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The 6 Best Career Exploration Websites to Narrow Down your Job Search
By A Portland Career, and edited by Dan Hahn, M.S., and Suzie Sherman
Not sure what jobs you should be looking for? We can help you sort it out
Whether you’re looking for a different career or are just starting out in the workforce, knowing what job titles are out there, what the requirements are, and what salaries to expect will help you make a bold next move. In this post, we lay out the definitive list of career resources to help with your career planning tasks and explore the career opportunities you’ve identified as potential paths for your future.
You’ve probably already done some career brainstorming, or taken stock of your skills and interests in a self-assessment. Maybe you’ve even already outlined a list of possible job titles you’d like to learn more about.
You may now find yourself wanting more detailed career information for your potential paths:
- What requirements do you need to satisfy? What are the skills, work experience, education or certifications you’d need to have?
- What are the responsibilities of this kind of job?
- What kinds of interview questions will you face?
- What you can expect from your experience?
Keep reading to see how the internet’s best career development tools can help you explore careers, find the information you’re looking for, and get one small (yet mighty!) step closer to reaching your career goals and landing a great job!
Home → Helpful Articles → Career Exploration → The 6 Best Career Exploration Websites to Narrow Down your Job Search
If you’re wondering how to organize your career exploration, here are more great posts to help get you started:
- Your Career Exploration Brainstorm: Deepen your Search!
- How to Decide on a Career Path
- Taking Your Skills Inventory: Self-Assessment Time
- Your Career Values Assessment
- Big Five Personality Traits
- Crack the Holland Code
If you’re feeling stuck, get in touch, and we’ll help you match your skills, passions, and financial needs to a great new career path.
On This Page
1. O*NET Online
The U.S. Department of Labor’s O*NET Online system offers the most comprehensive database of job titles on the internet. Enter a job title into the Occupation Quick Search window in the top right corner of the page, and a list of all related job titles in the database appear with a link. Each link leads to a detailed report for a given job title with a wealth of information about it. You will see a sun icon next to the job title if it has a bright outlook and a leaf if it intersects with sustainability.
Unique features:
- Includes an exhaustive inventory of job titles, each of which links to a separate web page describing the job, and lists corresponding tasks, values, skills used, applicant interest codes, wages, hardware and software technologies utilzed, employment trends, and much more!
- Interactive feature called the Interest Profiler, which acts as an interest assessment that can help you discern your ideal career zone (and, like interest quizzes, makes it particularly helpful for high school students).
- My Next Move, which offers several different browsing options depending on your level of knowledge about your ideal career path.
Limitations: O*NET is not Oregon-specific (but does link to Oregon wage information) and the occupational outlook information is better at some of the other sites below (read on!) Also, O*NET is not as useful for less common job titles or entrepreneurial options. It is an excellent starting place, though!
What looks interesting? Read our article about how to crack the Holland Code to unlock your occupational interests and find a better matching job title at O*NET!
2. CareerOneStop
Aptly named, CareerOneStop is a catch-all career resource website that contains everything from informational videos to articles, FAQ’s, assessments, quizzes, checklists, training resources, and myriad other career planning tools.
Unique Feature: Under its “Find Local Help” tab, you’ll find a suite of resources that can help you find jobs, apprenticeships, training, and education by zip code. It also has a “career clusters” section that can help you better understand the differences and nuances between closely related job types– a valuable feature for anyone who knows the general area of work they’re interested in but can’t decide on a concrete specialization.
Limitations: This site is massive. You’ll need to set aside at least a few hours and be ready to take notes or save bookmarks in your browser to follow up and get the most out of it.
3. Oregon Department of Labor Occupational Information Center
Oregon’s Department of Labor career website shows occupational descriptions and requirements, compensation, and projected needs. To research job titles, go to “Jobs and Careers” and then click on “Occupation Profiles.” Enter in a search term, and it will give you a full report of job outlook, current job openings in Oregon, education requirements, wages, skills used, and similar careers.
Unique Feature: It is specific to Oregon, links each career to training programs in Oregon, and offers engaging articles on regional occupational trends.
Limitations: Similar to O*NET, this site is less useful for unusual job titles or entrepreneurial options.
4. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the best career exploration and job search tools out there. The site allows you to look at the background and skill set of individuals who hold the job titles you are researching. Search keywords from the home page or go to your profile, click on “Go to Connections,” and search from there. Input job titles in quotes (“marketing manager” “career counselor” for example) and play with different variations.
LinkedIn will show information about people who currently hold or have held that job title including their employers, past job titles, education, and top skills. Work backward through the job histories of people whose titles you admire to see how they navigated their career path. For a more detailed overview, read our 10 Powerful Tips for LinkedIn Job Search.
Unique Features: You can see who in your network might know someone with whom you would like to schedule a meeting or invite for an informational interview. You can then ask your mutual contact to introduce you. LinkedIn also includes a variety of interest groups you can join to ask career-related questions of people in your anticipated field.
Limitation: You need to have a LinkedIn Profile and at least 100 connections to have the volume of contacts needed to see an adequate number of profiles per job title. Get cracking on your LinkedIn profile now!
5. Reddit for career guidance
Reddit is an online community where you can ask questions and give advice about literally anything to other Reddit users. Members rate the usefulness of each discussion, but the true virtue of this resource is its irreverent glimpse into working worlds that are otherwise rare among complete strangers. It is also a great place to see examples of other people’s creative work that can be entertaining and, if you are patient in your curation, quite impressive.
Unique Features: R/Career Guidance – You can read comments posted by thousands of other community members about the career you are researching, or you can ask questions yourself. Enter the career you want to explore in the box at the top right column and then check the box that says limit my search to r/careerguidance. We suggest you subscribe to this Reddit to get the latest discussions about the careers on your list. You can also search specific careers and join their subreddits – you’ll find that pretty much every single career area has its own community on Reddit.
Limitations: It is run by community members, so the advice is personal and not always highly professional. Also, the advice may not apply to you or your geographical location. (Then again, it may offer a perspective of your field of interest in another city to which you might be considering a move.)
6. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS dot gov) is a government-operated website with broad data on economic and labor market matters country-wide–from New York to Hawaii. Job seekers can use the site to compare salary data and regional labor market trends helpful in their career decision-making process.
Unique feature: Use the Occupational Outlook Handbook , where you can read and compare job descriptions, educational requirements, salary ranges, industry outlooks, and more key information.
Limitations: The BLS is definitely an advanced-user-level website, and can be difficult to navigate unless you watch a few YouTube tutorials to help you make the most of it. It’s easy to get lost in the numbers when you’re not sure exactly what you’re looking for, and even knowing how to do that can be a challenge for folks visiting this site.
Final thoughts about the 6 best career exploration websites to narrow down your job search
While we stand by the websites we just listed, job seekers will of course want to use other forms of research to narrow down their career choice: apprenticeships, job shadowing, visiting the career center at your university or community college, watching career videos on YouTube, and informational interviewing.
If you need more guidance about how to organize your career research, we wrote a whole post with career exploration pro tips you don’t want to miss.
Starting a business? None of these resources are tailored to entrepreneurs. That said, entrepreneurs can still use these resources to find information to help inform business planning: market demand and relevant labor market statistics, workforce development trends, healthcare provision, employment and training administration, and more.
Key takeaways
- These career exploration resources can help you find career options you’re interested in and the details you need to make informed decisions about them.
- Don’t rely solely on web research as you explore careers–job shadowing, internships, and informational interviews are valuable sources of info you can’t get on the web.
- Use O*NET Online and CareerOneStop as starting points for your career research.
- Social networks like Reddit and LinkedIn can help you get more personalized career advice.
- Even entrepreneurs can benefit from the market insights career exploration sites provide.
Related articles you might be interested in:
How to Decide On a Career Path
Deciding on a career path can feel overwhelming, but with clear objectives, solid self-assessment, and a healthy trust of your gut instincts, you can do this thing!
Your Career Exploration Brainstorm: Deepen your Search!
In this career exploration brainstorm, we encourage you to think expansively about possible career paths, and then create the ideal career short list for you!
7 Expert-Backed Research Tips to Find the Right Career
Here’s 7 of our best tips to take your career exploration from brainstorm to organized search. Narrow down job titles, tap your network, and find the right research tools!
