If one of your top 2 or 3 Holland personality types is Realistic, then you might be a little depressed by some of the job growth trends over the last 20 years. Many typically “Realistic” industries and occupations have suffered big losses: manufacturing and production of all kinds, farming and fishing, and even construction in the recent recession. The automotive industries and their suppliers have particularly been hard hit.

But there are many other Realistic careers with positive job outlook. And even within battered industries there are some bright spots.

Things to consider:

• Look at the Realistic occupations related to high growth industries like health care, social services (childcare and elder care), retail and restaurant, science and technology, and computer systems. Technicians and mechanics that fix medical equipment. High-skilled manufacturing like pharmaceuticals or green technology. Think outside the box. Are there any companies near you in these industries? What types of Realistic jobs do they have?
• With any career requiring a significant physical activity (as many Realistic occupations do), consider long-term consequences and your own abilities. Will you be able to hang windows when you are 60 years old? Can you plan a transition from an entry level, intensely physical job, to a less physical one that matches your interests? Again, talk with people working in the field. What are the common injuries? Physical demands?
• Location, location, location. If you really are interested in a particular career, regardless of what the government or “conventional wisdom” says about job outlook, talk with local people working in that career to get the real story. Maybe your area is the exception to a nationwide trend.

To get started, look at the jobs that match your interests using the Career Key test. Then check the job outlook for each career that interests you.

From the Career Key test and website, you’ll find direct links to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) from each career you choose to explore. Each OOH description of a career includes a job outlook section that links to state specific labor market information. Career Key Canada provides similar links to the Canadian government’s Job Futures with employment prospect information.

Top Realistic Career Key (CK) work groups* for promising job prospects:

1.02 Safety and Law Enforcement
1.03 Engineering
1.05 Construction Crafts & Support
1.06 Crafts – Mechanical
1.07 Crafts – Electrical-Electronic
* The Career Key organizes matching careers in unique, easy to use work groups based on interests, skills, and abilities. To learn more, click here.

The Realistic occupations predicted to have the most new U.S. jobs through 2016 (listed with Career Key work group number) are:

Automotive service technician (1.06)
Carpenters (1.05)
Cooks, restaurant (1.09), and
Police officers and sheriffs (1.02)

The fastest growing is:
Audio and video equipment technician (1.03)

In Canada, please see this list of the best Canadian job prospects in 2009:
For Realistic occupations, see (with the CK work group number)
Paramedics (1.02)
Civil engineering technicians (1.03)
Mechanical engineers (1.03)
Medical radiation technologist (1.03)
Technical occupations in dental health care (1.12), and
Underground miners, oil and gas drillers, and related workers (1.11).

A word about the other CK work groups…

1.01 Agriculture & Natural Resources
Farming and fishing have taken significant hits to jobs. Support positions in forestry, mining, and farming are slowly growing, but overall technology and overseas competition makes this a stagnant or declining area – except mining, oil and gas in Canada. Small “boutique” farmers with specialty seeds and crops are making a positive go of it – but you have to find your niche to make it work.

1.04 Transportation & Distribution
While there is an overall increase in transportation operator jobs (mostly in trucking), these occupations have overall seen a jobs decline. The number and quality of the airline pilot opportunities are much different now than they were 20 years ago.

1.11 Equipment Operation
Construction is rebounding is some places as the residential and commercial real estate markets loosen up. Opportunities to drive heavy construction equipment will follow a similar path.

1.12 Manufacturing & Production
Health science related jobs like dental or ophthalmic laboratory technician can be a bright spot in an otherwise dim outlook for manufacturing and production.

Next post: Job Outlook for the Investigative Personality Type. (in progress) Want to see the previous post in this series? Start with my introductory post in your Career Options Cheat Sheet: Job Prospects by Personality Type. It also has my recommendations for best Internet links for labor market information.

Source for U.S. Job Outlook: Tomorrow’s Jobs, 2006-16, U.S. Department of Labor
Sources for Canadian Job Outlook: Job Futures, 2009; Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

 This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

Good news for career planners looking at education options and financing their next career move. If you have or will have U.S. government guaranteed student loans, your repayment plan may be based on your income level. What a concept! – and hard to believe it has taken this long to implement. You can learn more about the new plan and eligibility at the studentaid.ed.gov website. Jonathan Glater also wrote an excellent article about the new plan in The New York Times today.

And please make sure you max out your federal loan eligibility before turning to higher interest private loans.

Yes, there may be more paperwork to fill out but if you want to go to school, you’d better be able to fill out paperwork. Maybe that should be a foundation skill!

You can learn more at The Career Key website about resources for financing your education – and also at the Career Key Canada website. Canadians: After checking on CanLearn’s section on repayment, it doesn’t look to me as if Canada has a similar income based option for repaying loans. Please let me know if I’m wrong about that. Thanks!

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

Our newest partner, Zumeo.com, just received a 2009 Webby Honoree award for their website in the Employment category. If you haven’t checked out their Generation Y career discovery tool and professional social network, you should. It is truly unique and powerful.

They are the ONLY job search and networking website to use a scientifically valid test and career theory to match users with jobs and fellow networkers.

They also have a very cool user interface (hence their Webby award) to deliver this high-quality content. You can see video on their YouTube channel.

