Summary

	Gather general information about your top 3 Job Groups (Narrowing)
	Try to learn about as many jobs as you can within each Job Group (Expanding)
	Search outside of your most highly-ranked Job Groups

Trying to choose a career from the thousands of possible options can be overwhelming. But the JVIS can help. Using the "Similarity to Job Groups" and "Similarity to College Students " sections of the JVIS will help you focus your search.

Narrowing
The focused job search we are suggesting should help direct you toward the career areas you'll find most satisfying. Use of this strategy will help you avoid spending time gathering information about jobs that you would probably dislike.

Look at the Job Groups pages in the JVIS Report. Consider the entire list of Job Groups to get an idea of how similar, dissimilar, or neutral your interests are compared to each. You should narrow your search to those Job Groups that most closely match your interests. But how do you identify which Job Groups to explore?

If there is only a small difference between your third highest Job Group and your fourth (e.g., score for third Job Group = 0.48, score for fourth Job Group = 0.47), include your fourth Job Group in the expanded search mentioned above.

There are no rules limiting how many Job Groups you can explore or how many specific jobs you can investigate within each one. JVIS.COM highlights the top three most similar Job Groups because it is important to consider a number of different career options - not only those related to your most highly ranked Job Group. It's useful to have detailed information on several jobs within many Job Groups. However, the more Job Groups and the more jobs you investigate the more time your career exploration will take. How much time do you want to spend selecting your career? It's your call, and your career.

Expanding
Once you've identified the Job Groups you would like to explore, take a very close look within each group of related jobs. Try to learn about as many jobs as you can within each Job Group. This way you'll have more career options and a better chance of finding a good match with your own abilities, qualifications, and personal preferences. For example, if you were exploring "Medical Diagnosis and Treatment Occupations", it would be helpful to find out about all kinds of different medical specialties AND look into related careers. For instance, you might want to find out more about the work of Dietitians and Nutritionists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Speech-language Pathologists and Audiologists.

The JVIS Report contains samples of specific job titles, suggested readings, contact information for professional organizations, and activities for each of the top three Job Groups. This will help you expand the number of career possibilities within these Job Groups. However, even these are only samples, so you should be actively looking for other possibilities. The following steps offer some resources you can use for this kind of exploration.

Search for general occupational information in government publications. In the United States: The US Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) will get you started. General job information can be accessed on the internet at: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ In Canada: The National Occupational Classification Code provided by Human Resource Development Canada will be helpful and can be easily accessed on the internet at: http://www23.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/2001/e/generic/welcome.shtml

Take advantage of the JVIS Occupations Guide. This guide provides complete descriptions of all 32 JVIS Job Groups. If you are dealing with a career or guidance counselor, they may already have a copy of the JVIS Occupations Guide. You can also purchase this resource. Contact us for details at inforeq@sigmaassessmentsystems.com