Completing and Reviewing Your Job Seeker Assessments

Continuing the Job Seeker series from the previous two posts, using CareerForce  assessments as examples, this post will guide you through the CareerForce Employment Readiness Assessment. This is a simple 12-question survey that makes today’s assignment seem light. However, be sure to plan on time to review the results of your assessment, as CareerForce makes some helpful recommendations based on your answers. Many recommendations will have links to other pages that you should not expect to fully explore in one day; make a calendar of future days you will dedicate to reviewing these items more in-depth. Some of these recommendations will include other CareerForce assessments (Compare Skills, Interest Assessment, and Skills Matcher) as well as mainstay employment topics: resumes, cover letters, applications, interviewing, and networking. These will all be addressed over the next several Accelearnate posts.

Here are the main actions for you to take today after reading this post:

-            Log into your job seeker account and complete your Employment Readiness Assessment, if one is available

o   Be sure to save your results for future reference

o   If one is not available on your state’s job seeker website, you might benefit from taking the CareerForce assessment and exploring some recommended webpages, knowing you won’t be eligible for appointments, events, or other such personal support if you’re not a Minnesota resident

-            Read through the results of your assessment for any quick actions to take today

-            Mark your calendar with future events to investigate the more in-depth topics soon

Complete your Employment Readiness Assessment

Logging into your CareerForce account and completing this assessment should take you about five minutes. It’s only twelve straightforward questions; the time-consuming part will be exploring all the recommendations after completing the assessment. Be sure to keep your results for future reference and to help you retrieve links to recommended resources later; while you can save your completed assessment in a .pdf format, the links in the file won’t be clickable. Instead, click on the Printable Version button at the bottom of your assessment and keep the results webpage that opens open for the next several days, so the recommended hyperlinks are conveniently available to click on as you have time to explore them.

Review results and take quick actions

As you read through your assessment results, make a list of actions that seem doable in the time you have available today. This might include visiting a handful of web pages and taking notes on anything new you discover or any gaps in your readiness that should be addressed right away. Use today primarily to get a feel for your current employment readiness position, as knowing where you stand now will help you understand how to reach any specific employment or career milestones you want to achieve in the future.

Mark your calendar for deeper dives

Save further assessments or setting up other accounts for future days. As mentioned in previous posts (and as will be reiterated regularly ongoing), the most important key to success on the Accelerated Learning Roadmap for Success (ALRS) is to be consistent; accomplish a small amount each day and pace yourself so you don’t burn out and give up. It might be tempting to do a lot in one day if you have the time, but instead, try to focus your energy and excitement on building a consistent daily habit instead of explosive, short-lived bursts of effort. By putting events on your calendar to learn more deeply about bigger topics, you’ll be reminded to come back to them soon while getting through it all at a sustainable pace.

Conclusion

Use this day to get a general overview of where you currently stand on your journey to earn more money and launch your career. This assessment is a starting point for more specific things to work on over the next several days. Keep working through all the information in bite-sized chunks to make it manageable and avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Take five minutes to log into your account and complete your assessment right away!

The next step on the roadmap: Identifying Skills for a Better Paying Job

Using Your Job Seeker Account

Now that you’ve set up a job seeker account to help you land a better paying job, spend the next several days exploring the different resources available to you. As shown in the two pictures below, start by logging into your account and then look for job search tools:

Plan to spend one day on each relevant item listed; for example, those using a CareerForce account should take one day for the Employment Readiness Assessment, one day for the Compare Skills assessment, and so on, taking a total of nine days to review each of the pages in the red box above. The reason for taking a day for each is to give you time to thoroughly review details about each topic, and to give you time to reflect on the information you gain from each job search tool. Plus, remember that the ALRS is a long-term pursuit to fulfill a larger vision for your future, and you don’t want to take on too much at once and end up burning out; treat your roadmap journey as a marathon and not a sprint.

That’s all there is to it for this post. Job search tools will vary somewhat, depending on which state you live in. Give yourself several days to thoroughly explore one topic per day. Take time to let yourself process all the details and make connections between topics.

Make yourself a daily reminder where you will track your progress through each page. Be sure to post the reminder where you will see it at the right time to act on it each day!

The next step on the roadmap: Completing and Reviewing Your Job Seeker Assessments

Set Up a Job Seeker Account

This post begins a series of concrete steps for you to take toward finding a better paying job, the first major milestone of the ALRS! You should plan to spend about 15 minutes setting up an account with the economic development agency in your state; the links for all 50 states are provided at the bottom of this post, which will go through setting up an account with Minnesota’s CareerForce as an example.