Yes, I’m biased because they are our partner but I’ve seen a lot of time-wasting junk out there and Zumeo really does a fantastic job. Okay, enough said.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

If you are choosing a career, make sure you are taking advantage of the high-quality, free resources available to you. We have a lot of great, professionally developed career advice articles at The Career Key, but we are only one stop on your career exploration itinerary. Below are my favorite free career resources (and no, I’m not getting anything in return for these recommendations):

Your Public Library. I’m continually surprised at the number of people who do not use their public library. 2 news flashes for nonusers: (1) the public library is for everyone – not just students or “down on their luck” people, and (2) libraries are carrying more and more eBooks, databases, and other resources you cannot get anywhere else for free. If you have a library hang up, get over it!

Khake.com. First built for educators, this non-commercial resource has tons of great links for many different careers you won’t find anywhere else.

Occupational Outlook Handbook. Yes, we recommend and link to it all the time on our site but there is a reason. It is the best, most up to date government resource that describes careers, related careers, and all sorts of helpful information.

National Career Development Association. Many of NCDA’s list of Internet Sites for Career Planning are from The Riley Guide’s Margaret Dikel’s well known and respected book, The Internet: A Tool for Career Planning. You can also get her book from your public library or purchase it online for $10 at the NCDA site. Not free, but very reasonable.

NCDA’s site also has excellent advice for finding a career counselor and what to expect from one.

College Navigator, National Center for Education Statistics. If you are researching your education and training options (all schools, from less than 2 year degrees to advanced degrees), this is a great site. Once you match your personality to careers and your course of study, and after reviewing our recommended free resources, use College Navigator to find schools that offer the degree you need.

I hope these suggestions are helpful and I welcome your feedback!

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

Throughout my careers, I’ve struggled with balancing economic reality with my interests, passions, and life demands. Choosing careers throughout your life requires you to decide, again and again, how to spend your time, money, and energy – and prioritize them. A big task.

So I’m always looking for helpful ways to incorporate “reality” into choosing the right career. We suggest a number of activities to “Know Yourself” at our website and I recommend adding one more to this list.

I found a helpful resource in Chapter 7, “Align the Practical Realities” of Tamara Erickson’s book, “Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work.” Although the book is directed to Generation Y (people born between 1980 and 2000), it has much to offer everyone. I got it at the library but it’s reasonably priced on Amazon too. Ms. Erickson also has an excellent blog “Across the Ages.”

In this chapter, Ms. Erickson describes ways you might consider the following issues:

• Time (how you want to spend it),
• Rhythm (how do you like to work),
• Economic reality (financial needs),
• Challenge (willingness to take on learning new skills)
• Responsibility (interest in taking on leadership and management roles)

When you’re evaluating career options that match your Holland personality, consider reading more in this book. It will help you fill in your decision balance sheet you can download for free as part of our “High Quality Decisions” article.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

There’s more ammunition in the fight to support community colleges and increase U.S. “degree attainment.”

Jobs for the Future just came out with a report, “Cost, Commitment, and Attainment in Higher Education: An International Comparison” by Arthur M. Hauptman and Young Kim.

Among the recommendations is increased emphasis and support for community colleges. Although over half the students in the U.S. are enrolled in community colleges, these colleges proportionally receive a lot less public funding.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

Many people have trouble choosing a career. Some are afraid to make the wrong choice. Others are concerned they might change their mind later. Overwhelmed by options, some people just wait for someone (parent, counselor, significant other) or a career test to just tell them what to do.

To cure your commitment problem, try confronting the truths that scare you the most:

No person/counselor/scientifically valid career test can tell you the one “right” career choice. But part of making a good career decision is gathering and considering a lot of information. Try the exercises in “getting started” and this 4 step career decision making process.

You’re responsible for your own decisions. But look on the bright side – you have access to a lot of affordable help. Your public librarian, your college career services counselor, the Career Key website and other high-quality Internet resources – are just a few. You are ultimately in control of your attitude and making your own luck – look for support and you will find it. Positive thinking and surrounding yourself with positive people, as “woo woo” as it sounds, has been proven effective.

Money doesn’t grow on trees. But it does flow from your work and ideas. You have control over what you do to make money – whether through your own business, working 4 hours a day, or changing the world (or all of the above).

Some of your expectations about work and lifestyle may be unrealistic. (See Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees) Change takes time and effort so start with small, realistic work and lifestyle goals on the road to your larger ones. Short-term goals should be a stretch but achievable through your own efforts.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

A valid career personality test is just one tool for making a career choice but one of the most important. By giving you a concrete, science based way to jumpstart your career planning, you will be more likely to take action and make a decision you won’t regret.

Three of the biggest challenges in choosing or changing a career are:

• Getting started – what to do first?
• Narrowing your career choices to a “short list” of options.
• Making and following through on your decision.

Taking several valid career tests can help you overcome these challenges by giving you a:

• concrete first step to immediately take,
• proven, accurate way to narrow your options, and
• confidence builder by knowing your decision is based on proven science, making it more likely that you’ll follow through on your decision.

Holland’s Theory of Career Choice, on which our career tests are based, is the most popular, most researched and well-established career theory in the world. Helping you locate yourself in the world of work is its greatest benefit. The Career Key test is a scientifically valid measure of the 6 Holland personality types.

If you’re still having trouble focusing or getting started on your career plan, I recently found this excellent online resource with great tips on how to concentrate. When you get to summarizing your objectives and setting a “general strategy of accomplishment,” look to our most popular page, “Getting Started,” to show you the way.

I also recommend visiting my previous posts: 5 tips for choosing the best career test and Career Test Results. Our 3 websites, The Career Key, The Career Key Canada, and The Self-Employment Key, offer one of the few scientifically valid career tests on the Internet.

As always, I enjoy hearing from you. How have you successfully used valid career tests to get started and focus your efforts?

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices — career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.