profile. The Career Planning Process, Career Change, and Hoover’s Online are a few popular career- counseling resources. The Riley Guide, Resume Writing, Career Services and America’s Job Bank are helpful as well. A job seeker may also refer to Yahoo! Classifieds-Employment, Contract Employment Weekly, Jobs Online, UST Career Development Center, Monster.com, Job Web, and Career Mosaic.

If all this confuses you don’t hesitate to go to your local community college or university. They have career counseling centers that can provide a large amount of information and staff that is eager to help.