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This article was downloaded by: [Fondren Library, Rice University ]On: 11 November 2014, At: 15:49Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
Journal of Business & FinanceLibrarianshipPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wbfl20
Career Information and SalarySurveysMatthew J. Wayman aa Penn State Abington , USAPublished online: 02 Oct 2008.
To cite this article: Matthew J. Wayman (2003) Career Information and SalarySurveys, Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 8:2, 71-79, DOI: 10.1300/J109v08n02_08
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J109v08n02_08
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Career Information and Salary Surveys
Matthew J. Wayman
SUMMARY. The “Career Information and Salary Surveys” chapter pro-vides an overview of important resources for locating career and salaryinformation. Also included are comprehensive career Web sites. [Articlecopies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
KEYWORDS. Careers, salaries, Web sites
INTRODUCTION
There are many Web sites that provide information on careers andsalaries. As with any popular topic, both good and bad sites exist. Myintent, of course, is to filter out the “bad” and retain only the “good.”Hopefully, I have made the lives of those seeking high-quality ca-reer/salary Web sites a little easier.
This article is divided into four separate sections. The first listsmetasites, or sites that simply provide links to other sites, but do not neces-sarily provide a great amount of career-oriented information themselves.The second section lists sites that contain information on both careers and
Matthew J. Wayman is Reference Librarian, Penn State Abington (E-mail: [email protected]).
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Career Information and Salary Surveys.” Wayman, Matthew J.Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship (The Haworth InformationPress, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 8, No. 2, 2002, pp. 71-79; and: The Core Business Web: AGuide to Key Information Resources (ed: Gary W. White) The Haworth Information Press, an imprint of TheHaworth Press, Inc., 2003, pp. 71-79. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from TheHaworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address:[email protected]].
http://www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=J109 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
10.1300/J109v08n02_08 71
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salaries. The third and fourth sections list sites that provide only career in-formation and only salary surveys, respectively.
Some sites provide general information on careers and/or salaries ina large number of fields of employment, and still many others focus onone specific field (or a very small number of focused and related fields).Some sites contain information that is not specific to one geographic re-gion of the United States, and many others are location-specific. Thisarticle focuses on only those sites that both contain information onmany fields and are not location-specific. There is one exception tothese rules: Web sites containing information on military careers havebeen included, and are listed in the appropriate section depending onwhether they include information about military careers, salaries, orboth. Military careers are often not included in other career and/or sal-ary Web sites. Further, only sites that have information on careers in allbranches of the military are listed here; sites providing information oncareers in only some branches have not been included.
A few sites I have included are those of college/university career cen-ters and placement offices. These sites can prove extremely useful, es-pecially for recent graduates or those planning to graduate soon, and areoften the most creative and innovative. Although each college or uni-versity, by design, tends to help its own students most, much of the in-formation provided should prove useful to any job seeker. Informationtypically provided includes average starting salaries, often listing theminimum, maximum, and average, and often divided by major. Someexcellent examples are available from the placement offices at TexasA&M University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Many Web sites containing information on careers and salaries pro-vide a very small amount of information up front, then require purchaseor the payment of subscription or membership fees for more detailed in-formation. These sites, for the most part, have not been included in thisarticle. A small number of sites listed do contain some documents thatmay be purchased, but every site present should have a decent amountof information available free.
A recurring problem with metasites is that they tend to contain manydead links. I have made an attempt to limit the inclusion of metasites toonly those that have very few dead links. It seems that it is nearly impos-sible to find any metasites with no dead links whatsoever.
Anyone interested in finding career-specific Web sites may findthem listed in some of the metasites included below. Those searchingfor location-specific information should try looking at the Web sites oflocal newspapers, and will often find useful information in the Web
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sites of local (and sometimes state) government agencies that deal withlabor and employment.
METASITES
Career Adviser(http://www.careeradvisor.com)
Either enter an occupation in the search box or select the appropriatefield from the bottom of the page. Resulting pages will provide links toa variety of Web sites for associations and organizations associatedwith that profession which provide relevant information. Look specifi-cally at sites listed under the “Perspective” section, with the subset of“Job Outlook and Salaries.”
Exploring Occupations, Student Counsellingand Career Centre, University of Manitoba(http://www.umanitoba.ca/counselling/careers.html)
This site provides a long list of occupations. Clicking on any occupa-tion brings up a page with links to relevant Web sites providing furtherinformation. Sites listed for each occupation generally include those ofprofessional organizations and other career-based sites with entries foreach occupation.
CAREERS AND SALARIES
America’s Career InfoNet(http://www.acinet.org)
There are a number of valuable resources available on this Web site. Theuser can search for jobs by employability and required level of educationfrom the home page, select a job family and then an individual occupationand state from the “Wages & Trends” tab, find further resources from the“Career Exploration” link, or go directly to the “Resource Library.” Aunique feature is the presence of brief, narrated, one-minute, twenty-sec-ond videos displaying each occupation in practice (RealPlayer required).
