A: If you’re staying open to advice and taking expert recommendations to heart, you’re on the right track. But remember: These rules are meant for broad, general audiences. Your situation may not be identical to everyone else’s. While you work hard on toeing the line, remember that some rules are meant to be broken. The next time you do something “right”, stop and think. Is this right for your specific situation, your targeted employer, your own goals, and your own personality?

Q: I’m fifty-nine and I’ve been on the job market for eight months. I’ve had five interviews and applied to more than a hundred positions all over the country. Please tell me I still have hope.

A: You do have hope, but you’ll also have to face some hard facts, including the possibility that your age may be working against you as you try to gain employer trust. So build that trust in ways that circumvent age-bias related to technology and flexibility. If you aren’t interested in rattling on about the wonders of social media during your interviews, that’s fine, but you’ll have to draw focus to your other skill sets, including your managerial abilities, your problem solving skills, your experience, and your work ethic.

Q: I’m looking for work in a specialized area, and I don’t come across appropriate job postings very often. I’ve only found five postings in the past month, and I’ve applied for them all. But they haven’t led anywhere. What now?

A: You may be looking in the wrong places. If national job boards aren’t helping you, try reaching out to industry organizations and trade groups in your field. Start by visiting their websites. Then send targeted emails to specific people in these organizations and ask them personally for leads and advice.

Q: I graduated in 2012 at the age of 22 with a mountain of debt, and I assumed that with a well-respected alma mater like mine, I’d have no trouble impressing employers. At this point, I’m not just frustrated with the job search—I’m also bitter about my college decision. I feel like I was a victim of an epic scam. How can I find a way to put this toxic anger behind me and move on before it ruins what’s left of my life?

A: You’re young, and “what’s left of your life” is longer than you’re able to appreciate right now. Your situation is not ideal, and your circumstances probably don’t look the way you imagined they would on the threshold of your mid 20s. But you’re not alone. And you will survive this rough patch. Even if the job you hold a year from now doesn’t look like the one you once had in mind, you will be working. And if you work hard every day to treat others and yourself with dignity, there’s no doubt that you will be a respected, legitimate, and productive member of society.

Don’t worry about the mountain of debt right now. And don’t even worry about the immediate need to find a job. Both of these things will work themselves out with some time and patience.

LiveCareer, home to America’s #1 Resume Builder, connects job seekers of all experience levels and career categories to all the tools, resources and insider tips needed to win the job. Connect with us on Google+ and Youtube for even more tips and advice on all things career and resume-related.

There are two essential communication skills that will help you connect with coworkers, potential employers, and even strangers.  These skills will shorten conflicts and may even prevent them.  According to Dr. Rick Brinkman and Dr. Rick Kirschner, authors of Dealing with People You Can’t Stand, conflict occurs when we focus on our differences instead of what we have in common. Their book is focused on how to connect and work with someone who thinks very differently from you.  Drs. Rick and Rick write that you must first blend with someone – convince them that you are like them – before you can redirect their thoughts or actions.

Blending can be a verbal or non-verbal process. You blend verbally by finding things you have in common: liking the same foods or movies, attending the same church or school, or having acquaintances in common. You also blend when you ask someone for their opinion (“I’m thinking that I’m in the mood for a cheeseburger; what about you?”) or validate what they’re feeling (“I agree – it’s freezing in here!”)

These examples sound trivial, but they have a measurable impact on your relationships. Non-verbal blending signals can be equally powerful. When someone is expressing pain, joy, surprise, or any strong emotion, we often mirror their expression. When we want to connect with a young child, we kneel down to put ourselves at their level. When someone’s posture indicates that they’re energized or tense, we mirror their body language. Mirroring is an ancient instinct, and one that indicates that you’re empathetic and connected to the other person. It’s essential in the healthy development of babies and young children, and I would argue that it’s essential to all healthy relationships.

