April is Second Chance Month, an annual time to raise awareness about the challenges people face after incarceration and to highlight opportunities to overcome those challenges and barriers.
One huge barrier to employment is the negative impact that a criminal record can have on a person’s job prospects. Although many cities and states have enacted “Ban the Box” or “Fair Chance” hiring policies to limit employer access to criminal background information, research shows that nearly 30% of people who have been incarcerated are unemployed.
Job seekers who have had an arrest or conviction have some options to improve their chance of success in a job search. They can find tips on how to talk to employers about a conviction or they can connect with a local re-entry program to get personalized assistance. Another great option is to look for ways to boost their qualifications.
A certification boost
For some job seekers, earning an occupational certification is a great way to stand out to employers. A certification is a credential that shows someone has specific skills or knowledge; it’s generally earned though specialized study and taking and passing an exam.
Earning a certification can give you a leg up in the job market—it’s a key item that hiring employers look for on resumes. Some employers may even require workers to have certain certifications.
Certifications are usually tied to an occupation or field of work but some are general such as the National Career Readiness Certificate, which can show employers that the person has mastered basic workplace skills.
Find certifications
Whether you’re a justice-impacted job seeker or anyone else looking for a way to boost your resume, you can learn more at CareerOneStop’s Certification Finder. You can get started by entering a keyword for the type of work you want to do.
You’ll find a list of certifications related to the keyword you entered. From there, you can use the filters to narrow your search. In your results, pay special attention to certifications marked with a chili-pepper icon: those certifications are considered “in demand” because they are frequently mentioned by employers in job postings.
Want to learn more?
Visit the Certification Finder Help section to find information and tips about searching for certifications.
Looking for a better way to find your next job? Try reaching out to employers directly to uncover potential jobs. Follow these four steps to launch a targeted job search. You’ll find that it’s much easier and more effective than you may expect.
1 Generate a starter list of potential employers
Using the Business Finder, enter your location and the name of your preferred job title, industry, or company. You’ll see a list of companies, listing name, address, number of employees, and distance from your location. Select a company to see phone number, website (where available), year established, key contact person, and their job title.
2 Narrow it down to a manageable list of good prospects
Find employers in your chosen location. Enter a ZIP code in location search to see the distance to companies. Then sort your results by Distance, “Low to High” to see closest companies first. Do you use public transportation? Want to find work near your children’s school or day care? Or just prefer a shorter commute? Finding employment nearby can save time, energy, fuel, and potentially, stress.
Focus on companies of a specific size. Filter your results to show businesses of the size you prefer, by approximate number of employees.
Smaller companies tend to offer jobs with greater variety and may be more inclined to value the experience of older workers. Relationships are emphasized more in smaller organizations since there tends to be greater interdependence than at larger organizations.
Larger companies may offer better benefits, and salary increases or advancement opportunities. They also tend to value the skills, eagerness for training, and flexibility that younger workers may bring.
3 Explore the websites of companies still on your list
Look for current job listings under “careers”, “openings”, “join our team”, or similar.
Read their “about us” section. What is their mission, history, and organizational value set? Does it sound like a place you would thrive?
Review their main content, i.e. key products, services, and major projects. Do these fit your career goals? Look interesting? Does their activity inspire your confidence?
Check out their social media sites and news media references to gather research.
4 Start your outreach
For the companies that pass your standards for good prospects, look for hiring contacts using the Business Finder, company website, or social media. Look for email addresses or phone numbers. Focus on managers or directors in the area you’d like to work. Can you find connections to the company or individual through professional associations, alumni groups you’re a part of, social media groups, other?
Start by sending them a short email to introduce yourself and note any connection you have to them. Ask if they could suggest ideas or next steps for you or know of job openings. You could also ask about company culture, referrals to others in the field, or other questions you have.
Be sure to attach your resume and describe how you will follow up with them. Follow up with an email a few days later. Also, consider volunteering for organizations that interest you, to get an “in”.