Armed Forces Careers.com(http://www.armedforcescareers.com)
A great source for information on military careers, click on either“Enlisted Careers Options” or “Officer Careers Options” for lists of ca-
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reer tracks. Clicking on any career will provide a table with brief de-scriptions of those careers and information on which branches employpeople in those fields. The “Plan Your Military Career Today!” linkalso provides relevant information, such as benefits, pay, and rank in-signias (necessary in order to understand the pay chart).
Bureau of Labor Statistics(http://www.bls.gov)
The two portions of this site that are most relevant to the topic at handare “Career Guides” and “How Much People Earn.” The former con-tains the current, online editions of the Occupational Outlook Hand-book and Career Guide to Industries. Both are searchable by career orindustry, and are appropriately cross-referenced. The “How Much Peo-ple Earn” section provides a wide variety of data through severalsub-sections, including salary by occupation and by geographic area,hourly wage earnings, and employee benefits, to name a few. The “Oc-cupational Employment Statistics” home page provides useful national,state, and metropolitan area wage information by occupation (availableat http://www.bls.gov/oes/).
Career Chase(http://www.careerchase.net)
The most relevant section is the “Career Center.” Under “Interviews”is a list of fields; clicking on a field generates a list of available “Infor-mational Interviews.” Each interview provides a profile of that profes-sion, and has answers to several questions, such as why that personentered the profession, what the application requirements were, whathis or her daily tasks are, what the salary range is, etc. Each interviewalso lists the age and gender of the interviewee.
CareerJournal.com(http://www.careerjournal.com)
From the Wall Street Journal, this site provides career-related articlesand information. Click on the “Salary & Hiring Info” tab and select acareer to view relevant articles and salary tables, or select one of theother options from that tab’s drop-down box. The salary calculator is agreat feature which shows the relative cost of living between two citiesselected by the user. Most other information on this site provides ca-
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reer-related advice, such as tips for interviewing and “Career Killers” towatch out for in planning a strategy.
CareerPlanit: Resource Mining(http://www.careerplanit.com/resource/profile.asp)
Either select a field of study under “To search by major . . . ” or selecta specific job under “To search by job title . . . ” Searching by major pro-vides a list of potential jobs, linked to any available profiles, for peoplepursuing study in that subject. Similarly, selecting a career provides alist of majors that people working in that career are likely to have stud-ied. One interesting feature in each profile is the “Types of employers”section, which lists types of companies and business sectors likely toemploy people in that profession.
College Grad. Job Hunter(http://www.collegegrad.com)
“Career Info” can be selected from the navigation menu on the leftside of the page. Users may do a keyword search, browse by category,or view all listings. Each entry provides a rather lengthy description ofthat occupation, along with sections on working conditions, chances foremployment, training and/or qualifications required, and earnings, toname a few. The included salary calculator links to that on Salary.com.
CollegeBoard.com: Career Browser(http://www.collegeboard.com/apps/careers/index)
After selecting one of the available occupation groups, a list of spe-cific careers will be available. Select a career, and a lengthy descriptionwill appear. Each section of every job description is thorough, with de-tailed information on required education, earnings, and job outlook. Re-lated occupations are appropriately cross-referenced. Worthy of noteare the “Sources of Additional Information” sections found at the end ofeach profile.
JobProfiles.org(http://www.jobprofiles.org)
Select a job category on the left side of the page, then select a specificcareer from the resulting list. The amount of information about the job
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provided in a profile depends upon the individual contributor, but allprofiles have some standard elements. Those elements include type ofcollege degree(s) required, size of organization, salary, and job descrip-tion. Other interesting inclusions are the stresses and rewards of eachlisted profession. Note that less than 1% of profiles are unsolicited, andonly favorable profiles are posted.
JobStar(http://jobstar.org)
The two sections most relevant are “Career Guides” and “SalaryInfo.” Each section simply provides links to other Web sites providinginformation on each topic. Many of the resources are very general, andsome are included in this bibliography, but others are extremely loca-tion- or career-specific.
The Princeton Review: Career Assessment(http://www.review.com/career/index.cfm)
The “Investigate Careers” section allows the user to select a career,then see a page-long profile of that career. Other sections of particularinterest are “Tools,” which provides a “Career Assessment Quiz” andinformation about college majors and what career options are availablefor graduates with those degrees, and “Advice,” which has a “Myth vs.Reality” test for a number of careers and “Professional Profiles” of sev-eral figures (both current and historical) with interesting careers.
Quintessential Careers(http://www.quintcareers.com)
The most useful portion of this site is the “Career Resources Toolkit,”available from the “Open Our Career Toolkit” link. Some items con-tained within are career- and job-related articles, quizzes, and assessmenttools. It’s interesting to note that articles are divided into three differentsections–for teens, for college/graduate students, and for experienced jobseekers and career changers.
