LSU Libraries
Researching a Career


There are many resources that you can use in researching a career, both online and in the library. In this tutorial we will discus a number of online resources, and how to use them, then we will discus some of the very valuable book resources available in Middleton Library. Finally we will talk about some of the resources available on the LSU campus.

In this tutorial, we will use teaching as an example of a career to research; however, the steps used will work for any career. Warning: some of these resources may only be accessible to LSU faculty, staff, and students.

Part 1: Researching a Career Online

     Step 1. O*Net

O*NET, the Occupational Information Network, is a comprehensive database from the US Department of Labor that contains basic information regarding skills and occupations based on the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. O*NET is available at http://online.onetcenter.org.

image of the O*NET homepage From the homepage, click on the Find Occupations link. This is the page where you can search for information about a specific occupation. If you search for "teacher" in the "Keyword or O*NET-SOC code search" box, you will see that O*NET pulls up many listings for "teachers" from its database. Click on the listing for "Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education."

O*NET will bring up a brief description of the occupation, along with links to other information in the O*NET database. Click on the Details button to get the specifics on your selected occupation, such as job skills, job knowledge, and work activities.

The Crosswalk Search using terms or occupation codes from other sources, like the Military Occupational Classification (MOC) or the Registered Apprenticeship Information System (RAIS).

If you haven't decided on a career yet, you can use O*NET's Skills Search to match particular skills to careers.

O*NET also contains general career information. From the O*NET homepage, click on the Related Sites link. You will be taken to a page of links regarding career information, both federal and some state sites.

     Step 2: Occupational Outlook Handbook

This source is available in print and online. The federal government of the United States produces both versions. The information in the electronic version is the same as that in the print version.

Topics covered by the OOH include: OOH Online (http://www.bls.gov/oco/)

image of the OOH homepage


This is a fully searchable, full-text electronic version of the print publication. To access it, use the URL above. No password is required. If you choose to access the OOH through the LSU Libraries home page (http://www.lib.lsu.edu) by clicking the Indexes & Databases link, then clicking the "O" in the alphabet row under "Databases by Title," and, finally, clicking the link for Occupational Outlook Handbook. The next screen you see will be the OOH home page.

     Step 2: Occupational Outlook Handbook - cont.

There are three ways to search the OOH Online:
  1. Use the "Occupations" links to see a list of all professions in a broad category. (For example, click "Professional" for a list of all careers considered professional in nature, including many listed under “Education, training, library, and museum occupations.")
  2. Use the "Search the Handbook" box. (For example, typing in "teachers" produces a list of documents related to that topic. This method is tricky in that it relies on a specific vocabulary.)
  3. Use the "A-Z Index" to browse the entire handbook by job title.
The material you find here is printable in either text or PDF format. If you'll notice, at the bottom of each job description is a "Suggested Citation" for that individual web page, which is nice if you are writing a paper.

The OOH is linked to other government publications and web sites concerned with employment information. Look for "Additional Links." These useful sources of information include:

Career Guide to Industries - This publication is set up the same way as the OOH, but provides information on careers by industry rather than job title. This title is also available in print. The Superintendent of Documents call number is L2.3/4-3:[year].

Occupational Outlook Quarterly - This publication contains the same type of information as the OOH, but is more up-to-date, because it is published more frequently. You should check this source for the latest information on your chosen career. This publication is also available in print in the Government Documents stacks, located in the basement of Middleton Library. The Superintendent of Documents number is L2.70/4: [volume].

Employment Projections - This site will give you statistical information on which professions are projected to be the fastest growing.

BLS Home - This is the home page for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Here you will find government reports, tables, and news releases detailing all sorts of work-related statistical information.

     Step 3: Professional Associations

Entries in the Occupational Outlook Handbook have a section called Sources of Additional Information. Among these additional sources are the names of professional associations. Most professions have associations that are formed to further and protect the interests of the profession and its members. Physicians have the American Medical Association; University English teachers, the Modern Language Association; Librarians, the American Library Association, and so on. Frequently, these associations provide job listings within their field. Sometimes, however, you must belong to the association to get the latest listings.

