Careers and Employment Subject Guide

Overview

The following is a selected list of resources on careers and employment. For further assistance ask for help at the Central Reference Desk or make an appointment with one of the Reference Librarians.

Jobs & Careers

Vault Career Library An online career library where you can: conduct employer research, find details on top career paths and detailed insider information about potential careers, read about job responsibilities for occupations that interest you, hiring/education requirements, lifestyle, compensation, and advice for newcomers in a particular career path, obtain overviews on 40 top industries, from investment management to manufacturing, and research salary ranges.

Access Vault Online Library and enter your wmich.edu email address. Vault will send a password that allows you to enter the Vault Career Library and view or download resources. This password is valid for 24 hours. If you wish to return to the career library after that time you may enter your email again to receive a new password.

America's Career InfoNet Provides information on typical wages and employment trends across occupations and industries, allows you to check education, knowledge, skills and abilities against requirements for many occupations, and searches for employer contact information nationwide, cost of living data, and calls up state profiles with labor market conditions.

American Salaries and Wages Survey HD 4973. A67 2007(Reference Desk Collection)
A compilation of 2,660 occupations and their corresponding salaries obtained from more than 190 federal and state government sources and various trade associations and journals.

Career Information Center HF 5382.5 .U5 C32 2007 v. 1-13 (Reference Desk Collection)
This multi-volume set is designed to meet the needs of many people-students, those entering or reentering the job market, those looking for new jobs, and those without jobs, and those not sure of what they want to do for a living. The set is organized by occupational interest area so people who do not know exactly what job they want can read about a number of related jobs. Sections common to each volume are job summary, overview of the field, and a how to guide on strategies for your job.

Collegegrad.com
Collegegrad.com is an Internet job search service for college students and recent grads. This site has videos to record your video resume using our VideoSnapshot tool, then link it from your profile on CollegeGrad.com. In addition, the site has one minute videos for quick information on a variety of topics, from resumes to cover letters to interviewing tips to tough interviewing questions.

Dictionary of Occupational Titles HB 2595 .A5 2003 (Reference Desk Collection)
DOT was developed in response to the demand of an expanding public employment service for standardized occupational information to support placement activities. The occupational title definitions are presented alphabetically by title, with a coding arrangement for occupational classification. The official government document from the U.S. Labor Department.

Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance
HF5381 .E52 2008 (Reference Desk Collection)
Volume 1-5 covers sixty-eight industries with general information and historical background. The next three volumes contain specific information on particular jobs and careers.

Jobs Rated Almanac HF 5382.5 .U5 K72 2002 (Reference)
The best and worst jobs, 250 jobs ranked by more than a dozen vital factors, including salary, stress, benefits, outlook, security and more.

LearningExpress Library (formerly LearnATest) Includes preparation materials and interactive practice exams for numerous standardized tests such as MEAP, GED, SAT, and GRE. Also includes tests for professions such as law enforcement and real estate. This free service does require that you register a username or email address. Michigan residents can access this database from the Michigan eLibrary by logging on with a Michigan ID or driver's license number.

Occupational Outlook Handbook HF5381 .A1 U62x (Reference Desk Collection)
Published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the handbook describes what workers do on the job, working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects in a wide range of occupations. Annual.

Salary.com This well designed site offers comprehensive compensation reports in just two clicks.

US Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics Includes career guides to industries such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook, topics such as working and looking for work that includes employment, unemployment rate, employment projections, how much people earn, average hourly earnings, wages by area and occupation, employment costs, employee benefits, collective bargaining and many more statistics related to employment and the economy.

What Color Is Your Parachute? HF 5383. B56 2003 (Reference Desk Collection)
Industry experts have long considered this book the gold standard of career guides and an essential for any job-hunter or career-changer. Filled with solid, simple, and extraordinarily helpful advice. It is for college graduates searching for their first job to mid-career professionals thinking about a switch. It has been rewritten and expanded by the author, Richard Nelson Bolles, to include the Internet and high tech.