Drs. Rick and Rick write “…there is no middle ground. Consciously or consciously, people want to know ‘are you with me or not?’ You come across as being on common ground or worlds apart.” What that tells me is that you may think you’re being neutral, but you’re almost never perceived as being so.  You’re either being warm and supportive, or you’re against me.  Boy, does that explain a lot of the misunderstandings from my work life.

The next step is redirection – getting a difficult person (someone who is in conflict with you) off their unproductive rant and on to a more productive course. The idea is to defuse their anger so you can really discuss the issue and come to a solution. Drs. Rick and Rick say that the first step in redirection is tactful interruption. Break into the rant with polite repetition (be patient; it may take a while.) “Excuse me, Glenda. Excuse me, Glenda. Glenda, please listen for a moment.” Eventually, your polite repetition will wear down the ranter and help her wind down enough to listen.

Then it’s your turn. Speak your truth. “From where I stand, this is an issue of process, not intent.” State your perception calmly and quietly. Remind the ranter of your common goal and offer a solution that might work for you both.  It may take some gentle toughness to command her attention long enough to speak.

One example in Dealing with People You Can’t Stand was masterful.  A customer service agent at the airport’s lost luggage counter was besieged after a series of flights were changed or cancelled.  One passenger was raging at her as if she had personally decided to lose his luggage and make him miserable.  Despite her best and most skillful attempts to appease him and help him, he continued to berate her. Finally, she quietly set her pen down and looked him right in the eye. When she had his attention, after a long pause, she said, “Sir, there are only two people standing at this counter who could possibly care about the future of your baggage.” She paused to let that sink in. “And frankly, sir, one of them is rapidly losing interest.” He was putty in her hands after that.

Magic.

Before you leave campus for good, ask your professors and classmates if you can stay connected during your job search. Professors may be willing to serve as references, and classmates in your field of study may turn up job opportunities or connections that will be helpful to you.  This is your first chance to establish a strong network, and the skills you build now will be critical to your future success. Connect with your university’s alumni association; they will be able to connect you with alumni in your field.

One of the constraints you’ll face in the job market is your lack of actual business experience.  Select some of your best work from classes in your major to use as proof of what you learned and how you performed.  If you have completed class projects like social media or advertising campaigns, case studies, or financial analysis, keep a couple of samples to offer employers as proof of the quality work you are capable of doing. You may be asked for a writing sample if you’re going into a job that requires writing, so keep what you consider to be an example of your best writing as well.

Set up an effective LinkedIn profile and start following companies that are leaders in your targeted industry or profession.  (Be sure to get a professional, well-lit head shot for your profile; this is no place for a blurry self-shot.) You can also find university alumni through a LinkedIn search, and your recent graduation is a great reason to ask for a connection. There are plenty of good resources out there to help you craft a profile that presents you as a serious job candidate.

Try these:

How to Make Your LinkedIn Profile Irresistible

How to Make Your LinkedIn Headline Stand Out

How to Create a Kick Butt LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn on How to Create a Great LinkedIn Student Profile

Start your research on how to market yourself.

Here’s a list of blog posts and online articles for young jobseekers or anyone starting out in a new job.

Guest Post: Corporate America Myths Every New Graduate Should Know

Guest Post: Landing Your First Job Out of College

Guest Post: What your College Degree Means to an Employer

First Job, First Day

The New Graduate Advantage

Guest Post: 5 Websites for Finding Awesome Internship Opportunities

Tough Love Tips for College Seniors Entering the Job Market

Experts give tips to college grads seeking first job

10 common job-search mistakes recent college graduates make

‘Don’t despair’ and six other career tips for new college graduates

Readers Respond: How to Make a Good Impression on Your First Job

New Grads: Survival Tips for Day 1 of Your First Job

Ask the Headhunter: How New Grads Can Get in the Door for a Job Interview

The 6 things all new employees should be told

1. Do no harm.
2. Make things better.
3. Respect others.
4. Be fair.
5. Be loving.

Nothing could be simpler, or more difficult.