It can be helpful to set a goal for a specific number of employers you will reach out to. Keep a calendar, list, or spreadsheet to track the dates you initiate contact so that you can manage your follow up communications effectively.
February is National Career and Technical Education Month and it’s a great time to think about how a technical training program could boost your career.
What is technical training?
Technical training includes classes or programs that help you learn the practical skills and knowledge required for specific jobs or industries. Courses often include hands-on training on industry-standard equipment, combined with classroom instruction. The goal is to prepare you to do work in the real world.
Technical training is available in a wide range of fields and industries including manufacturing, healthcare, IT, and more. You can enroll in a program that leads to a certificate or degree and can be a gateway to finding a job in that field, or you can take single courses to advance your skills or help you get a promotion.
Certificate or degree programs. If you’re looking to get your first job in a technical field, a certificate or degree from a technical program is sometimes required, and even if it’s not required, it will certainly boost your chances of getting hired. Certificate programs—you earn a certificate once you’ve completed a group or required classes—can last anywhere from a few weeks to a couple years. And degree programs generally take between two years (for an Associate’s degree) and four years (for a Bachelor’s degree).
HVAC. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning training programs focus on the knowledge and skills needed to install, maintain, and repair HVAC systems. Many HVAC certificates take about one year to complete, but you can also earn an Associate’s degree in HVAC maintenance technology in about two years.
IT. Information technology programs commonly include specialties such as network administration, cybersecurity, software development, and database management. Many short-term IT certificate programs can be completed in a few months or a year, but you can also earn a Bachelor’s or graduate degree in information technology.
Health care. Technical medical programs can prepare you to get a job in health care such as a medical assistant or nurse. Courses focus on areas including patient care, records management, laboratory procedures, and pharmacology. You can complete a certificate to be a medical assistant in one to two years, while a nursing degree usually requires four or more years to finish.
Manufacturing. The options for manufacturing programs are as wide-ranging as the industry: you can earn a certificate or degree specializing in anything from basic machine operation to advanced programming and quality control, safety protocols, quality management, or engineering. Certificates can be earned in as little as a few months, while advanced engineering degrees can take 6+ years.
Course and classes. Taking individual technical courses can be a great way to develop new skills or advance in your career. You might take a single course on an emerging trend or a new type of equipment used in your field. In IT, for instance, it’s common to take a course on a specific software program, while in nursing you may take a specialized class to help focus your career. People who already work in a manufacturing plant can advance their careers by taking a course on quality control, leadership, safety, or related topics.
How do I find technical training courses or programs?
Start your technical training search with CareerOneStop’s Local Training Finder. It lets you search for programs at local community colleges, private training schools, and public and private colleges and universities in your area.
Begin your search by entering a keyword for the field you’re interested in (HVAC, medical assistant, etc.) and your city, state, or ZIP code. You’ll see a list of programs that includes the name of the school or provider, the typical length of the program, whether it’s offered online, in person, or both, and more details. To find individual classes, click on the name of any program. You’ll go to a detail screen where you can follow a link to the school’s main website. You can call or use the website to find classes.
If you’re not sure what field you’re interested in, but you know you’d like to explore technical training options at a local school, you can select to search by “College or training provider.” You’ll find a list of schools in your local area with links to their websites to learn more.
It’s safe to say everyone who works wants a job they like. Something they feel motivated to do, that pays well and offers meaningful rewards. If finding that sounds like something you want to focus on in 2025, how can you start to figure out the right career for you?
For most people, it takes two major steps to choose a great career path: 1) Understand your own strengths and priorities for a career, and 2) Learn about the career options you could pursue. Let’s explore some essential questions to achieve these steps, and how to find trustworthy answers for them.
Step 1: Understand your strengths and priorities
What are some of your favorite activities? What topics do you enjoy learning about? How do other people describe you? What areas have you developed skills in? What is most important to you in your life, and in how you work? These are the kinds of questions that will help you better identify what will make a job rewarding and meaningful to you.
