Online Career Research
Good Websites
CBE Learn (http://www.cbelearn.ca/support/career-main.html) An excellent local website (part of the Calgary Board of Education) with useful career and education planning tools, "how-to" pages and links to other sites.
Canada WorkInfoNet (http://www.workinfonet.ca/) is an excellent website with an amazing amount of useful career information along with wonderful links to other excellent Canadian and International Sites.
Career Options Magazine (http://www.careeroptionsmag.com) is a website produced by the Canadian Association of Career Employment Educators (CACEE), one of the major professional organizations in Canada for career placement of college and university graduates. It contains a variety of excellent articles in the whole area of career planning and job search.
Canadian Career Consortium (http://www.careerccc.org) this is an excellent website produced by the government of Canada, with a wide range of articles and information on careers and career planning.
The Riley Guide (http://www.rileyguide.com/) is an excellent meta-list of employment opportunities and job resources on the Internet.
Directories
A helpful way to find these is to use a library website, which will allow you to search for directories, guides and CD ROM’s that also contain useful information. Your post-secondary institution’s library probably has a useful website if you look for it.
One excellent directory is JobBoom.com, the top 100 sites for career, learning and employment. Look here for information on career and education planning, the job market, self-employment and studying abroad.
Self Assessment
University of Waterloo Career Site
(http://www.cdm.uwaterloo.ca) Offers a career planning process on-line.
The Ten Step Career Planning Site (http://10steps.careerpathsonline.com/index.asp) This website from the Youth Employment Service of British Columbia takes you through the ten steps of career planning and self-assessment.
The MazeMaster (http://www.mazemaster.on.ca/) has a number of activities and exercises designed to allow you to access your skills, interests, value and so on. In addition it has other interesting career information.
Employability Skills
Conference Board of Canada (http://www.conferenceboard.ca) has a comprehensive list of "Employability" skills (http://www.conferenceboard.ca/education/learning-tools/employability-skills.htm) and some related papers and updates.
Researching Occupational Options
National Occupational Classification (http://www23.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/2001/e/generic/welcome.shtml) This is the Canadian dictionary of over 25,000 occupational titles and descriptions. This site will allow you to search in a number of ways; unfortunately, you need to go to the printed version of the NOC to read full occupational descriptions.
Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/oco) This is a full listing of occupations according to the USA classification system.
Careers Online Virtual Careers Show (http://www.careersonline.com.au/show/menu.html) This website has over 1000 occupations (from the US Bureau of Statistics and Australian Government).
OccInfo (http://www.alis.gov.ab.ca/occinfo/) is an excellent website with very detailed descriptions of over 500 major occupations.
Researching Educational Programs
Canadian Post-Secondary School Finder (http://www.schoolfinder.com) can help you find colleges and universities.
Use College Smarts (http://www.college-smarts.com) At the bottom of the page there are links to all Canadian Universities and Colleges for further information about the institution and then links to their programs.
Peterson’s Education Center (http://www.petersons.com/) Petersons’ guides have long been the benchmark for educational program databases; now this useful guide is online with various ways to research post-secondary education programs.
EDUFAX (http://www.edufax.com) lists colleges in the USA and internationally.
Graduate Schools Online Search Engine (http://www.gradschools.com) has a large database of graduate schools and you are able to select the geographic region you wish to study in.
Yahoo – Higher Education (http://www.yahoo.com/education/higher_education) Another excellent Yahoo site which offers information on a variety of higher education topics and allows you to search a large database of colleges and universities in Canada and the USA.
Researching Professional and Trade Associations
Job Futures – Associations (http://www.jobfutures.ca/en/listing_organizations.shtml) An excellent website from Human Resources and Development Canada, a government agency. This particular component of the site has industries sorted according to the National Occupational Code (NOC), with direct links to the appropriate association in Canada.
Researching Employers
If you don’t know the name of an employer but want to find employers in a particular field, let your fingers do the walking in the Yellow Pages. You can focus in on a particular city as well for your search.
Canada Yellow Pages (http://www.yellowpages.ca) Go to the Business category (industries and professional fields are listed alphabetically) and choose the field you are interested in, next select the region and finally select the city. A list of potential employers will be generated.
