Our Featured Database

This month our featured database is Ferguson's Career Guidance Center. A complete research resource for your career and job seeking needs, with background information on over 93 industries and 3,000 jobs. Plus information on the steps to take to get the job you want. Ferguson's Career Guidance Center is available for use at the library, or for Patchogue-Medford cardholders, from home, with their library card barcode.

Access the Ferguson's Career Guidance Center directly or see listings of all of our databases.

Don't forget to try our previous featured databases:
Antiques and collectibles lovers try --P4A Antiques Reference Database	Investors try -- Morningstar.com Library Edition
Find a good book -- Novelist	Need a legal form -- Thomson/Gale Legal Forms

What's In It?

Ferguson's Career Guidance Center contains the following features:

• Detailed, up-to-date profiles of more than 3,000 of today's most popular jobs in 93 industries.
• Searchable archive, back to 2001, of articles from Career Opportunities News, a bi-monthly newsletter with timely articles on the job market and outlook for various careers.
• Four Steps to a New Job section with guidance on everything from choosing a career to finding and applying for a job to learning about employment benefits and laws. You will find tips on writing resumes and cover letters and preparing for job interviews in this section.
• Listings of Industry Resources which contain industry specific contact information, including directories of trade associations and unions, glossaries, internship opportunities, periodicals and journals, and Internet resources. Content varies by industry.
• Academic Programs lists colleges with cooperative education programs. Non-Academic Programs lists career opportunities for those without a four year degree.
• Career Index Search lets you search career articles by U.S. government career classification indexes.
• Employability Skills is a list of basic skills every job seeker should have. The skills that companies are sure to be looking for.
• Web Resources has links to outside websites with additional information on exploring careers, writing resumes and cover letters, and preparing for job interviews. Also remember that additional web links are included in most of the individual industry and job profiles.

Why Would I Want to Use It?

Ferguson's Career Guidance Center is the most comprehensive and useful career research database available. Whether you are looking for your first job or planning a mid-life career change, you can find the information you need in this database. You can research the job description, education required, salary range, and employment outlook for over 3,000 jobs. Use the career planning advice to help you organize the most effective job search possible and get suggestions on writing an effective resume. Use the Industry Resources to start developing contacts and sources of information to get a head start on the competition.

How to Use the Database

Ferguson's Career Guidance Center is organized by industry

You can either browse through the step-by-step menus to find what you want or do a quick search.

To Use the Search Careers feature:

Look in the upper left corner of the screen and you will see the Search Careers box. You can do a basic word search here or click on Advanced Search to see more search fields. A basic word search could include terms such as accountant, nurse, producer, or scientist. This basic search will bring up all the career profiles that contain that term.

Clicking on Advanced Search allows you to do a more precise search, so that you can find an exact phrase or a word that appears anywhere in a career article or profile. You can also limit your search to a particular industry, salary range, and/or educational requirement, such as masters degree. Be careful not to include too many words and limits in an advanced search or you may get too few or no results.

To Read an Overview of a Specific Industry:

• Click on Industry Overviews. These contain the background and history of each industry, the structure of the industry, i.e. where jobs are likely to be located in academia, government, and/or private industry, the future outlook for the industry, and some contact sources for more information.
• Choose the specific industry you are interested in and read its profile.
• Don't forget to check the "Related Industries" section of each profile to see which industries may also have careers you could pursue.

To Find a Specific Job:

• Click on "Career Descriptions"
• Choose the specific industry you are interested in. If you are not sure of the industry, remember that you can always search for the job you want by word.
• Choose the specific job from the list to read its profile.
• Pay attention to the "Related Careers" box to find similar jobs you may not have thought of.

See the other Facts on File databases the library subscribes to by clicking on the Available Databases link in the top right corner of the Ferguson's Career Guidance Center screen.

This page was last updated on October 16, 2006.