Why Set Up an Account

Setting up an account like this gives you access to useful employment resources, helping you to assess your interest in and readiness for different careers. Additionally, it will connect you with resources for networking, resume writing, and job interview preparation. After all of that, this series will conclude with specific actions for applying to better paying jobs and eventually gaining one!

What to Do

If you’re a Minnesota resident, follow the example below. If not, go to the link for your state below and set up a similar account, referring to this example as needed. The exact account setup process will be slightly different by state.

Start setting up your CareerForce account by visiting the CareerForce homepage at https://careerforce.mn.gov/. In the upper right corner, click on Login or Register.

On the next page, note the benefits you gain from setting up an account and click on the Create Account button.

To start the process of creating your account, you’ll fill in one page of basic information, and then after clicking on the Create new account button, you’ll receive an e-mail to complete your account setup the rest of the way. Getting this far plus completing all remaining steps per the e-mail you receive should only take you a total of about 15 minutes.

In addition to the benefits mentioned on the account creation page, having a CareerForce profile will allow you to save assessment results and other information on your personal CareerForce dashboard. The next post will guide you through completing specific assessments and then saving them to and retrieving them from your personal dashboard.

Bottom Line

Take just 15 minutes to set up your account today – the benefits way outweigh the cost!

The next step on the roadmap: Using Your Job Seeker Account

Websites for Job Seekers by State:

Alabama: https://workforce.alabama.gov/

Alaska: https://www.labor.alaska.gov/

Arizona: https://arizonaatwork.com/

Arkansas: https://dws.arkansas.gov/

California: https://www.labor.ca.gov/

Colorado: https://cdle.colorado.gov/jobs-training/workforce-centers

Connecticut: https://workforcect.org/about-us/

Delaware: https://labor.delaware.gov/wdb/

Florida: https://www.floridajobs.org/office-directory/division-of-workforce-services/about-workforce-services

Georgia: https://dol.georgia.gov/

Hawaii: https://labor.hawaii.gov/wdd/

Idaho: https://idahoworks.gov/programs

Illinois: https://dceo.illinois.gov/workforcedevelopment.html

Indiana: https://www.in.gov/dwd/jag/

Iowa: https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/iwd-business

Kansas: https://www.dol.ks.gov/labor-market-information/job-services

Kentucky: https://elc.ky.gov/Agencies/Pages/Department-of-Workforce-Development.aspx

Louisiana: https://www.laworks.net/

Maine: https://www.mainecareercenter.com/

Maryland: https://www.labor.maryland.gov/employment/

Massachusetts: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/executive-office-of-labor-and-workforce-development

Michigan: https://www.mitalent.org/

Minnesota: https://careerforce.mn.gov/

Mississippi: https://www.mdhs.ms.gov/workforce/

Missouri: https://jobs.mo.gov/jobseeker

Montana: https://wsd.dli.mt.gov/ and https://www.acceleratemt.com/

Nebraska: https://dol.nebraska.gov/ReemploymentServices

Nevada: https://detr.nv.gov/Page/Workforce_Development

New Hampshire: https://www.nheconomy.com/office-of-workforce-opportunity/job-seekers

New Jersey: https://www.nj.gov/labor/career-services/

New Mexico: https://www.dws.state.nm.us/en-us

New York: https://dol.ny.gov/jobs-and-careers

North Carolina: https://www.ncworks.gov/vosnet/Default.aspx

North Dakota: https://www.jobsnd.com/

Ohio: https://jfs.ohio.gov/about/our-offices-bureaus-and-committees/office-of-workforce-development

Oklahoma: https://oklahoma.gov/workforce.html

Oregon: https://www.worksourceoregon.org/jobseekers

Pennsylvania: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dli/programs-services/workforce-development-home

Rhode Island: https://dlt.ri.gov/individuals

South Carolina: https://jobs.scworks.org/vosnet/Default.aspx

South Dakota: https://dlr.sd.gov/workforce_services/individuals/online.aspx

Tennessee: https://www.tn.gov/workforce/jobs-and-education.html

Texas: https://www.twc.texas.gov/

Utah: https://jobs.utah.gov/jobseeker/index.html

Vermont: https://labor.vermont.gov/workforce-development

Virginia: https://virginiaworks.gov/im-a-job-seeker/

Washington: https://esd.wa.gov/

West Virginia: https://workforcewv.org/job-seeker/

Wisconsin: https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/det/

Wyoming: https://dws.wyo.gov/individuals/

The next step on the roadmap: Using Your Job Seeker Account