Find Career Information
Start researching occupations.
Using the occupations you listed in the Occupations that Match Your Assessments activity in Step 1: Assess Yourself, you can go online to find more information about occupations at Service Canada and Emploi Quebec.
Other good links for career information:
Emplois Montréal
Employment and Social Development Canada
Quebec Labour Standards
For each occupation, pay attention to:
- skills
- education or training needed
- the median or average pay, and
- the demand for the occupation in your area
Use the Occupational Research Summary (pdf) worksheet to keep track of your research.
Where to find career information?
- Look through detailed career profiles on the Service Canada website.
- Look through the detailed occupational profiles and videos online.
- Do informational interviews with people working in those fields to get inside information.
Informational Interviewing
One out of every 200 resumes results in a job offer. One of every 12 informational interviews results in a job offer. That is why informational interviewing is the ultimate networking technique.
Informational interviewing is just what it sounds like, interviewing designed to produce information. What kind of information? The information you need to learn how to break into a particular field, or company. It is an expanded form of chatting with your network contacts, in a highly focused conversation that provides you with key information you need to launch or boost your career.
Potential Results of Informational Interviews:
- You obtain a great deal of information about your career field and the skills you need to do the job effectively.
- You have the opportunity to make personal contacts among management level personnel.
- You gain insight into the hidden job market.
- You become aware of the needs of the employers and the realities of employment.
- Since the meetings are comparatively low stress, you gain confidence in talking to people while learning what you need to know.
- It is an opportunity to learn where you might fit into a particular organization.
Sample Informational Interview Questions:
- Would you tell me about your job? A typical day, duties, responsibilities, functions?
- How did you get started?
- What are the various jobs in this field or organization?
- Why did you decide to work for this company?
- What do you like most about this company?
- Why do customers choose this company?
- What sorts of changes are occurring in your occupation?
- What are the major qualifications for success in this occupation?
- What are the skills that are most important for a position in this field?
- How would you describe the working atmosphere and the people with whom you work?
- How is the economy affecting this industry?
- What can you tell me about the employment outlook in this occupation or field?
- What are the educational requirements of this job? What other types of credential or licenses are required?
- Who else do you know who is using similar skills?
- These are my strongest assets, skills, and areas of knowledge, personality traits.
- How would you assess the experience I have had so far in terms of entering this field?
- Would you mind looking over my resume, and providing me with some feedback?
These are just some examples of questions you could ask; limit the number of questions to no more than 12. Ask any other questions you may have thought of, but remember to stick to your agreed upon time of 15-20 minutes.
You can ask if there are any positions opening up for your skills and expertise. And if not, ask if they know of anyone else you could talk to in order to continue your search for information, and eventually a job.
One of the most powerful aspects of informational interviews is the opportunity the practice affords to find out about the employer’s needs. Every need discovered is an opportunity. Be alert, in your interview, to a company’s weaknesses, problems you could solve, gaps you could fill, situations you could improve. It is a priceless technique because you not only describe yourself as the perfect person to meet the need, but you make yourself a shining star in the employer’s eyes for showing concern for the firm’s well- being. You put yourself on the team.
Be sure to promptly send a thank-you note to the person you interviewed.
Making long-term goals or thinking about a future career change?
Thinking about starting or changing careers in a few years? Then look at the growth of occupations. Sometimes that is called long-term projections, or growth rate. "High-growth" occupations are also called "in-demand" or "bright outlook" careers. An occupation with high growth is likely to need many workers in the next few years.
Need to make a career change or find employment right now?
Job vacancy reports help you to know which industries need workers right now. Job vacancies show the occupations that employers were recently hiring. They also show the average pay, and the training employers required of those they hired.
Use the Occupational Research Summary (pdf) worksheet to keep track of your research.
Online Resources to help you Explore Careers:
