🔍 Research Careers CONNECT

Career Research helps you explore many careers to find those that fit you best and to help you make good choices. 

Important factors to consider  when making decisions about the future may include:

• What will you do in your career every day?
• How much does it pay?
• What is the training required?
• Will there be jobs in the future?
• Who hires people for these jobs?

Finding Careers

1. Start under Research Careers in the left navigation menu and select Career Search.
2. Use the search box to find careers by typing a keyword.
3. Click the heart icon next to the careers you find most interesting.
4. Click the magnifying glass to the left of the career to learn more about it.
5. Click the video icon in the Video column to view a video about the career.
6. The star icon in the Suggested by columns indicates a suggested career based on your Learn about Myself self-assessments.

Career Clusters 

Examining Career Clusters provides a good starting point for your career research. Clusters are groups of careers that share similar knowledge and skills. Within each cluster, you will find several specialized pathways you can pursue. Clusters can introduce careers you may not have thought about before that fit well with the preferences you discovered in the Learn About Myself section. Each cluster page gives you a basic overview of job types, training, and wages.

1. Start under Research Careers in the left navigation menu and select Career Clusters.
2. Click the Data Display Mode button in the top right to choose a viewing option:
   • Grid Mode:
     • Click the Arrow to the far left to review associated career pathways.
     • Click the magnifying glass to view detailed career information.
     • Click the heart icon to favorite the career choice.

• Card Mode:
  • Click the career card to view detailed career cluster information.
  • Click the heart icon next to "Favorite Career."

3. Once a career cluster is chosen, you will see several subpages (tabs) across the top of the page.

• Details
• Pathways: Detailed information about a chosen career pathway and its associated careers.
  • Dig deeper by clicking the magnifying glass in the Pathway column or the tool icon in the Careers column. This will provide additional subpages (tabs) at the top of the page for viewing. 

• Details: Career Summary
• Duties: Tasks, common work activities.
• Requirements: Working conditions, physical demands, skills, and abilities.
• Training: Degrees, certificates, licenses, exams, education after high school, volunteer/work experience, on-the-job, military, and helpful high school courses.
• Wages: Wages in various states, locations, and pay periods, 10/25/50/75/90% of people make this wage or less. Median=50%. Many factors influence a person's wages, but entry-level positions generally fall between 10% and 25%, while people with more experience and education might expect to earn between 75% and 90%. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017).
• Employment: An overview of growth in the field, demand.
• Things to Know: Tips
• Resources: Other resources and links.
• Video

• Employment and Outlook
• Level of Education and Earnings
  • The National Annual Median Wage gives you an idea of how much the average worker in the United States earns every year after spending several years in that career. One way to think of it is "about 50% of workers earn this much or more yearly."
  • Washington's Annual Median Wage is similar to the National Annual Median Wage, except it only considers workers in Washington State. It is worth noting that while you may earn more money in certain locations, living there can also be more expensive.

Occupational Personality Types

Read about each of the occupational personality types to decide what kind of work environment best suits you.

1. Start under Research Careers in the left navigation menu and choose Personality Types.
2. Click on the Personality Type that interests you most. You will see which careers in that category you have already marked as favorites and maybe discover some new careers you want to research.

• Research Careers CONNECT.pdf2 MB