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Question # 20327 :
I currently work in the customer service industry but I don't enjoy working with the general public. I'm very interested in the environment and environmental protection, and all of the career quizes I've taken have pointed me in the sciences direction. I'm unsure of what sort of education I'll need and whether or not I'll even be able to find a job once I've completed my education. I'm 27 years old, I already have student loans, and I have a family to support so I have to be very careful on what direction to take. Any advice would be helpful.

Answer:

( Last Updated: August 29, 2009 )
Hello,
When you say career quizzes, I?m curious as to whether you are taking validated instruments administered by qualified career counselors, or if you are speaking of the sort of quizzes that you can find online or in paper form that are interesting, but not proven. I would suggest that if you have not already done so, that you see a local career counselor who can help you narrow down the possibilities to a smaller number that you are interested in. You may find such professionals (which may possibly charge a fee for their services) in your school (you may want to verify if you are still eligible to receive career counselling services through your university), through personal references, the Yellow Pages Directory of your area under Employment or Career Counselling or the online directory of the Canadian Counselling Association.

Now, there is a Web tool that you should know about and in which you can do your own research and find an answer to your question about whether there will be demand for a specific occupation once you graduate. It is the following:

Labour Market Canada: Employment Prospects

This website brings together information from local and regional sources from all over Canada on a variety of subjects: most common occupations in the region, their skills requirements, their employment prospects, regional industrial activities, wages and salaries; all specific to as small a region of Canada as possible. What it will allow us to do is to find your region and get a list of occupations with good employment prospects in it. Then, you can look hard at that list and discover whether or not, in your region, it is possible to find both a job that fits your expectations to work in a helping capacity and that present good employment potential once you are trained. Of course, keep in mind that no one knows the future ! NO ONE ! If you find someone who says differently, avoid that person ! Employment prospects are the best tool we have to help us understand what future demand for a job might be. But they are no predictions or guarantees; they are simply educated opinions arrived at through a lengthy mathematical method. Sometimes, unpredictable stuff happens and changes what was expected. But you can only make the most informed decision possible.

Between seeing a career counselor for help in choosing a career and using labour market information to ensure there is a demand for that career, perhaps you can arrive at a decision.

I hope this answers your question,
The Online Counsellor