Businesses Across Canada (http://www.cdnbusinessdirectory.com/) is another excellent website that allows you to research businesses by industry and location.
Another strategy when you don’t know the names of the employers you want to find is to again use search engines and enter the name of the industry or profession that you are wanting to research. Again, try to use an advanced search and narrow down first to Business, Industry, or Employers.
If you know the name of an employer, it is usually quite easy to find out if they have a website, and most do these days. Use a major search engine like Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) or Yahoo Canada (http://ca.yahoo.com/) or Yahoo for the country you are researching in. Enter the company’s name – you may get a number of websites back, but look for the one that has the full name in the website and often ".com" for a commercial site or ".ca" for a Canadian website. So, for example if you were looking for information on Shell Canada, use Yahoo Canada and you will find the site (http://www.shell.ca). Also notice that in a search engine like Yahoo, you can go directly to the Subject Index of Business and Economy and narrow your search down right away.
Some companies produce information on other businesses and companies. These are called "company capsules". Check out the Thomas Registry (http://www.thomasregister.com/).
You may just want to research some of the hot companies in Canada. Check out Canadian Business Magazine's top listings: (http://www.canadianbusiness.com).
Researching Job Opportunities
Not that you are seeking employment just now, but reading descriptions of job advertisements can give you information about the qualifications, skills, and duties of different positions. Also many of these sites also include summer jobs for students, which might interest you. You will find that many of the jobs listed are still for IT specialists and engineering majors, especially again with a computer science background. Online recruiting is expanding all the time, so keep your options open by checking out this type of website.
Campus Workopolis (formerly National Graduate Registry and Campus WorkLink) (http://campus.workopolis.com/index.html) offers a searchable database that was originally funded by the Canadian government (Industry Canada) to help match graduates with employers. This website also contains useful information and guidance on careers and the labour market.
The Job Bank by Human Resources Development Canada is a database with links to a variety of job listings. (http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/home.shtml)
The Monster Board has both a Canadian Job Posting Service (http://www.monster.ca/) as well as an International Job Posting Service (http://globalgateway.monster.ca)
Summer Employment can also be found on the Internet - try the Youth Employment website (http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/gateways/topics/yze-gxr.shtml) or the Young Canada Works Summer Jobs (http://www.pch.gc.ca/special/ycw-jct/html/welcome_e.htm)
SeekCampus is an Australian Job Posting Service, focusing in on positions for post-secondary graduates (http://campus.seek.com.au)
International Job Search? Check out the Overseas Website (http://www.overseasJobs.com)
Job Shark (http://www.jobshark.com/)
Globe & Mail (a large Canadian Newspaper) offers Workopolis:(http://www.workopolis.com/)
Researching Future Trends
MazeMaster has labour market information (http://www.mazemaster.on.ca), highlighting the top occupational areas for people aged 16-29.
Job Futures (http://www.jobfutures.ca) is an excellent Canadian website giving the prospects for various occupations with a specific section on career outlooks for graduates.
Human Resources Development Canada – Labour Market Trends (http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/home.shtml) is an excellent site with links to a variety of sites providing very current labour market information and trend analysis.
Resources for Sample Resumes
The Riley Guide has an excellent section on electronic Resumes. (http://www.rileyguide.com/)
Canadian Careers.com has excellent suggestions on writing Resumes and many other valuable links (http://www.canadiancareers.com/resandcl.html
Monster Board Canada has some further helpful hints on Resume writing: (http://content.monster.ca/resume )
Online Application Forms
Microsoft – http://www.microsoft.com/jobs/
Calgary Regional Health Authority –
http://www.crha-health.ab.ca/supp/hr/employ/pages/howtoapply.htm
Starting Your Own Business
Canadian Youth Business Foundation (http://www.cybf.ca )
Campus Access – Starting your own Business (http://www.campusaccess.com/campus_web/career/c2bus.htm)
Self Employment Development Initiatives – information on government programs to help with the starting up of small businesses: (http://www.sedi.org/html/splash/index.asp)