Yahoo! Careers Includes many career listings and company profiles, sample resumes, cover letters, and interview questions from WetFeet.com and Vault.com. Posting is free. The big plus with this site is the integration with the rest of Yahoo!, particularly Yahoo! Finance.

Your Career: How to Make It Happen HF 5382.7 .L47 2000 (Reference)
This book provides the job and career management tools to reach your full career potential. Key features of this book: planning your career, organizing your job search, preparing your resume and cover letter, your interview and after your interview.

Job Hunting

Black Collegian Provides cutting-edge information on career resources for black collegians. Job search strategies, graduate school opportunities, career and industry reports are abundantly explored. This site is the cyberspace counterpart of the Black Collegian Magazine.

Career and Student Employment Services, WMU
The WMU Career Resource Center is located in Ellsworth Hall and their site describes the resources of the Center including, resume critiquing, a list of workshops, help on a personalized job search, and links to additional helpful job-hunting Web sites. In addition, for career exploration the site includes a career planning checklist, interactive personality and career tests, information on interviewing, and sources of information for professional associations, internships, part-time and summer jobs, and other helpful career exploration Web sites.

Career Journal from The Wall Street Journal Careers is a free site for executive, managerial and professional jobs. The content comes from the editorial resources of The Wall Street Journal, The Journal's Interactive Edition and the National Business Employment Weekly, all published by Dow Jones & Co. Content includes daily updates of critical news, features and relevant trends. A nice feature on this site is the salaries and profiles section that gives salary ranges for many professions.

CareerBuilder Careerbuilder gathers postings from more than 30 major job sites and lets you search by categories, including the all-important pay range. It has one of the strictest privacy policies on the Web; it says it never sells any personal information regarding its users. Job seekers have the ability to access more than two million career postings as well as career advice. Search by job types, job locations and keyword.

Career.com Career.com was created to provide an on-line recruiting process for both employers and candidates. It has interactive recruitment advertising, a resume database, information on CyberFairs (Interactive real-time job fairs), hot jobs, career advice, jobs for new graduates/entry level positions, career listings by discipline, location, and keyword searching.

Chicago Tribune Career Builder This site contains links for the job search, "hot" companies, employment news and advice, placing an ad, and job fairs especially for the Chicago area.

Get your foot in the door! [electronic resource] : the WetFeet insider guide to landing the job interview This guide is designed to show you the importance of effective communications to a well-conceived job campaign.

Homefair.com
For those who must relocate for a job, Homefair.com has a salary calculator that lets you compare the cost of living in hundreds of cities. It also provides city reports, school reports, information on finding a home or apartment, a mortgage calculator, and gives you an estimate of what it will cost to ship your possessions and links you to self-storage and temporary-housing services.

Hotjobs.com Designed for experienced professionals, this site provides a resume posting service, company profiles and a resume workshop. The site allows people who post resumes to block them from being viewed by certain companies and provides a notification service for new jobs.

Job-Hunt An excellent site listing a multitude of job resources on the Web with links to resume banks, recruiting agencies, various specialized job databases, and other job meta-lists. A good overview of what's on the Web for job seekers.

JobWeb Click on the JobSearch and Industry Info link for Federal Job Listings, Corporate Directories, Business Web sites, and Government Sites. Future teachers can use JobWeb's Database of US school districts to find particular information on a district, enter a school district's name and receive basic info such as the district's address, number of teachers and students in district, and number of schools. (Does not list job openings.) An excellent resource for future teachers.

Monster Monster is a global online network for careers, connecting companies with the most qualified career-minded individuals. Features include: resume management, job searching, career tools, advice and communities. For Employers: Monster offers efficient recruiting, including real-time job postings, company profiles and resume screening, routing and searching.

MonsterTrak Monstertrak is career advice and tools to help you succeed in your job search. It lists entry level jobs and internships that are available now. Search by location, keyword or category.