Fairness is a concept that is elemental in business; it’s the presumption that makes commerce and workplace transactions possible. We expect fair pay, a fair price, a fair offer, fair treatment and fair trade. But what happens when something is not fair?

Humans regard fairness as an important virtue, but don’t get a big head – we’re not alone.  According to a 2008 New York Times article, even dogs get disgusted when they perceive uneven treatment.

“Scientists in Austria report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that a dog may stop obeying a command if it sees that another dog is getting a better deal.” Dogs in the study (as dogs always are) were happy to “shake paws” all day long for absolutely no reward. That is, until the researchers started giving one dog a treat when he shook paws. The remaining dogs took longer and longer to respond to the command, and eventually stopped responding at all.

This followed a 2003 study in which monkeys exchanged rocks for a cucumber treat. The monkeys became insulted when some of them started getting better treats (highly coveted grapes) instead of the cucumbers. “The one who got cucumber became very agitated, threw out the food, threw out the rock that we exchanged with them, and at some point just stopped performing,” said one of the researchers.

I can relate. Workplace humans throw similar tantrums when they perceive unfairness, whether it’s over salary or perks, office location, or the length of their walk from the parking lot. In management, the Equity Theory says that individuals judge the fairness of their treatment based on how others like them are treated. Individual temperaments and upbringing will also make a difference in how strong a person’s response will be to perceived unfairness.

If you have strong reactions to what you see as unfair behavior or treatment, author Bruce Weinstein suggests that lashing out may not be the best response. Here are his suggestions for an ethically intelligent way to handle injustice.

1. Realize that the other party is to blame, not you. You don’t deserve to be (insulted, discriminated against, or ignored) but it’s not your fault. In fact, it may not even be about you; it may not be intended personally at all.
2. Refuse to let the situation get the best of you. Rage is not a good look on anyone, and if you can remain calm in the face of injustice, you will gain respect and a reputation for rising above petty issues.
3. Respond in a way that brings out the best in you. You can choose from a number of classy responses: icy politeness, gentle forgiveness,  or loving reprimand (“I’m sure you didn’t intend to play favorites; you’re a much better manager than that.”)

Being able to assume goodwill when possible will help keep you from overreacting. Nothing is more embarrassing than overreacting to a perceived slight and then having to backtrack. Hanlon’s Razor cites: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” It’s this philosophy that has allowed me to remain, well, philosophical, when life seems unfair.

She writes that researchers from University of Virginia and College of William and Mary discovered that Daylight Savings Time reduced national robbery statistics by 51 percent, rape rates by 56 percent, and murder by 43 percent. The researchers estimated that since 2007 the daylight saving time resulted in over $550 million in avoided social costs of crime per year. More daylight hours make crime more detectable, and give criminals less time to do bad things to good people.

That made Harvard business professors Francesca Gino ,Chen-Bo Zhong, Vanessa K. Bohns wonder if darkness could make regular office workers act less honestly as well.  They designed an experiment in which participants did a series of math problems under time pressure. The participants were allowed to score their own work afterwards and allowed to pay themselves a cash bonus for every correct answer.  The cash was conveniently left in the room in advance for the test; participants just took their cash bonus according to what they had determined were their earnings.

Image courtesy 20th Century Fox

Some participants took the test in full light; others did the math in a dimly-lit room. The math results for both groups were about the same, but according to Francesca Gino, “almost 61 percent of the participants in the slightly dim room cheated while “only” 24 percent of those in a well-lit room did.”

Taking the idea a step further, the researchers designed an honesty test in which participants were asked to divide up a small amount of money ($6) between themselves and a stranger.  Whatever money they did not offer to the stranger (in reality a researcher) was theirs to keep. One group wore clear glasses during the experiment; the other wore sunglasses which gave them the sensation of being in darkness. Gino writes of the outcome, “Participants wearing sunglasses were more selfish: the amount of money they gave was 14 percent less than the amount shared by those wearing clear glasses. In addition, they reported feeling more anonymous during the study.”

