O*NET is the Occupational Information Network, developed under the US Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration. It is the U.S.’s primary source of occupational information. This tool allows you to:
- Find occupations by keyword, industry, job duties, and more
- Determine what skills are needed for certain career areas.
- Learn what salary and job outlook like for a particular field.
- Use the O*NET Interest Profiler to assess your career interests and discover which career areas might be suited to you
- Use My Next Move, a search option specifically for students. This will show you career information in a consise, easy to read page and allows you to print or share the information.
- Use job information provided on the site to help write your resume towards a specific industry or career path.
Keep in mind that this is just one tool available to you to get started on your search. If the Interest Profiler gives you idea that don’t feel right to you, that’s okay – you’ve ruled out some of the options and can continue exploring with this and other tools.
O*NET has many of playlists of tutorials and walk-throughs to help guide you through the site and make the most of the resources. We’ve included a few from their Youtube Playlist page that we’ve found particularly helpful.
This video provides a great walk-through of the website, including the search options and the Interest Profiler.
This video outlines many of the search capabilities, inclulding the skills search and how to use O*NET to begin preparing of a career path.
UIC has created this short, consise video to help walk through the advantages of using this search feature, specifically for major exploration.
Dr. J. provides another walk-through, specifically focused around career and job searching.
I’ve used O*NET and I don’t know what to do with the information.
That’s okay! Record your findings and bring it in to discuss with a career coach for guidance and support.