Places Rated Almanac
HN 60 .P55x (Reference Desk Collection)
This is one of several guides useful for evaluating the best places to live or work according to a variety of measures. It rates and ranks 333 U.S. metro areas according to nine factors that influence the quality of life: living costs, job outlook, crime, health care and environment, transportation, education, the arts, recreation, and climate.

Riley Guide: Employment Opportunities and Job Resources on the Internet
Compiled by Margaret F. Dikel, this guide is consistently rated one of the top job seeking guides on the Web. The site includes information on preparing for a job search, resumes and cover letters, targeting and researching employers and much more.

Rutgers University Libraries: Job Searching/Research Guide Another excellent site listing a multitude of job resources. Also helps you on explore career options, compare wages and salaries, research a company, and browse job openings, including an ethnic or geographic focus. Also available are help sites for job hunting strategies, resume writing, career counseling and interviewing techniques and professional help with posting your resume.

SummerJobs.com
SummerJobs.com offers summer jobs and seasonal staff positions with camps, amusement parks, resorts, national parks, hotels, environmental organizations
and more.

USA Jobs USAJOBS provides worldwide job vacancy information that is updated each day from a database of more than 17,000 worldwide job opportunities. In many instances, you can apply for positions online or submit a resume online. Most of the listings are Federal job opportunities that can give you the chance to provide public service and make a difference in the lives of the American public.

Interviewing

Knock 'Em Dead 2006: the ultimate job seeker’s guide
HF 5549.5 .I6 Y37 2005 (Reference Collection)
Tells how to locate employment opportunities, rejuvenate a job hunt,
answer difficult interview questions, negotiate salary levels, and
handle executive job-search firms.

You're Hired: Employers Give Tips for Successful Interviewing
(Videorecording)
V 5578 (Instructional Video, Waldo Library Reserve)
Employers reveal what they look for in the people they hire and offer tips on what a job seeker can do before, during, and after the job interview to make a good impression.

Resumés & Cover Letters

The library has many books on writing resumes and cover letters. Browse the HF 5383 section in the Reference collections of our various libraries. You can find copies to check out on the second floor of Waldo Library. Here are a few of the best books and Web sites.

About.com: Writing Resumes
Links that cover a wide range of information on resumes, cover letters, and curriculum vitae. Includes sample resumes, templates, hints and more.

Cover Letters That Knock 'em Dead
HF 5383 .Y378 2001 (Reference Desk Collection)
The author discusses "What is a Cover Letter," why you need one, what it does and the four initial steps to creating one. Chapters include: the four types of cover letters; what goes into a cover letter and what does not; assembling your cover letter, the final product and your plan of attack, and many sample letters.

Electronic Resumes & Online Networking (electronic book) How to Use the Internet to Do a Better Job Search. This book is about how to take the content of an existing resume so that it is usable as an electronic form. It also shows you how to gather information, and use that information to tailor and distribute a resume that gets noticed in a variety of electronic forms.

Expert Resumes for Teachers and Educators
Resumes for teachers and educators including over 180 pages of sample resumes targeted to teaching jobs--from pre-school to college and beyond.

Guide to Effective Resume Writing
Employment Weekly's basic guidelines for resume writing.

How to Write a Resume Includes tips about writing a cover letter, the resume, and thank you letter, as well as using resume writing and distribution services.

Job Star-Resumes
Discusses what resumes are, the various types of resumes, with tips on selecting the best type for your needs, includes selected resume resources on the Web, and much more. A clean, easy-to-use site with information not listed everywhere.

Quick Resume & Cover Letter Book HF 5383 .F32 2005 (Reference Desk Collection) Provides samples of traditional resumes, cover letters, thank you notes, tips on how to write a resume in fifteen minutes; information on using personal computers, laser printers, email voicemail; and techniques for determining and finding your ideal job. Explains how to use the Internet in your job search and more.

