Overview
CareerZone is a free, virtual career exploration and planning system for young New Yorkers. With a secure account, you can direct your own career journey, based on your interests, values, and goals. Don’t know about a career? Want to understand more about career paths? CareerZone is the advanced, complete platform for young New Yorkers looking for ways to create their own career journey.
View the CareerZone factsheet.
View the CareerZone Palm Card.
What are some favorite features within CareerZone?
Dollars and $ense budgeting tool – Create a budget based on lifestyle choices and salaries for occupations of interest
Real-time job listings – Find current job openings and set up automatic email delivery for new jobs that get posted
Career assessments – Take short, simple, and evidence-based surveys about different interests, work values, and environments
Occupational profiles – View more than 900 occupations, with career videos and direct information from businesses on available jobs, required skills, duties, and salaries
Advanced career pathways search – Explore careers in different career pathways, clusters, and disciplines and learn the next steps needed to attain a certain job/career
Career plan document – Integrate completed career exploration activities and create a printable summary for commencement requirements
Resume Builder – Develop and compile multiple resumes using skills needed by employers for a specific occupation
Experience CareerZone
This Overview of NYS CareerZone System video shows how CareerZone helps youth and their facilitators dream, plan and make it happen.
How Successful has CareerZone been for Others?
These young New Yorkers from across the state started using CareerZone in middle school. Here’s what they have to say about CareerZone:
Kayla – “When using CareerZone I learned that when you go into the field of music production, you need a college degree or higher.”
Alexis – “It helps you find jobs and trainings out there. It gives you a head start on what you might want to do in the future.”
Mario – “I thought of engineering from a whole different perspective. I thought it was basically carpentry; like fixing cars as a mechanic, building tables, and wiring houses. But once I looked up the information, engineering is actually also coming up with or designing an actual product.”
Sheel – “When people asked me what do I want to become when I grow up? I didn’t have an answer I believed. Thinking about a career used to be stressful. With tools and knowledge from CareerZone of different professions and how my personality and goals fit into them helps reduced my career anxiety, so I can prepare and plan.”
CareerBound Broome County – “CareerZone is built into our work readiness training. Many times, youth adults are unsure of their career interests. With Interest Profiler in CareerZone, youth can match careers with their interests. This helps us to explore those careers with the youth to find a good fit for them.”
Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES – “We have used CareerZone for over a decade while working with young people and helping them along on their career journey. CareerZone is EXACTLY what NYSED needs! This wonderful and comprehensive website is the key to career development, career choice, and a much happier and healthier workforce.”
Who Uses CareerZone?
New Yorkers for the world of work starting as early as middle school use CareerZone. Guidance counselors, educators, parents, case managers, life coaches, and career navigators, either working alone or with community organizations, can use the Instructional Tools button on the CareerZone home page to access resources to develop practical learning experiences.
Take advantage of a lesson plan database and Facilitator’s Guide. The lesson plan database provides engaging career development activities for youth that align with the New York State Common Core learning standards. The Facilitator’s Guide provides step-by-step directions for using all CareerZone components and provides tips to help integrate CareerZone into the classroom or home.
Assess Yourself to Build a Career
CareerZone offers assessments that help youth find occupations relevant to their interests and work values, as well as develop their career goal(s).
Select the “Assess Yourself” tab at the top of the CareerZone home page to access the Interest or Work Values assessment. Your results will lead you to occupations that contain career videos, information about jobs, employment outlooks, wages, and job skills that employers want.
For a more in-depth assessment, create or sign in to your CareerZone account to save your:
- Favorite occupations
- Work history
- Educational achievements
- Resumes
- Job-specific resources
Dollars & $ense
Be sure to check out the Dollars and $ense budgeting tool. The tool help youth plan a budget based on lifestyle choices and on salaries of occupations of interest. Youth can also create a budget starting with a specific occupation and subtracting each monthly expense from the occupation’s estimated monthly salary. The Dollars and $ense Budgeting Tool provides youth a reality check to become financially independent.