What does this mean? For one thing, it explains why nefarious deals take place in dark alleys. We know that bad characters prefer dark rooms and dimly lit bars; what we didn’t know was that you – presumably a good character – would be more likely to go along if you stepped into the alley with them. (Or perhaps the bad characters knew this all along.)

Gino goes on to say that anonymity is akin to darkness, and that may explain the concepts of trolling on the internet, heckling from the back of the room, and anonymous poison pen letters to the boss.  When people feel that they can’t be seen, they change their behavior, and they feel free to do and say things they would never do face to face.

As a team member or manager, your best defense against ugly behavior is to drag it into the sunlight. Don’t allow people to drag you around the corner to hear a piece of ugly gossip.  Stand your ground in the well-lit hallway and ask them to speak up. If you’re on a business trip with a group you don’t know well, avoid dimly lit cocktail lounges and opt for a bright outdoor café. It can’t hurt, and it might help.  As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

In Who Says It’s a Man’s World, Bennington describes her struggle between ambition – wanting to achieve the lofty goals she set for herself – and gratitude, living and appreciating the wonderful life she’d built.  For much of her life, she felt harried and miserable, always chasing happiness that seemed to reside somewhere in the future.  She finally decided that the only thing that mattered was this moment, right now.

She was inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s list of 13 virtues that he developed in 1726 at the age of 20.  He knew he wanted to accomplish a tremendous amount during his life (he didn’t do badly; in addition to being one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Franklin was also an author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.) He also knew that his unruly nature – he was also famous for loving food, drink and ladies – would need to be tempered if he were to put his intellectual gifts to use.

He came up with a list of 13 virtues by which he would lead his life.  They included temperance (the foundational self-discipline that would govern his ability to stick to other principles), silence, order, frugality, sincerity and humility, among others.  He admitted that he fell short of his lofty intentions often, but always aspired to be the best man he could be. (see the full list here.)

Emily Bennington created her own list of virtues to live by.  She believes that virtues are “evergreen;” they represent values that won’t change, even if your circumstances, technology, or the world changes around you.  Her personal list includes spiritual growth, putting family first, positivity, mindfulness and courage, among others. These values keep her focused on what’s important when the world feels chaotic and even hostile.

Intentions are the steps you take every day to live your values.  Bennington puts it this way: “If I didn’t know you, how would I know?”  We know each other primarily by what we see each other do, after all.  You may think you’re the star of a full length movie, but most people see you only through a short trailer.  When you see someone being rude to the barista, you don’t think to yourself, “That must be a really nice person who’s having a bad day.” You think to yourself. “What a jerk.” Bad day is temporary; jerk is permanent – in the eyes of the beholder. Living your intentions means acting in accordance with your virtues and your values every day. Bennington writes: “Whereas 99.9 percent of the workforce will make decisions on how they think and feel at any given moment, you’ll be making decisions based on what you really want for yourself. There’s your power.” Bennington believes in what she calls “excellence in the moment.”

My personal list of virtues include work first, play second; serenity in the face of chaos, being generous with my connections and talent, and leading with a sense of humor.  Those precepts keep me sane when my day seems to spin out of control.

Bennington finishes her pyramid approach (70 percent virtues and intentions) with a 30 percent focus on goals.  Goals are important, she writes; “I want you to be über-rich and über-powerful, but I also want you to have the foundation to handle that success when it arrives.”

That makes sense to me.  Many people rise to fame and wealth, only to fall down (some literally: see Lindsay Lohan and soon, Justin Bieber) when their values don’t give them the support they need to manage the big lifestyle they’ve built.

Do you have a list of virtues that support your goals?  Leave a comment.

