Two Sides of a Coin - A Look at Holland Codes and Career Clusters

Two Sides of a Coin - There are two popular ways to build self awareness and explore careers. 

Career Clusters and Holland Codes

 

 
Holland Codes is a tool that matches interests to careers.  A Career Cluster is a group of jobs and industries that are related by skills or products.  

Holland Codes

The Holland Codes identify interest areas, personalities, work environments and careers. The Holland Code Work Interest Areas are:

• Realistic
• Investigative
• Artistic
• Social
• Enterprising
• Conventional

The 16 Career Clusters® and 79 Career Pathways

After 50 years of research, there are research has reported the following 16 Career Clusters® & 79 Career Pathways -

Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources

• Agribusiness Systems
• Animal Systems
• Environmental Service Systems
• Food Products & Processing Systems
• Natural Resources Systems
• Plant Systems
• Power, Structural & Technical Systems

Architecture and Construction

• Construction
• Design/ Pre-Construction
• Maintenance/ Operations

Arts, A/V Technology and Communications

• A/V Technology & Film
• Journalism & Broadcasting
• Performing Arts
• Printing Technology
• Telecommunications
• Visual Arts

Business Management and Administration

• Administrative Support
• Business Information Management
• General Management
• Human Resources Management
• Operations Management

Education and Training

• Administration & Administrative Support
• Professional Support Services
• Teaching/ Training

Finance

• Accounting
• Banking Services
• Business Finance
• Insurance
• Securities & Investments

Government and Public Administration

• Foreign Service
• Governance
• National Security
• Planning
• Public Management & Administration
• Regulation 
• Revenue & Taxation

Health Science

• Biotechnology Research & Development
• Diagnostic Services
• Healthy Information
• Support Services
• Therapeutic Services

Hospitality and Tourism

• Lodging
• Recreation, Amusements & Attractions
• Restaurants & Food/ Beverage Services
• Travel & Tourism

Human Services

• Consumer Services
• Counseling & Mental Health Services
• Early Childhood Development & Services
• Family & Community Services
• Personal Care Services

Information Technology 

• Information Support & Services 
• Network Systems
• Programming & Software Development
• Web & Digital Communications

Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security

• Correction Services
• Emergency & Fire Management Services
• Law Enforcement Services
• Legal Services
• Security & Protective Services

Manufacturing

• Healthy, Safety & Environmental Assurance
• Logistics & Inventory Control
• Maintenance, Installation & Repair
• Manufacturing Production Process Development
• Production
• Quality Assurance

Marketing 

• Marketing Communications
• Marketing Management
• Marketing Research
• Merchandising
• Professional Sales

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

• Engineering & Technology
• Science & Mathematics

Transportation, Distribution and Logistics ​

• Facility & Mobile Equipment Maintenance
• Health, Safety & Environmental Management
• Logistics Planning & Management Services
• Sales & Service
• Transportation Operations 
• Transportation Systems/ Infrastructure Planning, Management & Regulation
• Warehousing & Distribution Center Operations 

HollandCodes.com has developed resources that show the relationship between the Career Clusters, Green Careers and Holland Codes -

• Career Clusters and Holland Codes Cross-Reference Table 
• Green Careers, Career Clusters and Holland Codes Reference Guide

Career Clusters and Holland Codes Cross-Reference Table    

Here is an example of the Career Clusters and Holland Codes Cross-Reference Table.

Holland Code	Holland Codes Personality Type (1)	Holland Codes Personality Type (2)	GOE Interest Areas
RI	Realistic	Investigative	Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resources
R	Realistic		Architecture & Construction
R	Realistic		Manufacturing
R	Realistic		Transportation, Distribution & Logistics

Green Careers, Career Clusters and Holland Codes Reference Guide

The Green Careers, Career Clusters and Holland Codes Reference Guide provides detailed descriptions of more than 150 occupations, covering topics such as:

• O*NET-SOC Codes
• Job titles
• Green occupational categories
• Interest areas/ Holland Codes
• Career clusters/ career cluster pathways
• Daily tasks (what workers do on the job). 