Career assessments can also help you answer these questions. They will ask questions about your preferences and strengths to identify careers that might fit you the best. CareerOneStop’s three free assessments are a great source:
Interest Assessment explores how much you enjoy different tasks and activities
Skills Matcher helps you identify your strongest skills and knowledge
Work Values Matcher guides you to determine the qualities in a job/workplace that matter most to you
Step 2: Learn about career options you could pursue
Once you have a clear sense of your own strengths and priorities, it’s time to learn about careers. This next set of questions can help guide you to learn essential information about different career options.
What tasks do people do in this job?
What does this career pay?
How much – and what type of – education and training would I need?
Would this career use my interests and skills?
How strong is the future job market for this field?
CareerOneStop’s career information will help you answer this set of questions.
Check out the Occupation Profile to start. You’ll find easy-to-understand information about typical tasks, education, salaries, and more for 900+ different careers. Profiles also feature a career video to see what the job looks like in action.
Changes in the job market can have an impact on your future career. Take a look at the “What’s Hot” Career Reports to find out which careers in your state are highest-paying, fastest-growing, have the most job openings, employ the largest number of people, and which careers have shrinking numbers of workers.
To learn about the day-to-day realities of a career that intrigues you, nothing beats talking with people in the field. Questions such as “How could I get into this field, from where I am now?” or “Would I make a good candidate for this role?” and “How would you recommend I improve my qualifications?” are best answered by informational interviews. Learn about informational interviews, including how to set them up and who to ask.
CareerOneStop also offers the How-to Guide: Find career ideas that walks you through these two steps, including a worksheet to record your findings.
Next month, CareerOneStop’s blog will explore education and training options for your career plan.
It’s almost 2025, and the end of a calendar year is a great time for a career review. Sound complicated? It doesn’t need to be. A career review is simply a chance to reflect on your career aspirations and your progress—and to set yourself up to make career goals for the coming year. Get started by moving through the three topics below.
Topic 1: This year’s accomplishments
Take some time to reflect on the past 12 months. You can get started by thinking about your strengths, and identifying goals they’ve helped you achieve. Your career strengths include a mix of personal assets and workplace achievements. Are you great at getting along with a range of people? Are you uber-organized? Have in-demand technical skills?
With your strengths in mind, take a look at your calendar, notes, or old emails to revisit 2024. Once you’ve refreshed on your past year’s career activities, answer these questions:
What were my biggest accomplishments?
What am I most proud of?
What did I get the most positive result or feedback from?
Topic 2: This year’s challenges
This is a chance to think about how you responded to any challenges you faced in 2024. When thinking about challenges, it’s helpful to identify both external and internal ones. External challenges may have to do with your industry or workplace. Do you work in an inherently challenging industry? Do you have colleagues who notoriously don’t get along? Unrealistic or unengaged leaders? Any of these external factors can impact your career success.
Internal challenges might be related to personal characteristics. We can’t all excel at everything, and everyone has areas of weakness—what are yours? Are there tasks that you find yourself commonly avoiding? Do you have trouble staying organized, or focused? Do you have trouble learning new systems or technologies? Listening to others’ ideas? Make a list and think about how your career progress might be impacted by these characteristics—and what you can do to overcome them.
As you reflect on challenges, remember that you most likely saw more growth as a result of challenges than as a result of your achievements. If you didn’t, this is a great time to think about how you might respond differently to future challenges. Answer these questions:
What were my biggest challenges?
Did I end up growing from them or getting off track?
What did I not accomplish that I wanted to?
Do I need to reframe how I approach challenges?
Topic 3: Next year’s objectives
This topic will take you right into goal-setting for 2025. To set yourself up, think about these questions:
The transition from military service to civilian life can be both exciting and challenging. As a veteran, a major challenge you may face is to find a job that aligns with your military skills and experience. Find out how CareerOneStop’s Veteran and Military Transition Center website can help you find a meaningful, “good fit” civilian job. No registration is required to use any part of CareerOneStop.
