New Site Gives Job Seekers The Inside Scoop
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Often the best way to determine if a career will really suit you is to speak with someone who already has experience in your chosen field. Alicia Schwartz recognizes that it isn’t always easy for the average person to find a fighter pilot or professional cake decorator readily at hand to interview, that’s why she developed TheCareerProject.org. The subscription-based research tool allows users to view thousands of different job profiles written by the people who actually work those jobs.
“TheCareerProject.org is an online version of take your child to work day but multiplied by a few thousand coworkers who are on hand to answer any question you might have,” says Schwartz, CEO and founder of TheCareerProject.org.
Each professional that participates in TheCareerProject fills out a three part profile; in the first they are extensively interviewed about their job, in the second they create a diary-style account of an average day on the job, and finally each profile contains an “Ask Me” section where users can send any further questions they have directly to the profiled worker.
“There’s more to a career than simply the job description or the rate of pay,” says Schwartz. “And people want to know these things. What do you actually do all day? What's the worst part? What's the best? How did you get the job? What should I do to get a similar position? TheCareerProject.org is the only site that can really answer any of those questions.”
Schwartz feels that her site is the first of its kind on the web, giving users an uncensored look at numerous careers in over 25 different fields ranging from accounting and administration to mental health and engineering. Using the site job seekers can get a true account of what it’s like to work at a specific job and also determine what they need to do to obtain a similar position.
“As a former career counselor, I developed this site as a research tool specifically for students, but after the tremendous initial response to our questionnaire I realized that this is truly a resource for people of all ages. In today's job market where the average person has two or even three career shifts this type of information is invaluable,” Schwartz explains.
Currently a one year subscription to TheCareerProject.org costs $6.99 U.S. and allows unlimited access to the thousands of career profiles available on the site. Prior to subscribing users can search through the career fields to ensure that the kind of jobs they’re looking for have been profiled and view a free sample profile to get a better understanding of the kind of information being offered.
TheCareerProject also has tools to offer job seekers who choose not to subscribe. Its Resources section includes links to resume writing help, salary calculators, career assessment tools, general and specific job search listing sites, and various other links that will be useful to anyone hoping to land their dream job.