Emily Bennington describes herself as a career author, speaker and space invader. Not the kind with ray guns (although, to be fair, I didn’t ask to see them, so she may be that kind, too.) She’s talking about what Stephen Covey referred to in his writing: “between stimulus and response there is a space, and it’s in that space you choose how you wish to respond.” Bennington has written two books and has been featured in media such as CNN, ABC, and Fox to the Wall Street Journal, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan. I spoke to her about her latest book Who Says It’s a Man’s World: The Girls’ Guide to Corporate Domination.  

CM: Who Says It’s a Man’s World is full of good career advice for just about anyone.  Why did you think it was important to write it specifically for women?

EB: I think the book is for anyone who wants to excel at work and still enjoy the journey.  In my experience, women have a little more trouble making that work.  I know I had trouble balancing my ambition with the rest of my life.  As a woman in my twenties, I gravitated to the career section of every bookstore – it drew me like a magnet.  I spent my youth absorbing all the career advice I could get my hands on.  I was checking off boxes on the success to-do list, but achieving my goals wasn’t the same as being happy. I was burning out.  I wanted to have a career I loved and live a life that made me happy too.

CM: What changed your path?

EB: I discovered the Self Help section of the bookstore in my thirties, and spent the next few years reading about how you must learn to be grateful for what you have before you can get more. After a while, I decided to figure out how to be more ambitious and more grateful.  I wrote this book for career women who have business books on their desks and self-help books on their nightstands.

CM: Did you discover what worked?

EB: I discovered what worked for me.  Like many people, I spent my time living four or five years into the future. You know how that goes: “I’ll be happy when I get that raise (or promotion, or new assignment, or lose ten pounds…)” I was delaying happiness, delaying starting my own life.  I was in constant competition with everyone, trying to get what they had – reverse engineering their happiness to try to get some for myself.

Finally, the last straw was the day I was getting my (then) three and four-year old children ready for school.  They were dawdling and fighting me in the way only toddlers can, when I burst into tears.  I yelled at them, “You’re turning me into somebody I don’t want to be!”  I realized in that moment that I could choose what and how I wanted to be.  The results of my journey got rolled into this book.

CM: How did you change your approach to life?

EB: First, I stopped being focused on goals (those distant future checkpoints.)  I discovered Benjamin Franklin’s list of 13 virtues that he adopted as a way of life.  His approach changed my life – it’s as if the clouds opened, and I saw clearly what would work for me.  I restructured my approach to include Virtues as the foundation of who I am – what I focus on being.  Then I work on Intentions – the things I do every day, in the present moment, in order to live my core values. For instance, one of my Virtues is “put family first.”  I can easily see in any given day if I am living up to that by the choices I make. Only about a third of my energy is spent on my Goals.  I believe that if you spend time on Virtues and Intentions, the goals you set for yourself will eventually work out.  I recommend that you spend 70 percent of your time pursuing Virtues and Intentions and 30 percent of your time on Goals. For those of you still focused on ambition, don’t panic – that’s one third of your life. I’m not going soft on kicking butt – I’m just tethering your actions to things that matter in the here and now.

Next post: Virtues, Intentions and Goals – how you can re-structure your life.

Are your social media profiles impeding your career progress – or even preventing you from getting the job that you want? When a potential employer clicks over to your Facebook page and sees an embarrassing photo — perhaps from that one crazy night in college — it can kill your interview prospects. It’s a clear and present danger;  the Web is rife with articles about What Not to Post on Facebook; in fact, some career experts advise simply removing your social media accounts during your job search process

This is certainly one solution, but is it the best one? Your social media account can hurt your career prospects, but it can also help them. While ill-advised social media posts can cause you to come across as disreputable or unprofessional, strategic social media posts can actually enhance your desirability among potential employers.

Spotlighting Your Professional Achievements

One thing all job seekers ought to include on their Facebook pages: easy access to their LinkedIn profiles. This may sound superfluous; after all, if a an employer can Google your Facebook account, couldn’t she just as easily locate your LinkedIn page? Probably, but including a link to your professional profile on your Facebook page shows that you are serious about your career, and it keeps the spotlight on your professional acumen. If you are using Facebook to network, it sends the clear signal that you are open to job offers!

