LearningExpress Job & Career Accelerator

Last month in Reference Notes I highlighted the content available in all of the LearningExpress Library centers available via ELM.  This month I thought I would highlight the features, specific tools, and content available in Job & Career Accelerator (JCA), which is available via LearningExpress Library.  Whether you work in a public or academic library, JCA is a resource that any patron looking for a job can greatly benefit from.  It integrates everything one needs to find a job or specific occupation. The Dashboard, within JCA, acts as a personal job search management center.  It keeps track of everything, from job searches you’ve run within the database, to resumes and cover letters you’ve created.  It also lets you create and keep track of tasks and allows you to send email reminders to yourself in order to meet deadlines.  The Dashboard also keeps track of your occupation matches, which is the result of the Occupation Matcher.  This is a 60 question assessment tool developed by the U.S. Department of Labor and is scored in 6 key interest categories.  Occupations are matched to your personal interests. The Explore Occupations section offers information on over 1,100 careers and occupations using current data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Each occupation within this section contains what is called an Occupation Card.  For example, I can access  an Occupation Card for Dental Assistant and view a summary of the occupation, wages (which can be viewed by state), and trends including projected growth and the number of job openings within a particular state.  The Occupation Card also contains information on knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the field, common tasks and activities, and tools and technology involved with the occupation, as well as the required education and training for the occupation.  From the Occupation Card you can also access related occupations, web resources, and recommended occupation practice tests and skill improvement, as well as view available jobs within this occupation. The Job and Internship Search section of JCA lets you access over 5 million current job and internship postings.  Search for a job or internship by keyword, job title, skills, zip code, state, or company.  Within the advanced search you can limit your job search to Fortune 500 companies, dog-friendly companies, working-mother friendly companies, part-time, temporary, or full-time work, and much more.  The job listings come from SimplyHired, a company that aggregates job listings from major job boards, want ads and corporate and government websites. The Resume Builder within JCA gives step-by-step instructions, tips and tools to create professional resumes.  You can choose from different resume styles or even upload a resume that you have already created.  What I really like about the resume section of JCA is that you can access over 200 “model” resumes, thousands of job-specific keywords, and hundreds of action words.  Once you’ve created a resume in JCA, you can post it to LinkedIn or some other site or you can email it directly to a prospective employer.  Similar to the Resume Builder, there is also a tool in JCA that lets you easily create letters.  Whether it’s a cover letter, interview follow-up, interview thank you letter, or just a networking letter, JCA offers samples and many tips to help you write a well-crafted letter. Finally, JCA includes helpful information relating to interviewing and follow-up.  Topics covered include how to ace an interview, tips on how to prepare professional references in advance, how to write an effective interview thank you, and when and if you do get a job offer, how to evaluate it.  So now you can probably see how anyone looking for a job can benefit from Job & Career Accelerator.  As I said at the beginning of this article, JCA really does integrate all parts of occupation/career/job searching into a project management tool for job seekers of all types.