The O*NET-SOC Codes is useful to find out additional information about the working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects.
This guide is an excellent reference for many different tasks -

• Career exploration
• Lesson planning
• College majors
• Career planning
• Occupational research 

The Green Careers, Career Clusters and Holland Codes resources are part of the extensive library of resources found in the Explore Green Careers and College Majors System.

Read more...
 

Explore Careers and College Majors System Videos!

Identify identity! Pursue purpose! Unlock potential with the Explore Careers and College Majors System!

Explore Careers and College Majors System is an online, interactive, self-guided career planning and college planning system.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is the control center of the Explore Careers and College Major System. 

There are five sections in the Dashboard -

• Self Assessments
• Explore the Possibilities
• Take Action
• Career and Education Planning Results
• Recommended Tools & Websites
• Self Assessments

Here are Explore Careers and College Major System videos.

Watch video about the Explore Careers and College Majors System.

View video about Explore Careers with College Majors Bonus Tutorial Course.

Read more about the Explore Careers and College Majors System...

New Release: Explore Careers and College Majors System!

Explore Careers and College Majors System is an online, interactive, self-guided career planning and college planning system.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is the control center of the Explore Careers and College Major System. 

There are five sections in the Dashboard -

• Self Assessments
• Explore the Possibilities
• Take Action
• Career and Education Planning Results
• Recommended Tools & Websites
• Self Assessments

Self Assessment

There are four other assessments -

• Work Interest Assessment
• Personality Assessment
• Values Assessment
• Skills Assessment

Explore the Possibilities

The Explore the Possibilities is the Career Exploration, the College Major Exploration and the College Search sections of the Explore Careers and College Major System.

Career Exploration

In the Career Exploration section,

• You perform career research.
• You identify potential careers.
• You begin narrowing career options.

After completing the interests, skills, personality types, and/or values tests, you can match occupations to your results and click on any occupation that interests you. 

Then, you filter occupations by the following criteria -

• Alphabetically
• Job Family
• Green Job
• Bright Outlook
• Salary
• Saved Occupations

After completing Career Exploration, you will -

• Match Holland Codes to training programs
• Perform research to identify potential training programs
• Use training program search web site to find potential training programs

Explore any Occupation


Explore Any Major Area of Study That Interests You tool has excellent college search resources!

College Search options include -

• Type of College
• Enrollment & Costs
• Majors Offered
• Test Scores and Selectivity
• Location
• Athletics & Activities
• Search for colleges by name

Take Action

The purpose of the Take Action section is to create a road map of your academic and career development activities.  Take Action serves as an online portfolio.

The areas under the Take Action section are -

• My Education
• My Professional Development

Career and Education Planning Results

Career and Education Planning Results is a summary of your assessment results and saved preferences.

 

Recommended Tools and Websites

Recommended Tools and Websites include -

•  Extensive online step-by-step tutorial loaded with downloads and websites
• Job Boards and Internship Opportunities
• Links to Resources - including

Read more about the Explore Careers and College Majors System...

Fresh Look at Most Popular Career Tests!

Features of Most Popular Holland Code Career Tests

 
Touch on Thinglink interactive graphic!

Are you looking for resources?  Here are links to our favorite resources:
Best Buy, Immediate Access
Format: On-Line
Reading Level: Youth/ Adult
Subject Area: Holland Codes, Interests, Occupations
Databases: Occupations and Colleges/ Universities

New!!!! Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Format: On-Line
Reading Level: Youth/ Adult
Subject Area: 16 MBTI types
Databases: Occupations and Colleges/ Universities

RIASEC Inventory
Format: Printed/On-Line
Reading Level: Youth/ Adult
Subject Area: Holland Codes, Interests,Abilities/Skills, Values
Databases: Occupations and Colleges/ Universities

Self Directed Search (Form R, Form E, Form Career Explorer)
Format:  Printed/On-Line
Reading Level: Youth/ Adult/ Children
Subject Area: Holland Codes, Interests, Occupations

Strong Interest Inventory®
Format: On-Line
Reading Level: Youth/ Adult
Subject Area: Holland Codes, Interests, Occupations

3 Questions You're Not Asking That Will Guide Your Career Choice.

Brad Minton, MS, LPC, NCC
Career and Academic Counselor, Instructor, Speaker
Reproduced with permission from author
Minton, B. (2016, September 9).3 Questions You're Not Asking That Will Guide Your Career Choice. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com

Working with teenagers and young adults everyday who are coming to college is extremely rewarding, and educational to say the least. Being a career counselor, I have the task of helping students discover their education and career path. The one thing that I have come to discover in the process of helping them is their ideas about career are usually fairly vague.