Your Community Work

A lot of companies say that they are passionate about community service and social responsibility — and a lot of them actually mean it! You can reinforce your own charitable and philanthropic work on a resume; and reinforce the message on Facebook and LinkedIn. You can “like” the pages of all the charities and social organizations you support, and if you take place in a charity walk or run, or build a Habitat house, you can include the photos on your profile.

If you belong to any professional organizations or affiliations, list them, and like their pages.  Are you a college senior or a recent graduate, still enjoying membership in a prestigious academic organization? Mention that, too.

Facebook can also highlight your hobbies, your family life, fitness activities and more. These are the kinds of things that are no longer included on a resume or CV, but on social networks, you will come  across as a more well-rounded and human candidate — making you that much more appealing to recruiters and hiring managers.

A poorly-maintained social media profile can be your professional undoing — but, just as surely, an optimized and strategic social media page can actually boost your career prospects.

Mike Zammuto is the COO of www.reputationchanger.com.  The company provides services for online reputation management, which gives people and businesses full control over their online search results.

Paula serves as a subject matter expert on a five-person executive project team within her company.  They are tasked with research on Healthcare Reform and get together regularly via video conference to report to a dozen senior management executives located throughout the

state. Last week, Paula surprised her whole team by offering to be the spokesperson and deliver the report on the bi- weekly

conference. She admitted to me that she’d lost sleep the night before – rehearsing what she would say (somewhat productive) and fretting (not at all productive.)

When the moment came for her to speak on the video conference, she had five minutes to deliver the group’s findings. She felt prepared because she’d taken the time to list her main points on paper (a great technique for introverts, who feel less comfortable speaking without notes.) No one on the conference could see her notes lying flat on her desk, and they barely noticed when she glanced down discreetly for her next point.

The only moment that she wasn’t prepared for came when her video conference image went from thumbnail (comfortable and inconspicuous) to full screen as she became the main speaker for her five minutes.  She answered questions from the group about what she’d said and felt at ease, even without consulting her notes. She delivered flawlessly and was happy to return back to thumbnail size when someone else took the virtual floor.

Paula felt a surge of confidence after her speaking part, but the conference wasn’t over. The extended group had an interactive discussion about a particularly thorny issue, contraceptive coverage for employees of religious organizations.  Paula had prepared some thoughts about how to solve the issue, but never felt comfortable jumping into the discussion.  The participants threw out lots of ideas, but none seemed to provide a comprehensive solution, and so the video conference ended without a resolution.

After the conference, Paula received a called from her company’s Medical Director, praising her contribution on the video conference.  Paula, feeling empowered, offered her opinion on a solution to the contraceptive conundrum. Why not, she thought – mine can’t be any less helpful than what we’ve already heard.

She asked if he had time to listen to her thoughts, and he did. “Why not?  No one else could figure it out,” he said.  She presented her solution and when she finished, he responded with dead silence. Oh no, she thought, was he even listening?  Did I make an incorrect assumption?  Did I blow it?

It turns out that he was just processing. He startled her a moment later by shouting, “Brilliant! You nailed it!” The rush of relief Paula felt was only tempered by the thought that if she’d spoken up during the conference, everyone else would have heard him call her brilliant too.

Many introverts never take the leap that Paula did, but her process can work for them as well. Here is what she did right:

• She volunteered well in advance so she could control the time and place she presented.
• She prepared in advance and put notes down on paper so she would remember her main points under pressure.
• She used her notes in a way that made her feel confident, but wasn’t obvious to her audience.

It’s not easy for introverts to break into lively discussions, and it’s not unusual for them to prefer to present their ideas after the group breaks up. Paula may have also chosen to send a detailed email with her solution to her boss or to the group, but she took advantage of the opportunity for a discussion when it came up.  A great follow up would have been to email a summary of her solution to him after the call; that way, her ideas can be forwarded to the group under her name. Her senior team member’s pleased reaction to her will certainly make her feel more confident about expressing her thoughts in the future. As they hung up, he said, “Paula, you really know your stuff.  You need to speak up more often in meetings.” I have the feeling she will from now on.

