This research guide has been designed to provide students with a general source of helpful information to engage in career exploration. The valuable resources in this guide provide an important first step in researching a possible career.

We hope you enjoy using it!

Need to find comprehensive descriptions of careers including salaries, employment and advancement prospects, education and training, experience and skills needed? Try this database! Also provides tips on interviewing and information on creating effective résumés and cover letters, internships, grants and scholarships, as well as resources by industry. CSUF Career Center provides access to this database.

A short video has been created by Suellen Cox of the Pollak Library to help you navigate your way through Ferguson's Career Guidance Center. To access this video, please click HERE.

OR

to proceed directly to Ferguson's Careeer Guidance Center, please click HERE.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor publishes the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), which offers detailed information on many careers, such as:

• required training and education

• income potential

• career outlook

• type of work involved

• work environment

The access the Occupational Outlook Handbook, please click HERE.

The Pollak Library Catalog will connect you with print, physical, and online resources, such as e-books, owned by the library.  These materials can aid in your career exploration.

A short video has been created by Stephanie Rosenblatt of the Pollak Library that will help you get started with the Pollak Library Catalog.  To view the video, please click HERE.

OR

Go straight to the Pollak Library Catalog HERE.

• Try a search using the phrase vocational guidance AND the area of study for the career.

Provides full text for more than 2,300 business periodicals, including full text for more than 1,100 scholarly journals. Datamonitor publications, including Company Profiles, SWOT analysis, Case Studies, Country Profiles, and Industry Profiles are available in PDF Full-Text. Database CoverageVaries; full text for 350 journals as far back as 1922.

Business Source Premier also serves as a valuable research tool for learning more about careers.  To begin your career research, you may follow the following steps:

• In the first search box, enter your career of interest.

• In the second search box, enter a word such as career, vocation, or career development.  You may also enter a phrase such as: career or vocation

• Click on the "Search" button.

• When you get your results, you will see the "Narrow Results by" column on the left of the results screen.  Look at the section titled "Subject: Thesaurus Term" and click on any of the terms on the list in order to narrow your results.
  
  You may also click on the "Subject" tab to see other terms you may click on to narrow your results even further.

If you are ready to explore Business Source Premier for your career research, please click HERE.

Below you will find helpful links to career-specific resources.


Professional Nursing Organizations
The links in this section are taken from the Occupational Outlook Handbook.  Please take the time to explore other information on the Web page.

Professional Teacher Organizations
The organizations on this list are useful resources for students who wish to pursue a career as teachers in grades PK through 12th.  They are taken from the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

The list below contains links to other websites you may consider consulting as part of your career research.


Career Voyages
This web site is the result of a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Education.  It is designed to provide information on in-demand occupations along with the skills and education needed to attain those jobs.

America's Career Resource Network (ACRN): Exploring Careers
There are numerous resources available to students and adults who want to find out more about potential careers.  The resources offered in this section of the ACRN website help people explore careers related to their interests, and see which fields are growing.

CaliforniaCareers.Info
Becoming a career self-manager can be confusing and intimidating. In this section devoted to students, you will find many resources that will help you begin and continue on your journey to discovering what interests you. Come back often, as the listing of resources will be updated with new sites that benefit you, the student.

Tomorrow's Jobs
Making informed career decisions requires reliable information about opportunities in the future. Opportunities result from the relationships between the population, labor force, and the demand for goods and services.  This resource is part of the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

(Descriptive material above is taken from the respective career websites profiled in this section.)

Navigating thorough information on the web can be overwhelming!  Check out this video from the Pollak Library's YouTube Channel that will give you some tips on what to look for in a reliable website.  To view the video, please click HERE.

OR

See the 6 criteria for evaluating websites HERE.

For further information on evaluating sources in general, see the Pollak Library's guide HERE.