Rebecca Smith's eResumes & Resources Offers excellent advice on pulling together an effective electronic resume. It also provides job listings by industry, a mini-review of selected job boards, meta-search resources by state, regional and by international employment.

Resume Kit HF 5383 .B33 2003 (Reference) Provides proven techniques for writing the perfect resume, including 80 sample resumes and cover letters, sample electronic resumes and guidelines for posting your resume on the Internet. The author also lists the top 20 Internet sites for posting your resume.

Careers in a Particular Field

Academic Careers Online
This site for applicants and employers include faculty, research, post doc, adjunct, administrative, and senior management positions at (community) colleges, universities, and research institutes around the world.

Business Communications, the Real World, and Your Career HF 5382.5 .U5 S43 2000 (Reference)
This book guides you on how to make good decisions in the workplace, how to communicate, be a team player, and handle conflict. It recommends that you know the history of your industry and your company and that you join a professional organization. The last chapter lists resources such as professional organizations, trade organizations, Web sites, and company directories.

Careers in Business
This site contains information about business careers in such fields as finance, accounting, and management-everything from skill requirements needed to trends in the industry. Also includes business job listings, links to additional information for your career.

Careers in Education
Provides information on careers in all fields of education from teaching K-12, college, school administration, speical services, adult and continuing education, business and industry, and careers in governance. Includes responsibilities, opportunities for advancement, and salaries. Must search by title within NetLibrary.

Careers in nursing Details the responsibilities, education and training required, and employment outlooks for the nursing as a career.

Careers in Social Work HV 10.5 .G55 2001 (Reference)
The audience for this book is people who are considering social work careers or who are already studying for a professional career in the field. It is written from a practical perspective-where to go to find a job, how to evaluate a job, how to decide if the job, or even the field of social work, is for you. It also deals with applications, licenses, credentials, salaries, benefits, and working conditions.

Essential Career Guide to Becoming a Middle and High School Teacher Gives a step-by-step guide to becoming a middle or high school teacher, as well as discusses important issues surrounding American education. This book offers many resources such as salaries from state to state, education associations, and accredited institutions of higher education.

Great Jobs for Accounting Majors Part one begins with all the parts of the job search, including the resume and cover letter, interviewing, job offer considerations and more. Part two discusses the various accounting career paths available to someone with an accounting degree.

Great Jobs for English Majors HF 5382.7 .D43 2000 (Reference)
The chapters cover all aspects of the job search such as self-assessment, researching careers, resume and cover letters, networking, interviewing, and English career paths.

Great Jobs for Geology Majors QE 34 .C36 2000 (Reference)
The chapters cover all aspects of the job search including graduate school choice and geology career paths. Appendices list professional associations and geology web sites.

Harvard Business School Guide to Careers in Marketing HF 5415.35 .M36 2001 (Reference)
Provides insights on career self-assessment for those considering marketing. In addition, a diverse group of companies, recognized for their marketing strengths, profile marketing careers in their respective organization.

Harvard Business School Guide to Finding Your Next Job HF 5382.75 .U6 G37 2000 (Reference)
Chapters include getting started, selecting references, resumes, effective job search letters, planning and executing a search campaign, job search strategies, interviews, negotiating job offers, and final job search tips.

Many paths, one purpose: careers paths for social work and human services majors HV 10.5 M35 2006 (General stacks)
This book identifies fifteen different career tracks in social work and human services and presents testimonials from professionals in each track.

Psychology Major : Career Options and Strategies for Success BF77 .L26 2000 (Reference)
Provides an overview of the discipline of psychology, career options (both with and without a graduate degree), strategies for success in and out of the classroom, and coverage of critical issues in psychology.

Seeking Employment in Criminal Justice and Related Fields. HV8143 .H327 2000
CD-ROM (Waldo Library, Permanent Reserve & Reference Collection)
The book addresses both the public and private sector. It discusses career opportunities throughout the criminal justice system, including law enforcement, the practice of law, courts, corrections, and related local, state, and federal agencies.

