: Four Questions
How easy was it to find the a specific occupation you were looking for, and how comprehensive was the information provided about that occupation?
Information was relatively easy to find by using the site map. By going top “My Next Move” one is presented with a menu of choices including knowledge, skills, abilities, education, and job outlook as well as the opportunity to explore more. Selecting the occupation of human resource manager the following information was provided in each category: 1) Knowledge — business, arts and humanities, safety and government, math and science. (Each sub-heading also contained a brief descriptor, i.e. Math and science: psychology). 2) Skills — Basic skills, people and technology, social. 3) Abilities — verbal, ideas and logic, attention. 4) Education — bachelor’s degree or master’s degree. Under this heading there were links to “Find Training” and “Find Certifications.” 5) Job Outlook — Average (new opportunities likely in future), salary $99,130. Under this heading there were links to “Check Out My State,” “Local Salary Info” and “Find Jobs.” 6) Explore More — this category suggested other employment opportunities as well as industries one might also be interested in.
The activities one must perform to do this job well were also listed. These included leading, making decisions, and business. The traits necessary for success were listed as well; integrity, dependability, stress tolerance, initiative, leadership, and self-control. The list of information about this position was very comprehensive and informative.
2. What did you think of the occupations suggested as matching your skills? Was the occupation you are in or preparing for among those listed?
The Interest Profiler is a list of sixty questions concerning likes and dislikes. When answering the questions one is only supposed to consider these two criteria and not think about education, salary or other factors. My profile yielded these scores: Artistic 36, Social 28, Investigative 24, Enterprising 21, Realistic, 20 and Conventional 14.
People with artistic interests like creativity in their work and work that can be done without following a set of rules. People with social interests like teaching, giving advice, and being of service to people. People with investigative interests like searching for facts and figuring out problems. People with enterprising interests like persuading and leading people, making decisions, and taking risks for profit. People with realistic interests like working with plants or animals, real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery, and outside. People with conventional interests like working with clear rules and following a strong leader.
In the “Explore the Jobs Zone” one is asked to consider how much preparation one is prepared to undertake on a scale from one to five. Jobs are then suggested dependent upon how much one is willing to make. Jobs at each level are also not rated or rated “Bright Outlook,” “Green,” or “Registered Apprentice.”
I felt the analysis was relatively accurate in identifying my interests and aliening them with a career. There were some jobs that were rated that I in which I have no interest, such as pre-school teacher and interior decorator, however there were many more jobs suggested that did interest me. Overall I found the exercise was well worth the effort.
3. As an HR professional how could O*NET/DOT be useful in conducting job an analysis? Explain specifically how you would use the data from this site to assist your organization.
This site contains valuable resources that are very useful when conducting a job analysis. Critical information on essential elements of job performance for employers and managers is readily available, including activities and traits necessary to be successful as well as knowledge and skills. The to worker characteristics, worker requirements, experience requirements, occupation requirements, occupation characteristics, as well as occupation specific is readily available and essay to access.
Specifically any time a job required an analysis one could simply go to “My Next Move” and research all the aspects of the position. Furthermore, the Toolkit for business provides information on job descriptions, job design, and job reengineering. Another feature is a site for veterans.
4. As a director of human resources, would you have your staff use this site? Why or why not?
As a resource director I would encourage may staff to make use of the information available on this website. It is essential to provide employees with opportunities for career advancement and skill development. The toolkit provides an outline employees and HR personnel can use in order to assist in this effort. Information on skills required in the future as well as skills required for personnel to attain the capacity to perform other job duties is an essential element in the retention of valuable employees. Another feature of the site is that one may browse careers by industry.
Benefits of using this site include time savings — developing job descriptions can be time and labor intensive; efficiency — data is easy to research and easy to understand; consistency — standardized occupational descriptors make it simple to compare work across a broad range of functions and levels; and effectiveness — provides comprehensive and current information for a wide range of occupations, this helps to better target recruitment efforts, training programs and define career paths. Furthermore, the a common language.
References
“O*NET Resource Center.” (ND). O*NET. Retrieved November 28, 2012, from http://www.onetcenter.org/overview.htm