That in and of itself is not the issue.  Most experts agree that as many as half of all college freshman have not solidified their major and/or career choice, and 75% will end up changing their path as they work towards their degree. Uncertainty is a completely understandable and expected aspect of being a new college student.

However, over time, eventually students will start attempting to gain more clarity on their vision for the future and it is here where the problems arise. Generally the first mistake they make is simply choosing a major or career path too hastily, rather than doing the necessary self-exploration. They feel compelled to simply "choose one", and unfortunately, it is this rush to decision that leads so many to change their majors two and three times before graduation. They simply didn't understand what they were getting into.

If they are in fact, taking some valuable time to process their decisions, they still can falter and get off track. How? By simply asking themselves the wrong questions.

Because we tend to associate our work and our careers with time spent (roughly a third of our adult life), one of the first questions students tend to ask is "Will I like what I'm doing?", or "Will I have an interest in it?". While interest is absolutely a necessary ingredient to career satisfaction, the question that needs to be asked is "Will this career give me fulfillment?". You can have interest in a lot of things but they may not fulfill you in a career unless you find the modality which allows you to combine both your interests and your values. Values are the key ingredient which most closely leads to fulfillment because they speak to your soul. They are characteristics of you that cannot be easily negotiated. Interests and values can conflict. If I have a value for autonomy and an interest in computers, I could end up feeling restricted because it may not give me the independence I need depending on the type of work and setting. So again, the deeper question is not what is just going to interest me, but what is going to fulfill me.

A second question students ask themselves often is "What do I want to do?". The reason this question is often not going to provide as much substance to their career choices is that is focuses more on activities rather than purpose. You can give anyone tasks to complete and they will do it......for a period of time. Eventually, the question will arise of why does it matter? Knowing what to do, works in the short term, but knowing why will ultimately make it last, because the why determines the level of investment by giving the activities a purpose. The key question that students must get to is "Why do I want to do...?"

The third question that tends to come up a lot is "What do I want to get?". Students are focused in on the perks of working: salary, vacations, retirement, advancement, independence, etc. The main reason why this is of less importance is simply because all of those things will change with time and location. How much money you think you should be earning will change as you advance. Technology will ultimately change how you work. Your level of advancement will change. You're colleagues will change. Everything in the labor market is moving at a tremendous speed and constantly evolving, thus whatever monetary gain you get from it, is subject to the same. The deeper question you have to ask is not what I want to get, but "What do I want to give?".

By asking yourself this vital question it ties into your fulfillment AND purpose on the deepest level of all. Giving is the ultimate sacrifice, and when we decide to give, we make the resolution that it is for a higher purpose than ourselves. What you choose to give the world is your way of making your unique mark which builds you up, plus it will provide you with more satisfaction than anything you could get, because you've fully committed to the purpose that fulfills you.

Additional note:  We hope that you enjoyed Brad Minton's article.  Get more information about career exploration tools!

Make Different Career Choices in 2018

Are you looking for solutions to answer the question "How do I make different career choices"?

Use our three career discovery steps to make right career choices.

Step One: Get a Clear Career Goal

The first step in making career choices is setting a career goal.

In order to set a career goal, you have to take inventory of yourself to determine what you can offer an employer.

You need to –

• Build awareness, knowledge and understanding of our strengths, interests, abilities, and skills
• List your ambitions, values, education, and experiences
• Determine your job preferences –job duties, salary, geographic location, and work conditions

Step Two: Explore Career Options

 In order to make a career choice, you will need to career exploration resources to gather the following occupational information –

• Labor market
• Work industries
• Companies, organizations, or agencies
• Specific careers

Use online career exploration resources to identify potential careers.

