150 Best Jobs for Your Skills

150 Best Jobs for Your Skills, by Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin 2008. Indianapolis, IN: JIST Works 466 pages, $16.95, Softcover

Intended Audience(s): A, B, E, F, H, I, K

Major Headings from the Table of Contents:

Introduction; Part I: Overview of Skills and Careers; Part II: What Are Your Top Skills? Take an Assessment; Part III: The Best Job Lists: Jobs for Each of the 10 Skills; Part IV: Descriptions of the Best Jobs for Your Skills; Appendix A: Resources for Further Exploration; Appendix B: The GOE Interest Areas and Work Groups; Index

How Is the Book Most Useful for Its Intended Audience?

This is an excellent resource for individuals and career practitioners seeking a one-stop collection of jobs that are a sound fit for job-related skills. The book is also a great collection of concise, interesting, and useful information on more than 250 careers. Additionally, it is a valuable compilation of various labor statistics.

The Top Five Things You Learned from Reading this Book:

Detailed information on hundreds of jobs

Useful information about employment outlooks and projections

Specific careers for self-employed candidates

The educational requirements for each job

Personality type for each job

With the recognition that all employers seek candidates with appropriate skills, the authors have researched information from the U.S. Department of Labor on the skill requirements of 265 jobs to help readers identify the jobs that best match their transferable skills. Then, details of the jobs are presented so that the job seekers can evaluate not only the best fit, but, also, the most desirable jobs.

The science behind the collection of labor information is interestingly presented in the Introduction, but it is not necessary in order to use this resource. That information was compiled from the O-NET, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Classification of Instructional Programs from the U.S. Department of Education. The data was analyzed, sorted, eliminated (when appropriate), and matched to, in actuality, 265 jobs. The data, including specifics about earnings, projected growth, and number of openings, is culled from the most reliable and up-to-date information available. However, the authors readily admit that these figures are quite fluid and changeable.

Part I, the Overview of Skills and Careers, defines the meaning of skills, how people develop them, and how they relate to career choice. Part II is a self-assessment exercise that concentrates on 10 major skills. The 45minute assessment is designed to help the reader find his/her best skills.

Part III contains 120 pages with 99 lists: Best Jobs for Each Skill: Jobs with the Highest Pay, Fastest Growth, and Most Openings; Best Job Lists by Work Arrangement; Best Job Lists Based on Levels of Education, Training, and Experience; Best Job Lists Based on Interests; and Bonus Lists About Skills.

Part IV is more than 250 pages of an alphabetical listing of each of the jobs with detailed job descriptions, educational requirements, earnings, growth percent, annual job openings, percent self-employed and parttime, skills required, GOE interest areas, personality type, education, and related knowledge.

My two favorite sections (as well as the most used by clients who sampled the book) are the actual job descriptions and the job lists. Each of the job lists contains 50 jobs that require the highest level of each skill. If your top skill is communication, you can look at the jobs with the best fit, ranked from high to low.

The skills areas include communication skills, computer programming skills, equipment use/maintenance skills, equipment/technology analysis skills, management skills, mathematics skills, quality control skills, science skills, social skills, and thought-processing skills. There are also bonus lists of industries that match the skills areas.

Candidates can look up the best-paying jobs for each skill area, fastestgrowing jobs, jobs with the most openings, jobs with a high percentage of part-time workers, and jobs with a high percentage of self-employed workers. The lists include jobs requiring short-, moderate-, or long-term on-the-job training, related work experience, vocational training, and all educational levels. Finally, there are the best jobs sorted by 16 interest areas, including agriculture, construction, arts, business, education, finance, insurance, government, health, hospitality, information technology, law, sales, manufacturing, science, transportation, and human service.

This book is a valuable resource for job seekers, career changers, and entry-level candidates at all work and educational levels. Readers can find out about careers involving manual labor or extremely sophisticated technology. If readers want to be self-employed, use equipment, or pursue an advanced degree, they will find job lists that suit their needs.

I would recommend this book for the job seeker who wants to conduct an independent exploration of career options, as well as career professionals who want a valuable addition to their career library for their own and their clients' use.

One precaution: this is not an appropriate resource for the individual who is completely lost and has no clue as to what career to pursue. That person may better benefit from a more extensive career exploration course that includes the assistance of a career coach or counselor. However, if your need is for relevant and useful information, this is a wonderful guide that contains interesting and helpful information tied to job skills.

Reviewed by Freddie Cheek

[Author Affiliation]

Freddie Cheek, Cheek & Associates, LLC, 406 Maynard Drive, Amherst, NY 14226, 716-835-6945, fscheek@cheekandassociates.com