If the Occupational Outlook Handbook does not list a professional association in your area, ask for the Encyclopedia of Associations at the Reference Desk. The Encyclopedia of Associations provides an annual and comprehensive worldwide listing of professional associations. Use the keyword index on volume 3 of the encyclopedia to find a list of associations that involve you career. The encyclopedia will give you contact information for the association, as well as the web address, if there is one.

However, if you know the name of an association, you can find the web site using a search engine. For example, using Google, and confining my search to the exact phrase, "American Federation of Teachers", the American Federation of Teachers home page is the first link. The AFT is a good place to find information about teaching careers. The AFT publishes reports about teacher salaries, and about research in the field of education.

     Step 4: Online Catalog

The online catalog is an electronic index of everything in the library's collection. It is easily accessed on the LSU Libraries' home page. Accessing the Libraries' holdings is accomplished a number of ways. However, two useful techniques are Keyword searching and Subject searching.

Keyword Searching This is a basic search. Use any term or combination of terms that seems logical to you, such as "teacher and career."

keywords anywhere search


Subject Searching Subject searching is a much more focused means of finding what you want in the online catalog without all the extra results scooped up by "keywords anywhere" searching. Subject searching can be tricky, however, in that you need to know the official Library of Congress subject headings that are assigned to each catalog record. Below is an example of a subject search in the Advanced Search mode of the online catalog for information on teaching as a career.

subject search


The full record of any item in the Libraries' collection includes subject terms that are hyperlinked to other items on the same subject, as in the screen shot below.

Subject term links in results


By using the subject term hyperlinks, you can generate a list of library material that is exactly on the subject you are researching.

     Step 5: Periodical Indexes

The most up-to-date information on any subject, including occupations, may be found in periodicals - magazines, journals, and newspapers. The electronic indexes and databases to which LSU subscribes provide the easiest access to this growing body of information. All of the databases are accessible through the Indexes & Databases link on the library home page. Below is a brief introduction in the use of just a few of these databases.

LexisNexis Academic is a full-text database that offers general, business and legal news. Choose News, Business, or Legal Research. Make sure and choose a "News Category" and a "News Source" from the drop-down boxes. Searching is by keyword and search terms may be joined by Boolean operators (and, or, not), as in the example below:

LexisNexis Academic search


The search results are presented as a list of citations, each of which is hyperlinked to the full article, as below:

LexisNexis Academic results


Individual citations may be selected by clicking on the box at the left. These results then may be printed, or e-mailed. Additionally, the full articles, once opened in the viewer, may be printed or e-mailed as well.

For more information on using LexisNexis Academic see the LexisNexis Academic Tutorial.

Academic Search Premier is another full-text database to which LSU subscribes. There are several ways to search Academic Search Premier and several ways to limit the search results. The simplest way to start is with a keyword search within the default parameters. The screen below shows a keyword search in Academic Search Premier.

Academic Search Premier search


As with LexisNexis, search results in Academic Search Premier are reported as a list of citations. The citations, in turn, are hyperlinked to the full text, an abstract, or an extended citation.

Academic Search Premier results


Similar to LexisNexis, citations may be marked and saved, printed, or e-mailed. You also have the option of doing all of the above with the full articles on your list.

For more information on using Academic Search Premier see the Academic Search Premier Tutorial.

     Step 6: Federal Government Information

The federal government is one of the largest (if not the largest) producers of information in the world. Much of this information is related to the economy or to scientific research that supports the economy and/or well being of the people. Education, for example, is an activity that is good for those who participate in it and good for the economy, too. The government has an entire federal department, the Department of Education (www.ed.gov), which oversees the federal efforts to improve education. Like many federal agencies the Department of Education's web site contains statistical information. Visit the Department's National Center of Education Statistics (nces.ed.gov) for demographic and statistical data for every level of education, pre-school to college.