SalaryExpert.com(http://www.salaryexpert.com)
From the home page, select a career and geographic location (U.S. orCanada), then click on “Get Free Report.” The resulting page will dis-play salary information for the selected career in that location, plus a
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brief description of what someone in that profession would normallydo. Links to position descriptions for related jobs are provided, butviewing them often requires the input of personal information and/orthe payment of a fee.
WetFeet.com: Career Profiles(http://www.wetfeet.com/asp/careerlist.asp)
Select a career from the list of profiles. Each profile provides the stan-dard information for that career, such as general description, require-ments, job outlook, and compensation. To the right of each profile is a listof “Recommended Resources,” which has hyperlinked Web sites of or-ganizations and associations that can provide further information.
CAREERS ONLY
The Career Key(http://www.careerkey.org/english)
The most relevant section is “You,” available from the top right side ofthe page. After entering some personal information, the site provides alist of options. If the user starts with “take the Career Key measure,” thesite will help the user to determine his/her personality type and personalinterests, then provide advice on potential careers and suggest relevantmajors in college. All job profiles provided link to the online version ofthe Occupational Outlook Handbook, available through the Bureau ofLabor Statistics Web site, listed elsewhere in this bibliography.
CareerZone(http://www.nycareerzone.org/)
Select one of six different fields, then select a specific career. Note thatlists of careers are very long, and there are several sorting options. Eachcareer has a rather lengthy entry including a description, required skills,abilities, knowledge, and education, and a job outlook. The “SimilarJobs” section cross-references to other available entries. Many jobs listedalso have a RealPlayer video of someone at work in that profession.
Military Career Guide Online(http://www.militarycareers.com)
There are many ways to get started from this site’s home page. Theuser can select “Intro to the Armed Forces,” “Search the Guide,” “How
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to Get Started,” or scroll down in the page to select more information on“enlisted occupations” or “officer occupations.” Each occupation con-tains a summary, lists of “Civilian Counterparts,” “Helpful Attributes”for those interested in that occupation, “Physical Demands,” and “Spe-cial Requirements,” to name just some of the information provided.Icons at the top of each page denote which branches of the ArmedForces employ people in those occupations.
Monster.com: Career Center(http://content.monster.com)
Under “Resources” in the right-hand navigation bar are links to sec-tions for “Career Changers” and “Salary Center.” “Career Changers”contains a variety of resources providing information on non-profit ca-reers and making the transition from military to civilian life, and the“Job Q&As” section provides interviews with people holding a numberof different jobs. The “Salary Center” simply links to other Web sites.
SALARIES ONLY
BestJobsUSA.com(http://www.bestjobsusa.com)
For salary information, click on the “Salary Survey 2001 Exclusive”link in the navigation bar on the right. There is a brief article about sala-ries and a list of professions. Each profession has a separate PDF docu-ment (requiring Adobe Acrobat Reader) which lists average salaries foreach level within that profession. Under “Best Jobs University,” there isfurther salary information from the “Starting salary ranges for collegegrads” link, which lists average salary by major. The rest of the Web sitedeals mostly with resume writing and has databases for job fairs and jobpostings.
Defense Finance and Accounting Service: Military Pay(http://www.dfas.mil/money/milpay)
This site provides current and past pay information on military ca-reers and other financial and benefits information for military person-nel. Note that in order to understand the salary tables, the user mustknow the E-, W-, and O-systems that designate military ranks (see the
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Armed Forces Careers site at http://www.armedforcescareers.com forexcellent tables displaying ranks and insignias). Users interested in mil-itary careers should also be sure to look at the Basic Allowance for Sub-sistence (BAS) and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), which oftensupplement military incomes.
Economic Research Institute: Career Planning(http://www.erieri.com/freedata/career_planning/index.cfm)
ERI provides salary information with a twist. Select a career, andERI provides you with a free report indicating estimated annual salaryfor the year 2015. Further information is available to paid subscribers orin the form of actual survey results which may be purchased.
Salary.com(http://www.salary.com)
The most useful resource on this site is the “Salary Wizard,” whichmany other career and salary sites link to or incorporate in their ownpages. It allows the user to select a career and geographic location, thendetermine what the average salaries and salary ranges are for the vari-ous ranks within that profession. “Salary News,” “Salary Advice,” and“Salary Talk” are also useful salary resources on this site, but the “Ca-reer Resources” section is actually a job posting board, and does notcontain any information about working in various careers.
WageWeb(http://www.wageweb.com)
WageWeb simply provides national average salary data for a numberof professions (170) within eight different business fields. Also listedare the average minimum and average maximum, average bonus, andthe numbers of companies responding with the number of employees ineach position. More information on geography and industry is availableto subscribing members.
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