Directories

Almanac of American Employers HF 5382.75 .U6 A45 2000/2001 (Reference Desk Collection)
Online version has a table of contents & sample pages
The first chapters cover major trends affecting job seekers, seven keys for job seekers. Plunkett's, The Almanac of American Employers, is a general guide to major employers in numerous industries, and includes important World Wide Web sites for job seekers, outlooks for specific industries and occupations, and then individual data profiles on each of the 500 American employers researched by Plunkett's.

Plunkett's Companion to The Almanac of American Employers: Mid-Size Firms HF5382.75 .U6 P486 2000 (Reference Desk Collection)
A Complete Guide to the Hottest, Fastest-Growing Midsize Employers. Provides profiles on 500 rapidly growing corporate employers.

Books

Classic Library Catalog WMU's Classic online catalog (also known as WestCat), is used to identify books (including electronic books), government documents, journals, audio and video, slides, music scores, and other items in the University Libraries' collections. The catalog can be searched by title, author, subject heading, keyword, call number, and more.

WorldCat Comprehensive catalog of books and other materials in libraries around the world. Contains millions of records in hundreds of languages. Nonbook materials include (among other publication formats) the titles of journals and magazines, manuscripts, maps, electronic resources, websites, computer programs, music scores, films, slides, sound recordings, conference proceedings, and videotapes. Items located through WorldCat must be requested through Interlibrary Loan unless they are also listed in the WMU Libraries catalog.

Subject Headings for Careers & Employment Americans- Employment- Foreign countries
Applications for positions
Career changes
Career development
Cover letters
Employment in foreign countries
Employment interviewing
Job hunting
Job vacancies
Resumes (Employment)
Vocational Guidance (example: advertising- vocational guidance; college students-vocational guidance)

Selected Journals

Career Magazine In addition to articles, on this site you may search for a job, post a job, post a resume, view company profiles, perform a client search for posted resumes, and more. The articles may be searched by author, title, keyword and category.

Fortune. HF 5001 .F7
This well known magazine contains concise and interesting articles on all aspects of business and management: U.S. or foreign corporate performance of specific companies, innovation, money and markets, the economy, politics and policy, technology, and executive life. Also has special issues for lists of largest companies such as "Fortune 500", "Fortune Service 500" and other special issues such as "Best Cities for Business" and more. 1947 to date. Biweekly.

Job Choices...in Business Library retains latest edition. Annual.
HF 5382.5 .U5 J59 (Reference Desk Collection)
Provides information on career opportunities for graduates with degrees in accounting, advertising, retailing and business administration. Features articles on achieving career success as a liberal arts graduate, landing public relations and marketing jobs, and exploring job opportunities in financial services. Employer listings include job requirements and contact information.

Job Choices in Science & Engineering Library retains latest edition. Annual.
HF 5382.5 .U5 J595 (Reference Desk Collection)
Career opportunities in fields such as health care, chemistry, architecture, computer science and civil and industrial engineering are profiled in Job Choices. It features technical interviews, engineering licensing, the ideal IS candidate, and resume and cover letter techniques for health care graduates. Employer listings include contact information.

Article Databases

ABI/INFORM Global An index of over 1,800 publications with abstracts, and full text from over 700 of these titles, selected from newspapers, trade publications, and journals on business including, for example, administration, economics, computers, finance, human resources, management, and marketing. Full-text of Wall Street Journal articles available from 1984. Otherwise coverage is from 1971 to the present with some older material available. Updated daily.

General Business File ASAP An index of business publications that includes trade publications, newspapers, journals, broker research reports, and company profiles, some articles with full text and images. Coverage 1980 - present.

Ask A Librarian

Donna M. Ring
donna.ring@wmich.edu
269-387-5153
Last updated: April 2009