Many other professions or businesses are regulated by the government or have agencies that attempt to provide support and assistance (often in the form of government sponsored research) to the profession or business. LSU Libraries provides a page (www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/fedgov.html) breaking down the hundreds of government agency web sites. If you are unsure of what government agency, if any, represents your field of interest, ask your instructor or a librarian.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov), an agency of the Department of Labor, provides in depth statistics on employment, earnings and prices at the national and regional level. For example, if you want to know what the average annual wage for computer engineers in Baton Rouge, the BLS's Wages by Area and Occupation will tell you this -- if you look under "Metropolitan Area Wage Data."

     Step 7: Louisiana State Government Information

Much state government information is available online and is accessible through the Government Information link on the library's home page.

Louisiana.gov Louisiana.gov is the main portal for online information on Louisiana.

Louisiana.gov home page


Through the Business in Louisiana link, one can find Jobs and Employment. Here you can link to national job banks, as well as Louisiana Works, the job bank of the Louisiana Department of Labor. Numerous job openings are posted here, which will give the researcher a “real world” sense of what specific jobs involve, what they demand in terms of qualifications, and what they pay.

Part 2: Researching a Career in the Library

Internet sources are great. But if you need non-Web sources on vocational guidance, like for a class project, or you just want to browse topics at your leisure, there are many book and other print resources in the library that can help you.

First, if you just want to see what the library has in general on searching and researching jobs, check the catalog, like this: You will get a list of everything the library has on career seeking in general.

Here you will find books, encyclopedias, and other sources for learning about the world of work. As of May 2007 Middleton Library has 255 items on this topic, with titles like Great Jobs for Liberal Arts Majors and 40 Best Fields for Your Career. One interesting series is the "VGM Careers for You Series" which groups occupations by hobbies and personality, rather than by training. Examples include Careers for Caring People & Other Sensitive Types, about medical and social service jobs, and Careers for Sports Nuts & Other Athletic Types, about careers in professional sports, sports management and sports medicine. Your author used Careers for Bookworms & Other Literary Types when she was researching librarianship.

You'll notice that many of these books are listed as "Electronic Resources" and are only available online -- that is, they are e-books, which LSU gets from its membership in NetLibrary. The e-books are viewable on the web anywhere on-campus, and off-campus once you log in with your Tiger Card. With job searching, as well as with many technical fields and books about current events, information changes so rapidly that it is quicker and more efficient to disseminate this kind of information via e-book, rather than wait for paper books to be printed, bound and shipped.

If you are interested in researching a particular type of career or field, you can try adding it to the catalog search, like this -- "vocational guidance United States artists" or "vocational guidance United States criminology." With this you can also try switching the search from Exact back to Keyword to expand your results.

     Specific resources to look for:

American Salaries and Wages Survey, call number HD 4973 .A447 at the Middleton Library Reference Desk.
If you'd like to know what kind of money different job types earn, you can check the American Salaries and Wages Survey. This reference book names over 2000 different occupations, and lists their average wages, broken down by region, state, and city. It also includes US Territories. An Outline cross-references similar job titles to compare (Nurse and Anesthesia Nurse), and the Appendices list the 200 different government, business and news sources from which the data was compiled.

The Directory of Business Information Resources, call number HF 54.52 .U5 D567 at the Middleton Library Reference desk.
If you'd like to know more about a particular field, a good place to get some leads is The Directory of Business Information Resources. Say you were interested in Agriculture, Financial Services, or Real Estate. The Directory lists professional association, newsletters, and trade journals for those industries and 95 more. It also lists industry trade shows and Web sites. It does not neglect smaller or less profitable industries, like "Hobbies and Games" or "Performing Arts" The Directory has a cross-reference to search by Standard Industry Code or SIC number, and for trade journals and magazines, it has a Special Issue Index, “to help the researcher locate the exact special issue they need. Find not just boats but kayaks, not just performing art, but opera, not just automobiles, but automotive engineering."

Career Guide to Industries, call number L2.3/4-3: at the Middleton Library Reference Desk.
The Career Guide to Industries is yet another publication from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is a companion to the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the Occupational Outlook Quarterly; however, the Career Guide looks at employment from an industry perspective instead of an occupational perspective, giving an overview of various industries as a whole, and describing the many jobs contained within them. The Guide covers 45 different industries which together account for 75% of the paying jobs in the United States - everything from manufacturing to hospitality, and even including “Grantmaking, Advocacy, and Civic Organizations” for the non-profit minded. Each entry presents a discussion of the nature of business in the industry, an overview of occupations, including training and education, and an outlook of future growth and earnings.

Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance, call number HF 5381 .E52 in the Middleton Library Reference stacks.
Another good source is the Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance Careers are listed alphabetically; each entry gives an overview of the work, discusses training and compensation, describes the work environment, and gives an "Outlook" of future growth and development in the field. This five volume reference work is aimed specifically at students; each entry has sections on "Exploring" and "Starting Out," and offers advice on which high school and college courses to take to prepare oneself for the career. Professional, skilled, and service careers are all covered. Volume One offers guidance on preparing for, applying for, and starting a job. It also surveys careers by field or industry, such as Social Services, Sales, the Law and Aerospace.

Jobs Rated Almanac, call number HF 5382.5 .U5 K72, in the Middleton Library Reference stacks.
The Jobs Rated Almanac looks at 250 jobs from the "quality of life" angle - what is the working environment like, how stressful is the job, how physical is the work, what is the job security? This information is interesting to know, because as the book points out, even people who may have some familiarity with a field often have no idea what it's like to actually work in it. The types of jobs rated are eclectic, ranging from Teacher and Nurse to Archeologist, Philosopher, and even President of the United States. The jobs described are specific - Engineering Technician instead of Engineer, Rabbi instead of Minister. Many charts rating the jobs by criteria are included, and the jobs are listed alphabetically as well.

Occupational Outlook Quarterly, call number L 2.70/4: in the Government Documents section of Middleton Library, Room 53 in the basement, and online at http://www.bls.gov/opub/ooq.
The Occupational Outlook Quarterly is published buy the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. It covers much of the same information as the Occupational Outlook Handbook, but each issue covers a career or industry in depth, so the information is more detailed. The Quarterly discusses working conditions for the given careers, education and training, dispels misconceptions about the work, and gives a forecast of future job growth and earnings. Each issue also includes a “Grab Bag” of brief stories of general interest to job-seekers, such as how to create a portfolio, and how employers feel about body piercings. The OOQ is written in a friendly, accessible style, and includes a column called "You're a What?" that showcases unusual jobs.

What Color is Your Parachute?, call number HF 5382.7 .B64, in the Middleton Library Reference stacks.
What Color is Your Parachute? has been called "the gold standard of career guides" by Fortune magazine. This unusual book details what it calls "the creative approach to job hunting" - it counsels you to first discover what you love to do, and then create the career which will allow you to do that. It includes many worksheets and exercises to help you identify your skills and strengths. Then, it charts out a non-traditional strategy to help you hunt down that ideal job, instead of passively waiting for it to appear. This is a good book to use if you are near graduation and have no idea what you want to do. But even if you do, your skills and values as revealed by the worksheets may surprise you! Parachute is also good if you feel stale and bored with your current work or course of study.

Part 3: LSU Career Services

Finally, no career search at LSU should end without a visit to LSU Career Services. This department exists solely to help you, the LSU student or alumnus, begin and develop your career.

Career Service's Student Services office is in B4 Coates Hall (in the basement). This office counsels students on career aptitudes and decisions, and helps arrange experiential learning opportunities during school such as field experiences, volunteer work, and internships.

The Employment Services office is in 1502 CEBA. This office assists alumni and students closer to graduation with their job search. Services offered include resume writing and interviewing skills, and job-search workshops. Employment Services can help you set up an interview and even hosts on-campus recruiting drives with several major employers in Louisiana and around the country.

The Career Services' web page has separate sections for students, prospective students, and alumni and you can even chat with a career consultant online. Also check out Career Services' page of Career Decision Making Links where you find links to many other sites and tools for career searching, such as self-evaluations, and information on what work you can do with your major.

In Conclusion...

This guide is just a starting place. While it includes a lot of resources, there are many more available to you - many more than we could ever mention. When trying to determine your career path, use every resource you possibly can. Good luck, and happy "job" hunting!


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Last Updated: Wednesday, 06-Aug-2008 09:23:26 CDT
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