When contemplating a career choice, change, or pivot, it is very common to feel overwhelmed or stuck with indecision. This can be the case for many reasons. Learning how to choose a career efficiently and mindfully is not necessarily something we are taught.
Now, you could just do an indeed job search at the infamous indeed.com employment site, as many indeed do, and eye-ball open jobs in the market to get a feel for your viable options. But that type of strategy alone leaves out some key factors, such as job growth rate, work environment, salaries by region, national averages, and similar statistics.
In my work with clients, I naturally facilitate discussion around goals, because therapy is about figuring out what you want, and then how to go after it. A big part of long-term goals often involves a career change, which often means returning to college or trade school as well.
When I was in my early college years, I came across a game-changing tool as I was trying to figure out how to choose a career; I stumbled across something called the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
This was a massive book outlining more than anyone would want to know about specific job statistics, and it was, and continues to be, curated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The real power of the Occupational Outlook Handbook, or the OOH as I like to call it, is that it allows a seamless way for the user to compare and contrast apples to apples, or even apples to oranges, job categories, their subsets and drill down into the details of their traction and return of investment in the marketplace. This makes answering the question of how to choose a career much less painful, and actually a little fun.
At the I am writing this, we are in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and three weeks into the stay at home order and over 3.3 million people have applied for unemployment.
As such, there has never been a more important time to talk about life goals and creating oneself and considering career goals. As I have been discussing with so many of clients who are struggling with anxiety and depression in light of these uncertain times, it is important to seeking inspiration and plan for the future, which is empowering and in stark contrast to feeling helpless and worried about what we cannot control.
In is in this spirt, in an effort to help my readers to stay grounded in their dreams, to do on purpose and for a purpose, that I created this video tutorial on how to choose a career using the OOH.
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Table of Contents
How To Choose A Career Using The OOH
Prefer to read?
No worries, I got you!
See the picture below?
To start, just type OOH into Google and click on the fist link for the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Now you will see the homepage.
Notice the occupational categories all outlined nicely for you.
But before you click on anything, I want you to scroll to the bottom first.
You will a section with some bonus facts that I outline for you.
The “highest paying” tab is fun to look at for possible big, harry, audacious job goals.
Okay, now go back up to the catergories.
I am selecting Healthcare as an example.
Once clicked, you will now see a lot of subcategories under healthcare.
This is where it gets exciting!
If you look below, I highlight occupations similar in both setting and education, and you get a little description as well.
But wait, the BIG difference is in the PAY$$$$!
The pay for the hygienist position is almost double that of the dental assistant.
As you can tell by now, this is a really cool tool to compare apples to apples with apples you may not have even known existed, or given the time of day to consider.
But what about market demand?
Check out what I highlighted below for you!
After you click on an occupation, you get this neat little tidbit of info.
See the part I highlighted?
It tells you how likely you are to find a job after college/training, which is HUGE!
In this case, the job growth is 11% AKA-“MUCH FASTER THAN AVERAGE.” (I believe the OOH considers 6% to be about average nation-wide).
But what about region?
Yes, you can look by region and state as well for job/market viability. Just click on SATE AND AREA tab.
Another neat demographic is the breakdown of work environments, which will very more for some than others, depending on the occupation. In this case, dental hygienists pretty well all work out of dental offices.
If your interest is peaked on a particular career, the OOH tells you what your next steps are in planning your path.
What about pay differentials??????
They have you covered there also!
See below, under the PAY TAB and you will find that they break-down pay by type of employer/setting.
Interest peaked, but not quite your fancy?
The OOH lays out for you a whole list of “SIMILAR OCCUPATIONS.”
So, really, as you can see.
You can go as far down the rabbit hole as you are so inlined with the OOH.
So there you have it, another tool for your toolbox.
Now go make good things happen!
It is my mission to equip you with valuable and effective coping skills and clinical interventions, to improve your mood, be more productive and improve your quality of life, so you can do more, and worry less.
ASK: If you have a question you’d like me to answer here on the blog (even if you think it’s a silly one!), please use the form on the CONTACT ME page, or the comment section below. I would be happy to take a poke at it and provide a long form answer when appropriate.
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NEED CRISIS HELP? If you need immediate crisis help with your depression, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text “START” to 741-741
OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES: See International Suicide Hotlines
WHERE TO FIND MENTAL HEALTH HELP:
-NAMI Referral Helpline: 1-800-950-6264
-California’s Statewide Mental Health Helpline: 1-855-845-7415
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