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Three O*Net Career Exploration Tools for Career Counseling and PlanningBy: Jim Hasse
Summary:
Here is a guide to three free O*Net Career Exploration Tools for career counseling, planning and exploration that have been developed by the U.S. Department of Labor and Employment and Training Administration. 
Overview
O*NET Ability Profiler O*NET Computerized Interest Profiler O*NET Work Importance Locator and Profiler Overview You are about to make a career decision -- taking a course, applying for college, interviewing for a job, accepting a new job etc. It is just one of the many career decisions that you will make throughout your working life. Tests -- also called assessments, inventories, or career decision-making tools -- are available to you, counselors, and employers to help make the best career decisions possible. This guide will help you better understand the different types of career assessments and how you and others may want to use them to make career decisions. The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) team has designed a set of self-directed career exploration/assessment tools to help workers consider and plan career options, preparation, and transitions more effectively. These assessment instruments, which are based on a "whole-person" concept, include:
These instruments help individuals identify their work-related interests, what they consider important on the job, and their abilities so they can explore those occupations that relate most closely to those attributes. There is no charge for completing them and obtaining the results online (or printing them out, completing them and sending them to your state workforce development department for a results report). Users of the tools may link to the more than 950 occupations described by the O*NET database as well as to occupational information in CareerOneStop.org, a workforce assistance and information portal site administered by the U.S. Department of Labor and Employment and Training Administration. As a result, individuals can make a seamless transition from assessing their interests, work values, and abilities to matching their job skills with the requirements of occupations in their local labor markets. You have three options in most cases. You can take most of these tests online yourself, work with your career counselor on an individual basis in taking them and evaluating their results, or join a group of individuals under the direction of an administrator who helps you take and evaluate the assessments. Whatever your situation, it may be wise to seek professional guidance, especially in matching your profile to the needs of the job market in your area -- someone who takes into account all aspects of your individuality in the critical decision of choosing an occupation that's right for you. O*NET Ability Profiler This newly released instrument is a career exploration tool that helps clients plan their work lives. The O*NET Ability Profiler uses a paper and pencil format (the only one of these tests which cannot yet be taken online) with optional apparatus parts and computerized scoring. Individuals can use O*NET Ability Profiler results to:
The O*NET Ability Profiler measures nine job-relevant abilities:
Here are specific features for the O*NET Ability Profiler:
O*NET Computerized Interest Profiler The O*NET Computerized Interest Profiler is a new vocational interest assessment instrument administered by computer. Users receive an accurate, reliable profile of their vocational interests that provides valuable self-knowledge about their vocational interests and fosters career awareness. This instrument is a self-assessment career exploration tool that can help people discover the type of work activities and occupations that they would like and find exciting. Users identify and learn about broad interest areas most relevant to themselves. The instrument is composed of 180 items describing work activities that represent a wide variety of occupations as well as a broad range of training levels. People can use their interest results to explore the world of work. O*NET Work Importance Locator and Profiler These instruments are self-assessment career exploration tools that allow customers to pinpoint what is important to them in a job. They help people identify occupations that they may find satisfying based on the similarity between their work values (such as achievement, autonomy, and conditions of work) and the characteristics of the occupations. The O*NET Work Importance Locator is a paper and pencil instrument, and the O*NET Work Importance Profiler is computerized. These alternative delivery modes increase the flexibility that programs and clients have in career exploration. The O*NET Work Importance Locator and Profiler measure six types of work values:
These are the strengths of the O*NET Work Importance Locator and O*NET Work Importance Profiler:
In Step 1, participants rank order 21 work need statements by comparing them to one another and ordering them according to their relative importance. In Step 2, they rate those work needs by indicating whether or not the need is important independent of the other work need statements. Users receive a profile of their work values that:
Remember -- you can obtain each of these tools (and your individual results) for free. Bookmark this article to: 
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