Find a career fit
One of the unique challenges veterans often face is translating their military skills into civilian terms. The Veterans Job Matcher helps make the process easier by providing civilian career options that relate to your military experience.
Enter your MOC to see a list of civilian job titles that align with your skill set. You’ll find a profile of any civilian career on your list by selecting the career title. And from the same results, you can select “See jobs” to view current job listings in your preferred U.S. location.
Education and training for civilian jobs
For veterans looking to build on their current skills or pursue a new career direction, check out the Local Training Finder. You will find higher education and job training options in your chosen U.S. location, ranging from 6-week certificate programs to 2- and 4-year college programs through graduate school.
In Back to School, learn about professional certifications to help you qualify for jobs or enhance your civilian credentials, explore apprenticeship, and learn about how to pay for training— including using your veterans benefits.
An effective job search
If you know the type of job you’re looking for, get started searching right now on the Job Finder. You can search through thousands of job listings that are updated daily from all over the U.S. The primary posting service (National Labor Exchange or NLx) shows only jobs that have been validated by state job banks.
That means you’ll avoid scams and false postings that can show up on commercial job banks. Start by entering a job title and location in Search. You can filter your results by company, location, and by “Remote/hybrid jobs only”.
Find in-person assistance
In-person help is available at American Job Centers across the country. AJCs offer employment services such as job fairs, resume writing and interviewing workshops, and one-to-one career counseling. Staff can help you sharpen your civilian resume and practice answering interview questions. Many AJCs also offer job search groups for veterans to network, share job leads and support for transitioning to the civilian work world.
It’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), and it’s a good time to highlight a feature on mySkillsmyFuture.org that allows people with certain disabilities to explore career options where they can excel.
Get started by visiting mySkills myFuture and entering a career title in the search box. You can enter the name of a job that you’ve worked in before. If you don’t have work experience, you can enter a keyword for the type of work you’d like to do such as “healthcare” or “computer software” or “manufacturing.” Then you can select a job title from the list that appears. (Don’t worry about selecting the exact right job title—this is just an entry point for mySkills myFuture to create a list of related careers that you might be interested in!)
Once you get your list of related careers, you can begin filtering them for your specific abilities or disabilities. Click on the blue button “Narrow Your Results” at the top of your screen. Then you can check off the filters you want to use. You can select to only see careers that DO NOT usually involve:
Good vision
Good hearing
Spending time sitting
Public speaking
Walking, standing or climbing
Outdoor work
Physical strength
An irregular work schedule
Then you’ll see a list of careers that generally exclude the abilities you checked. Note that checking an ability doesn’t mean that your new list will not include any careers that might use that ability; it means that careers that typically involve those characteristics won’t show up on your Career Matches list. Also, it’s possible that by checking some of these boxes you might exclude careers where you can in fact find a job that doesn’t involve that item—so it’s a good idea to play around with the filters and explore different careers.
From your Career Matches list you can quickly compare careers by typical wages or education required. You can also link to a full career profile (including a video), and enter your ZIP code or location to find local job listings and training opportunities.
Employer research can superpower your job search. It can make the difference between not quite making the grade—and getting hired. It can also help you decide which company you’d like to work for, and to know that the job you accept is one you actually want.
What is employer research?
There are two dimensions to employer research:
1) Basic information about different companies that hire people in your field. This level of employer research helps to focus your job search on companies that are thriving, align with your values and priorities, and have good future potential.
2) In-depth information about any company you interview with, as well as all you can learn about the jobs you apply for. This helps ensure that you understand and can communicate how your experience and strengths match their needs. It’s also important for preparing for the interview, to be prepared to talk about the organization’s priorities, current projects or challenges. This in-depth research will also help you to ask thoughtful questions and understand whether you are likely to thrive in the position.
What kinds of information should you look for?
The term “employer research” encompasses a lot of different types of information.
A starting point could be an environmental scan to gather information about opportunities and threats that are likely to impact the industry or types of organizations you’re interested in. Look for trends, competitor activity, changes in regulations or resource availability, weather impacts, security issues, and more.
