Job seekers find help with new enhancements from Testing & Education Reference Center

Posted on August 5, 2020 at 6:00 am

By Crystal Miller

If you are on the hunt for a new job, sprucing up your resume, or looking for tools to help you explore a career change, the resources in our Digital Library can help you find the success you’re looking for.

You probably already know about digital resources JobNow and Data Axle Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA).

Today I’m focusing on a digital resource that you may not have used before for your job hunt: Peterson’s Test and Career Prep.

The name of this resource doesn’t represent the full breadth of services available. In fact, Testing & Education Reference Center just received some added enhancements that will aid you in your job and career ventures!

In addition to practice tests and eBooks for college, licensing, and certification and free scholarship searches, it also provides career assessment tools and resume building features. You’ll find these features within the Career section on the homepage.

I suggest you use your email and create a login. You can still use this resource without that information, but you won’t be able to save your progress and return to it later without a full login.

VisualCV Resume Creator

You can create a resume using the intuitive tool—VisualCV Resume Creator!

To access it, click “Resume Writing” from the Career drop-down menu.

The VisualCV Resume Creator lets you quickly choose a template, add your information, import from LinkedIn, adjust fonts, and more—all from your browser. You have the option to create a polished resume or curriculum vitae (CV), cover letter, and even a professional website resume.

Peterson’s Test and Career Prep has several modern and professional templates to choose from and they are customizable.

Once your resume is looking amazing, you can easily export your completed resume to PDF and Word formats, or share an online link.

PathwayU Career Assessment

The PathwayU Career Assessment is self-paced with an easy-to-use guide for self-discovery and exploration and with connections to training, education, and employment.

You can access it by clicking “Career Assessment” from the Career drop-down menu.

You can use this assessment tool by completing a brief series of questions about yourself to then see the many career paths that match with your personality and direction.

You can also find specific information about career opportunities, including typical job descriptions, titles, salary ranges, and even available jobs powered by Indeed.

You are able to view your career matches by subject, showing how well your assessment matches with the skills needed in the career field.

Based on the results of your assessments, PathwayU calculates your fit to nearly 1,000 career paths. That’s quite a few!

Once you click “View Careers” on a Subject Area, you are able to see the specific jobs listed in order of how closely they match to your responses for the assessments.

When scrolling through the various careers, you can click on “Programs” in the lower left corner to see much more information about that particular career.

You can view a lot of details about each career. Learn about typical job duties and alternate titles for the job, watch a career video, see the average salary, view the job outlook to see how in-demand it is as a career, and learn about the educational requirements for the job.

If you are ready to jump into the career, you are even able to find jobs for this job title through Indeed.

On your Assessments results page, you will find colleges and universities that offer degrees in the career fields that were a match for you. You can “Connect” with the colleges and universities, and they will reach out to you with more information on the programs you’re interested in.

Virtual Career Library

Another great tool within this resource is the Virtual Career Library.

Within the Virtual Career Library, the individual lessons help guide you through the career-seeking process, from searching for jobs to preparing resumes and cover letters to negotiating job details such as compensation and benefits.

Learn how to find a new career, land the job, and thrive in your new position. You are able to start, pause, and return to these lessons at any time.

You’ll find tips, advice, and instructions on how to:

• Transition out of the military
• Change careers
• Search for jobs
• Create and target your resume
• Write cover letters
• Prepare for interviews
• Develop networking skills
• Negotiate salary considerations

Peterson’s Test and Career Prep provides you with the tools to prepare for your next test, scholarship, job interview, and career change. This digital resource, along with all of our resources and services, is available at no cost—all you need is a library card.

Start exploring the Peterson’s Test and Career Prep today. You may just find yourself on a new path to career fulfillment!

Crystal Miller is a Business and Career Development Librarian and has been working in libraries for 15 years. She has a Masters in Library Science from Simmons College and has worked at the Harvard Development Office Library, MIT Libraries, and the Coeur d’Alene Public Library. When she’s not at the library, she can be found at the dog park with her three fur babies or with a cookbook in hand, flipping through the pages, looking for the next recipe to try out.

Tags: assessment, career, cover letter, education, interview, job, lessons, negotiation, reference, resume, templates, testing