You can start by taking a skills assessment, an occupation sort, or an interest assessment. These assessments are tools that are designed to help you explore important things about yourself. They can be based on your skills, interests, values, or other traits. These traits are then matched to a broad list of careers. Assessments can be the key to successful career exploration by helping you find careers that fit you best, which you can then compare to the list of occupations in demand in Central Minnesota.

This website was designed to help you answer career exploration questions by helping you select high demand jobs that are available in the region that meet your current education and training level or wage requirements, or by scheduling an appointment with a specialist at your local Minnesota Workforce Center. They have the skills and knowledge to help you make informed choices. To get started, use the resources below to find skill and career assessments developed in Minnesota.

ISEEK Skills Assessment
Rate skills positively or negatively based on how important they are to you. Results of this self-assessment tool link directly to detailed career descriptions on ISEEK.

Minnesota Careers Interest Assessment
Discover how your interests relate to occupations. Take this inventory and create your own "interest profile" that corresponds to matching occupations and their descriptions.

CareerOneStop Skills Profiler
Identify your skills to create a skills profile. This profile includes a summary of your skills, a list of matching occupations with links to detailed information, and the ability to compare your skills to those needed in another occupation of interest.

Minnesota Careers Information System Occupation Sort
Occupation Sort is designed to let you say what you know about yourself, your likes and dislikes, and creates a list of occupations that match your preferences. It doesn't tell you what you should be. Instead, Occupation Sort locates occupations that match factors you regard as important. Occupation Sort uses 28 factors often considered in career decision making, and they are also factors for which a computerized sorting tool can be useful.
(You will need a username and password, which you can get at your local WorkForce Center or school office)

Career Reality Check
Although based in Texas, this fun interactive online budget calculator can demonstrate how educational choices are related to securing a job in any location — which ultimately impacts one's lifestyle. Find out how much money you'll need and which career will pay for those needs. (Site is available in Flash and non-Flash versions.)

Career Voyages
This site provides information on high growth, high demand careers along with the skills and education needed to attain those occupations. Brighter future, better pay and good jobs!

America's Career Resource Network
The Career Decision-Making Tool (CDMT) helps you: select a suitable career direction; identify the kinds of occupations that will assist you in following your chosen career direction; and identify the kinds of learning you will need to qualify for and perform selected occupations.

MyPlan.com Career Database and What Can I Do With a Major In...?
MyPlan.com helps students and professionals plan more fulfilling lives by making well-informed decisions about their education and careers. Whether you’re deciding on what college to go to, choosing a major, planning ahead for your first career, or thinking about making a career change, MyPlan.com can help you explore options and bring clarity and insight into figuring out what’s right for you. 100% independent and unbiased, MyPlan.com gives you the truth about colleges, careers and majors.

Ethanol Career Pathways
According to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Ethanol is a $3 billion-a-year industry in Minnesota, supporting 11,000 jobs. Duane Carrow, the Program Director for Renewable Energy Technology at Minnesota West Community and Technical College, says that "jobs in the renewable fuels industry can be classified as 'gold collar' jobs - those that combine both thinking and doing." A typical ethanol plant employs 35 to 50 people, depending on capacity and processing technology, and according to Bob Abbott, the human resources manager for VeraSun Energy in Brookings, SD, "60% of the jobs in an ethanol plant involve skills that can be acquired in a two-year associate degree program." Yet Brian Jennings, the Executive Director of the American Coalition for Ethanol says that "workforce needs are extraordinary and some plants are having difficulty 'keeping up' in terms of finding and retaining quality employees."

Note: Central Minnesota Careers claims no responsibility for the content of these sites. Users are encouraged to exercise caution when dealing with businesses, organizations, and individuals on the Internet.