A great step is to look for details about the companies in your local area that are likely to hire people who work in your occupation or job title. Look for the essentials, such as: location/s; number of employees; when established; jobs the company typically hires for; hiring policy information. If they turn out to be good job prospects, you will be able to target an outreach to them directly, whether they currently have any jobs posted in your field.
As you focus on specific companies, identify the organization’s core purpose. Learn the organization’s mission–what they exist to do; vision—where they aspire to grow and move; and company values—what’s most important to them in how they get there. What is their messaging about the organization to the public? These will tell you where the organization’s priorities lie.
What are the major products and services provided by the organization? What are some of their prominent current projects and collaborations?
What is the company’s financial situation? Is it making money? Has it downsized in the last five years? Has there been any recent important news related to the company? What do others think about the company?
Company leadership. Find out who holds a prominent position in the organization. What can you learn about them?
What do current/former employees have to say about working for the employer?
Where can you find this information?
Company / organizational websites
Financial reports
Business directories
Business libraries
Company’s social media accounts/posts
Social media profiles of leaders and other people who work for the organization
Annual reports
News sources
Professional and industry associations and their publications
Employee review websites
Networking with current or past employees
Recruiters
Next steps
Visit the Business Finder to identify businesses in your area that hire in your field, and gather essential information about organizations that interest you.
You can now find thousands of short-term training options on CareerOneStop’s Local Training Finder. These include training options provided by public and private schools and other training providers that have been approved for WIOA funding.
Why is it helpful to see WIOA-eligible training programs?
Gaining a certificate or other credential can be key for entering or advancing in nearly any career field. But the world of short-term training programs can be overwhelming. And stories about students wasting their money on dead-end training programs and ending up without job prospects are a real concern.
That’s why the U.S. Department of Labor vets and certifies training programs that qualify for funding through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). They look for programs that have been shown to lead to employment in an occupation that is in demand in the local area.
Each state compiles an Eligible Training Providers List of all training programs that have been approved for WIOA funding. Programs from those lists now show up in CareerOneStop’s Local Training Finder with a “WIOA” designation.
The WIOA designation indicates that a program has been identified as high-quality preparation for employment in an in-demand career. That’s good news for people who qualify for WIOA-funded training but it’s also good news for any member of the public looking to improve their prospects for landing an in-demand job.
Find WIOA-eligible training programs with CareerOneStop’s Local Training Finder
Want to get started reviewing options for your training needs? Visit the newly enhanced Local Training Finder to search for training, from six-week certificates to two-year, four-year, and graduate programs, in any career or industry in any local U.S. area. Start your search with a keyword for an occupation or program name, or search for specific colleges or other training providers. Once you enter keywords for your search, you’ll get a list of results and the option to drill down into any program or provider on that list for more details and contact information.
You can easily filter your list of training programs based on any of these criteria:
The average length of the certificate or degree program (from “less than 12 weeks” to “beyond bachelor’s degree”)
The program name
The college or training provider’s name
Whether the training is mostly online, in-person, or hybrid
The occupation(s) the program prepares participants to work in
Whether the program has been certified as eligible for WIOA funding
The size of the geographic area your search includes (if you searched by ZIP code)
You can also filter a list of training providers by:
Whether the provider offers at least one training program that has been certified as eligible for WIOA funding
The size of the geographic area your search includes (if you searched by ZIP code)
Ready to update your resume? For job seekers age 55+, find specific ideas to update your resume, bring it up to speed with current hiring practices, and ensure it’s an effective tool for promoting your strengths.
Current hiring practices
When you send in a resume to a job posting, an initial resume review is typically conducted by an applicant tracking system, or ATS, that machine-scans the resume for a match to the job posting. Most large companies use an ATS, while some – but far fewer – small and mid-sized businesses currently use them.
Even if a person is the first stage of resume review, once a resume is in front of human eyes, hiring staff typically take just 6-7 seconds to scan it, looking for headings and keywords needed for the position. So in either case, it’s important to follow ATS guidelines that make a scannable, attractive resume to get through the first stage of evaluation.
