Where to start?
Exploring Careers with Career Puppy is pretty straightforward – but there a few different ways to you can approach your personal exploration.
Everyone starts at “START”
When you click the Start button at CareerPuppy.com, all the careers from A-Z are at your fingertips. Click any career card and you’ll immediately see all the details for that career:
• description
• video
• median salary, nationally and state-by-state
• majors
• certifications
• education
• skills
• training
• related careers
• typical hours/schedule
• values
• AND the RIASEC radar for this career (more on that later)
In theory, you could click through each career and read through each one – or sample a few just to learn about a career path that is new to you.
We turn on a <3 feature for you when you give us with your email address; you can favorite careers (click the heart on the very top right of the page) which is a great way to keep track of careers you like.
You can review your favorites when you click FAVORITES in the side navigation (note: when searching in Favorites, only “liked” careers are included in the results. For full database search, return to SEARCH.)
PLUS you can customize your Career Puppy space with your color choice and puppy avatar.
Narrow Your Search
If you want to view jobs with animals, type “animal” in the search box. Interested in space? Try that key word. Want to see the different types of doctors? Search for doctor.
These kinds of searches give you multiple results – many of which won’t be quite on target, but will help you narrow down the choices.
Perhaps you know you’d like to study engineering, but are unsure about the many specialties. Search “Engineer” and start reading (and favoriting) your options.
Close But Not Quite
If you find a career that is interesting but not quite right, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Related Careers”. (Take note of the RIASEC code too – that could be useful!)
Another approach to find careers that are similar to the career you are exploring is to click on the Category and Sub-Category (right under the Career Title) to see all careers in those specific categories.
RIASEC Makes It So Much Clearer
When you become a Career Puppy subscriber, you will take the Strong Interest Inventory assessment. This assessment (not a test!) helps identify some of your interests and using that info, recommend some career directions.
You’ll receive a report with all the details and with your own RIASEC Code – based on your assessment results – describing your interests, ranked from strongest connection to weakest connection. Several of your Specific Interest areas are identified and potential career matches suggested.
You’ll be able to see an overlay of your RIASEC radar on each career in the database – the more your radar matches, the more likely you’ll find that career direction rewarding and fulfilling. With your RIASEC radar posted, you can see at a glance if a career is a good match for your interests.
You can also use the RIASEC icons in search to find careers in each interest area – simply click the icon for one of your interest areas and start exploring. You also can search for Green Jobs and Bright Outlook careers (rising demand AND rising salaries).
Searching and Exploring are part of the process to narrow down your options and decide what career path is right for you. If you need any advice on searching, please reach out to explore@CareerPuppy.com.