In Sarah’s case, interior design was her first choice. She enjoyed the idea of creating comfortable, beautiful and functional spaces, and she seemed to have a flair for color and style. Sarah and her parents explored the idea of enrollment in a private training institute in Jacksonville that would provide a bachelor’s degree in Interior Design.

According to O*NET, the Department of Labor’s online occupation classification and information system, interior designers earn a median wage of $47,600 annually. Projected growth in the occupation through 2020 is between 10 and 19 percent, primarily in commercial companies, designing office and commercial space. Nationwide, in 2010, about 57,000 interior designers were working in the U.S.

The cost of the interior design degree represented a significant investment for Sarah’s family (over $20,000 per year), so they decided to back up their research with assessments to determine the best career match for her. Their search led them to the Pelocity assessment. Pelocity is a tool backed by more than 50 years of industrial psychologists’ research that helps individuals pick those areas of study where they will excel both in school and in their choice of a career.

Assessment Technologies Group (ATG) offers the assessment to students and others interested in making informed decisions about career transitions. According to the group’s staff, two of the key factors in why students don’t complete college, “wrong” career selection and lack of vocational focus often are cited reasons for increased time to completion and lowered retention rate. A study of students confirms that 20 percent of withdrawals could be attributed to “wrong career choice” or “difficulties with course.” And another 15 percent of withdrawals are connected to students who “drifted” into the institution with little, if any, research into their course choices. The Pelocity staff provides a solution that costs less than $99 and can be taken in under an hour.

According to Dr. Les Krieger, Senior Consulting Psychologist at Assessment Technologies Group, the work style assessment is a measure used by organizations all over the globe to identify star performers and has a 25 year history of validation across many different occupations. The abilities, skills and knowledge questionnaires are derived from the extensively validated O*NET job description methodology. Pelocity inverts the O*NET job description questionnaires into assessments of the individual’s fit to the job.

Dr. Krieger explained how the results of the assessment are presented: “Pelocity uses proprietary models to recommend a rank-ordered list of best-fit occupations. With each recommended occupation, Pelocity provides access to relevant occupational and career path resources including O*NET, Career OneStop, and location-specific job banks. Pelocity also contains the Personal Passport, an ePortffolio of career information that can be shared with a career counselor or potential employer.”

Sarah’s Pelocity assessment results were a surprise. If interior design had been a strong match for her, her assessment results would have indicated a high preference for Artistic occupations. Instead, Artistic occupations came in a weak fourth in her occupational matching system. Enterprising careers, which include sales, marketing and business management, were Sarah’s primary match. As Sarah pondered the results and studied the occupational and job projection information provided within the Pelocity system, she realized that business held a strong attraction for her. She also has a strong aptitude for math, which is helpful in business studies.

Sarah chose to invest her Florida Bright Futures scholarship money into the local state college (St. Johns River State College) and begin a business degree with a concentration in marketing. Her scholarship will easily cover her tuition, and she will not go into debt for her education, which she would have had to do at the private art institute.
Sarah is attending St. Johns River State College (SJRSC) with her friend Dustin Nyberg. Dustin was not sure about a college major; he was drifting toward sports training simply because he had enjoyed a successful high school athletic career. After taking the Pelocity assessment, he was introduced to Realistic careers, which appealed to him for their hands-on and practical job opportunities. “I’d never heard of logistics as a career before I took the assessment,” Dustin said. “But the idea of solving problems, moving goods from one place to another and meeting deadlines, sounds like a pretty cool career.” He is also at SJCSC in a business track.

Most young students don’t understand the full range of careers that are available to them or why they might be successful at certain occupations. Career assessments like Pelocity can help students gain insight into career possibilities and help parents invest education money wisely.