Getting out of prison or jail and need help deciding what to do work wise?
We highly recommend checking out My Next Move as a first step in the process. This free easy-to-use tool will allow you to explore more than 900 occupations to see which of them might be right for you.
And it includes information about the knowledge, skills and abilities required for these jobs; how much they pay, potential apprenticeships and job openings, among other things. There’s just about everything you might need to know to decide whether you might want to explore any of them further.
Although it was specially designed for students, young people and those new to the workforce, it could be very useful to anyone, including those in reentry who are also exploring a new possibly uncharted life. The site is part of O*NET, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
Here’s how it works:
Go to the My Next Move website and try out the three options.
Tool No. 1. A tool to search careers with key words. These key words can be either the name of a type of worker or something you like to do. Take for example, carpenter, build houses.
Those key words bring up about 20 different types of jobs, including construction carpenters, construction laborers, drywall and ceiling tile installers, and roofers.
Click on one of those jobs, and you’ll find a vast amount of information, including what they do, the knowledge and skills required and even the type of personality that makes a person good at this type of work. It also includes education required, average salary paid and link where you can search for jobs by state and find out how to apply for them. (Some can be applied for online and others require showing up in person.)
Tool No. 2. A tool to browse careers by industry. This is just another way to find the same information about jobs as with Tool No. 1, but you will get a broader sense of what types of jobs are available in a particular industry. For example, using construction as an example brings up more than 40 types of construction jobs and another nearly 40 jobs that may work in construction.
Tool No. 3. This tool is an interest profiler, or “tell us what you like to do,” and by answering a set of 60 questions can help you pinpoint what type of work might be appropriate for you. When answering the questions, you’re not supposed to think about whether you have the education to do a particular job or how much money you might make. Just whether you would like to do the things it asks. After you complete the questionnaire you will discover your interests and what type of work might require these interests.
Once you determine what type of job you might be interested in, the site also includes links to sections on jobs that are:
- likely to have apprenticeship programs.
- ranked by the amount of preparation and training involved,
- expected to grow rapidly, have large numbers of openings or are new opportunities
- in the green economy
Spending time on the My Next Move website will help you gain insight into new possibilities that you may have not considered. My Next Move, along with some of the resources on the Jails to Jobs website, will give you a head start as you begin to search for employment. We hope they will help you in your efforts.
