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How to Find An Occupation that Fits You...
Interview People Who Have the Job You Are Interested In
Information about specific occupations and jobs is easy to find online. From O*Net, which has career information about hundreds of jobs, to websites for specific professions, detailed descriptions of jobs are available. However, in order to make sure that a job, profession or career will be a good fit for you, one that you will enjoy learning about, obtaining the requisite qualifications for, and performing the work itself, field research needs to be done.
The most common name for this field research is information interviews. In an information interview, the focus is not on you, but on the person you are interviewing. By interviewing someone doing the work you want to do you can: - Identify the typical work activities of someone in this position.
- Get inside information about what qualifications matter.
- Learn which college majors prepare you to do this kind of work or if you might be able to land this type of job by obtaining other kinds of job training.
- Gain insight into the work environment for the job you seek.
- Hear about the issues, concerns, and challenges of this kind of work.
- Confirm salary ranges and typical benefit packages.
- Confirm that this is work you want to do.
- Conclude that this is not a job for you.
- Add the interviewee to your professional network.
Because you can learn all this in about a half hour conversation, information interviews give a high rate of return for your time. MORE... | 
