Best of Career Resources
From Career Rymx
Contents |
Overview
There are thousands of books, web sites, and career counselors available. We have reserved this section of the site to allow people to list and describe their favorite career resources. In development is a voting feature, that will allow registered users to cast votes for the best resources. Our hope is to save people time and money by enabling them to make better purchase decisions and direct them to the most useful free sites.
Career Assessments
Listed below are commonly used career assessments.
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is one of the most widely administered assessments. Millions of people take the Myers Briggs each year. The Myers Briggs is produced by Consulting Psychologists Press. The Myers Briggs helps individuals understand their personality preferences along the four dimensions listed in the table below. While these dimensions are helpful in understanding key attributes of your personality, there are many more dimensions and factors that are important to a career decision. The strength of the Myers-Briggs is its reliability, validity, and extensive database of user results. The weakness of the Myers Briggs is that it really functions best as a personality test, and is not really considered a career assessment. Therefore, the ability of test takers to translate results into actionable career decisions is limited. The Myers-Briggs must be administered by a trained administrator, and generally costs $70; however many university career centers offer the test for free.
| Dimension | Description |
|---|---|
| Introversion - Extroversion | Measures how a person generates energy through interpersonal relations. Extraverts generate energy from interacting with others, introverts generate energy from thinking internally. |
| Sensing - Intuition | Sensing relates to data collected through the five physical senses. Sensing types process predominantly through the five senses and are focused on the present. Intuitive types rely on a sixth sense, intuition. They focus more on possibilities and on concepts, theories, and alternative meanings. |
| Thinking - Feeling | Thinking types tend to use impersonally held and "objectively" applied moral principles to make decisions. Feeling types are sensitive to their own values and priorities and to the values of others. Feeling types tend to be people and relationship oriented. |
| Judging - Perceiving | Judging types desire organizing and concluding activities. Perceivers look for new information. They are receptive, open, adaptable, willing to bring in additional data. They resist control, plans, decisions, conclusions, closures, and schedules. |
- Strong Interest Inventory - The Strong Interest Inventory is produced by Consulting Psychologists Press, the same company that produces the Myers-Briggs. Using an extensive multiple choice test, the Strong Interest Inventory attempts to statistically match an individuals preferences and interests to appropriate careers. The strength of the Strong Interest inventory is the conclusiveness of the results, the weakness is the dated nature of the job profiles (many have not been updated in decades). The Strong Interest Inventory must be administered by a trained administrator, and generally costs $70; however many university career centers offer the test for free.
- CareerLeader - CareerLeader is a career assessment in the true sense of the word. That is, it uses multiple choice questions to statistically match people to careers that may offer a good fit. CareerLeader is particularly geared toward business school students. Most MBA programs and many undergraduate business programs are users of Career Leader. Strengths of the test is the conclusiveness of results. The weakness of the test is that test takers are given little guidance on why they match well with different careers. Individual users can purchase CareerLeader online for approximately $95; however, many universities provide the test for free to students and alumni.
- Career Next Step - Career Next Step is a career assessment site that replicates a battery of assessments and course modules that have been offered at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business for 25 years. The strength of the tool is the breadth of assessments and the fact that the site provides an end-to-end process for identifying interests and mapping it to a career. The weakness is the amount of time that an individual needs to invest to get value from the service (an average time investment would be a 2-3 full days).
- FULL DISCLOSURE: Career Next Step is owned and operated by the founders of Career Rymx.
- Goal Setting Assessment - Setting goals is vital to accomplishing your daily to long-term agenda. By directing your attention to a specific area, you are able to use different strategies to get the results you want. Goal setting is a key component in leadership, team-building, and overall professional productiveness. This assessment will find your strengths and weaknesses in setting goals. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you establish a more effective direction to achieving your goals.
Job Posting Sites
Listed below are recommended job posting sites.
General
- Monster.com - Perhaps the most well-known job search site in the world. The features and functionality on the site are advanced and the breadth of coverage is extensive.
- Career Builder - CareerBuilder is also one of the most well-known job search site in the world. The features and functionality on the site are advanced and the breadth of coverage is extensive.
- HotJobs - Acquired by Yahoo, HotJobs is less well-known than Careerbuilder and Monster, but offers similar features and functionality.
- Market10 - Market10 is a new job information site that was launched by the original founder of CareerBuilder. Unlike sites like Monster and CareerBuilder, Market10 attempts to match people to careers based on their personality profile and preference.
Executive
Industry-Focused
- Dice - Dice is a top job search site for tech heavy positions (e.g., engineering and high tech.)
Job Information Sites
- Career Rymx - Career Rymx, which you are currently viewing, is the first wiki-based job information site on the web. The strength of the site is its wiki foundation, which forces contributors to negotiate to create a single, fair portrayal of job profiles. The weakness is that, while in its infancy, Career Rymx is lacking breadth of coverage of companies and jobs.
- The Vault - The Vault is probably the oldest job information site on the Internet. The vault has message boards and surveys from employees at thousands of companies. The strength of the Vault is the breadth of information offered; however, the weakness is the subjectivity (and frequent negativity) of the information. A high percentage of information (particularly on the message boards) derives from disgruntled employees or HR representatives within the company and should be viewed with caution. A second disadvantage is the cost. Individual users can only access most of the content by subscribing to the Gold Service, which costs up to $400/year.
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Career Change/Development Books
General
Listed below are a few books that are highly recommended by Herb Crowder, Director of Alumni Career Services at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. A short description accompanies each, along with a link to the listing on Amazon for those who want to order.
- In Transition by Mary L. Burton - In Transition, provides a career transition guide based on the work of Mary Burton and Kick Wedemeyer at the Harvard Business School.
- What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles - Perhaps the most well-known career development book in the market. The book helps people think through their interests and values and how they translate to more rewarding careers.
- The Ultimate Guide to Getting the Career You Want by Karen Dowd - Written by the Director of Career Services at the University of Notre Dame. This book provides a guide to self-analysis and career matching based on your individual profile.
- Working Identity by Herminia Ibarra - Helps people think through the types of questions and strategies that they should use to learn about the on-the-ground reality of different job options.
- The Pathfinder by Nicolas Lore - Written by the founder of the Rockport Institute, a boutique career counseling organization located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
Industry Specific
University Career Centers
University career centers often offer extensive resources and guides that are free to the public. They are an overlooked resource for many individuals that believe that career resources and assistance are available only to enrolled students and alumni. Leading career centers are described below.
Undergraduate
- University of Waterloo - The University of Waterloo offers a free (and popular) self-assessment tool to help people think through what they are looking for in a career. The University offers this service to the general public free of charge.
- Ball State University - Ball State University offers an assessment tool, that is particularly useful for students who are choosing majors and entry level positions out of school. Students take a short multiple choice test that assesses their interests and values, and they are statistically matched to careers based on their results. The test is free to the public. While the results are very high level, the tool can provide people with a lot of uncertainty with a foundation to start their decision-making process.
MBA
- Fuqua's Career Compass - The availability of Career Compass is probably limited, as the tool is not intended for the public. That said, Fuqua is currently offering it the public, presumably for testing purposes. The Career Compass Tool offers everything from self-assessment to career search best practice tips in key skill areas, such as networking and resume writing.