 Step Three: Overcome Career Roadblocks

When you are trying to reach your goal, there may be obstacles.  You solve career problems by completing the following steps –

• Identify educational and career planning obstacles
• Create solutions or courses of action
• Set achievable goals
• Resolve conflicts
• Commit to reach our goals

Problem solving should take into consideration personal interests, skills, values, and financial resources. Big problems are broken down into smaller, more manageable steps. Achievable goals result in the production of new competencies, attitudes, and solutions.

As an individual, you:

• Set, formulate, prioritize, and rank goals
• Clearly state our vocational interests, abilities, and values
• Derive plans or strategies to implement the solutions
• Make a commitment to complete the plans
• Understand decision-making processes
• Evaluate the primary choice
• Consider a secondary occupational choice, if necessary

Decision-making processes include:

• Develop a career plan
• Identify potential occupations
• Selecting appropriate educational programs
• Figuring the costs of educational training
• Considering the impact of career decisions.

Step Four: Execution
You execute your career plans when you use different strategies –

• Reality testing
• Social Media
• Job Search Strategies – Resume Writing and Interview Preparation

Reality Testing
While implementing and, you translate vocational interests, abilities, and skills into job opportunities. You do reality testing by implementing the following strategies –

• Informational interviewing
• Networking
• Job shadowing
• Internships
• Part-time employment
• Full-time employment
• Volunteer work

Social Media and Networking Tools
 Networking can help you validate your career choices.  You can use a variety of social media tools to learn and connect with professional associations and potential employers. Major networking social media tools are –

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Linkedin
• Facebook

Ready to begin planning for the New Year...  Need help deciding?  Contact us at explorecareers@gmail.com

10 Top Tips for Selecting the Right Career Test & Career!

Discover who you really are and understand your likes, dislikes, and interests.   
Match your likes, interests, skills, and personality styles to careers. 
 
Use the 10 Top Tips Steps to pinpoint your interests, abilities, skills, talents, and values. 
 

There are three steps in the 10 Top Tips Process -

• Awareness, Knowledge, and Assessment
• Educational and Occupational Exploration
• Career and College Major Planning

Watch a video about the 10 Top Tip.

Here are some of the topics from 10 Top Tips Booklet –

1. Follow The Road Map To Career Planning
2. Recognize Your Interests, Abilities, Talents and Values.
3. Learn Your Holland Personality Types and Codes.
4. Acquire Career Clusters Information.
5. Explore Careers.
6. Identify Potential College Majors.
7. Get The Quick Career Test Facts!
8. Use Career Test Rating Chart.
9. Get Detailed Information about career tests.
10. Put All of the Facts Together. Use Career Test Checklist.

Get a sample of the 10 Top Tips Booklet!

Convergence of Career Development and Social Media

Social media tools are mobile and web technologies, e.g. Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. Media technology promotes social networking, using already existing contacts to meet new people as potential social or business links. According to Michael Wu, Ph.D., two major types of media tools: Social Networks Online Communities Media Technology helps us - Create collaborative environments Promote critical thinking,  innovation, and creativity Provide immediate feedback Engage and connect with students Provide 24/7 access to resources Build Personal Learning Networks Review the examples, highlights, descriptions, illustrations, and contact information for these applications - Resource One: Blogs - Blogger and Wordpress Resource Two: Facebook Resource Three: Linkedin Resource Four: Pinterest Resource Five: Twitter Resource Six: Evernote - note taking and archiving software Resource Seven: Delicious Resource Eight: Issuu - digital publishing platform Resource Nine: Prezi - cloud-based presentation software Resource Ten: Scribd - web and mobile device online library Resource Eleven: Slideshare - document, PDF, video and webinar Resource Twelve: Infographics - highly visual presentation tool Resource Thirteen: Wordle - word cloud generator software Resource Fourteen: Powerpoint Resource Fifteen:  Powtoon Resource Sixteen: Hootsuite Need assistance creating social media resources... follow us on TweetFutureGoals.