Common resume issues to watch for
Resume experts who provide critiques tell us that the resumes of older workers tend to share some consistent errors. See if you recognize any of these in your own resume:
With decades of experience, workers 55+ tend to write very long resumes
The resume includes previous jobs that have no relation to the job they’re applying for
Resumes list skills and knowledge, volunteering, and training that is out of date
These resumes fail to mention technology skills
They use full sentences, include too many words, use fussy punctuation so difficult to read
They use the same resume for every job posting
8 tips for an excellent resume
How to tackle the task of writing an effective resume when you have decades of work experience that may or may not relate? These 8 tips will help guide you around what to include and what to leave off.
Customize your resume to each job you apply for. You don’t have to revise your entire resume for every job, but it’s important to match the top third of the resume to each job posting. That includes editing your Professional Summary, Skills Summary, and Objective, if you use one. This is what employers scan first to determine if the applicant is a fit for their needs. Be sure to match your resume language to the job posting language, where you can.
Combination format. Use a “combination” resume format that allows you to emphasize your skills and accomplishments and downplay the length of your career. This includes both a skills summary near the top, and a work history that references job title, employer, start and end dates, along with accomplishments and responsibilities for each job.
Make it clean and easy to read. Use headings for resume section titles (see Resume samples). Use simple clean fonts such as Arial, Times Roman, or Calibri. For lists, use plain black dot bullets, and bars ( | ) to separate items in a section. Avoid other types of bullets as they may not be readable by an ATS. Also avoid using many commas as they make a resume difficult to read. Avoid using tables, since formatting can get jumbled when the resume is scanned.
Take a skills focus. Create a Key Skills or Professional Skills section, and cluster your skills under three or four categories that are important to the open position. These may include leadership, teamwork, computer skills, communication skills, supervisory skills, and so on. Make this substantial and personal, including the specific skills you offer, with a brief description. Avoid using general or generic skills like “good communication”. Keep it relevant and sharp: avoid dumping out all your skills here. To get your resume past an ATS, it can help to express the same skill in two different ways. For example, list it in your key skills section, then mention it again in your work history.
Include a technology skills list. You may be extremely proficient on a variety of systems, but some employers may hold stereotypes about limited technology skills for workers 55+, so experts recommend including your tech skills and including a list if you have at least 5-6 items to include. Keep to the “recent and relevant” rule: reflect only skills from the last 10 or so. If this is a weak area, consider taking short classes to quickly upgrade your knowledge. Platforms such as LinkedIn, GCF.org, and others offer free classes on basic technology skills and software such as Microsoft Office.
Relevant work history. Briefly list your jobs from the past 10-15 years; for each job, include several key tasks with a couple of major accomplishments. Avoid listing unrelated experience or listing too much – since that may cause your resume to be discounted. Leave out irrelevant jobs you’ve held, especially from more than 15 years ago.
Be sure to include your dates of employment, as most ATS systems reject resumes that do not include dates for work history. Consider using “15+ years” jobs you’ve held longer than 15 years. Aim to describe your responsibilities in one line per task, using a variety of action verbs. Include numbers, data, facts, around people you served, documents you produced, money you earned or saved the company, budget size, etc. Match as closely as possible to the list of responsibilities noted in the job postings you apply to.
Education & training section. Include the highest level of education you have completed, noting your degree or training program. Only include High School Diploma or equivalent if that is your highest level; be sure to include recent or current job training. If you’ve taken college courses but did not earn a degree, note it as: “College coursework, XYZ University”. For the ATS to recognize it, write out the degree, such as Associates of Arts or Bachelor of Science. If your major isn’t relevant, don’t include it. Leave off the year you finished unless it’s within the past five years.
Always get a review. Your resume should be free of errors, use simple, current language, be skills-focused, and target the specific job opening you are applying for. Ask friends or family to check your resume for these points and contact your local American Job Center to ask for free, professional feedback.
