In honor of this Labor Day 2010, the United States Department of Labor has launched a free career matching website for job seekers. Job seekers can now visit www.myskillsmyfuture.org, a new interactive tool that is part of the federal government’s OneStopCareer initiative. Unemployed (or underemployed) Americans simply type in their occupation and the site generates a list of related professions. The results can be filtered further by the users’ geographical location.
Each suggested profession is linked to a wide range of information on that alternative profession, including salary range, required training and relevant job listings. Job seekers can also access information comparing the necessary skills for both their current occupation and their potential new career. Although the skills-related information is fairly generalized, the intent is to encourage job seekers to take a personal inventory of their professional skills, and to consider what training and education might be required for a new occupation. All of the information supplied on this website is readily available elsewhere on the internet but the Labor Department hopes to provide Americans with a one-stop shop for matching their skills with available jobs. The danger, of course, is that job seekers will rely too heavily on this user-friendly and simple tool, and ignore other resources (such as LinkedIn, personal networking, careerbuilder, alumni services departments) that are at their fingertips. However, when utilized as one part of a well-rounded job search campaign, My Skills / My Future could be a very welcome Labor Day gift.
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