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Welcome to Sharon's Web Page

Sharon Barthelemy, Coordinator of Career Services, 815-224-0214.

 

Maybe I can give you some direction........

How do I know what skills to list on my resume? O'Net Code Connector

How do I find  job titles and job descriptions?  The Dictionary of Occupational Titles

Tell me everything about this job. Occupational Outlook Handbook

How much does this job pay in the Illinois Valley ?  Wage Data by Occupation for the IVCC district  

Are there job openings in the Illinois Valley for this type of job? Employment Projections for the IVCC district

Help me choose a career. Choose a Career and Educational Direction and

http://www.braintrack.com/colleges-by-career

What can I do with a major in....? A list of occupations that are associated with your college major.

Where can I get a major in......?  Locate colleges that offer the major you're interested in

Show me over 200 health care professions and 580 training options in Illinois....A guide to health care careers in Illinois

How does my personality type influence my career choices, relationships, etc.? Learn about a free online personality indicator-based on the MBTI and  Additional MBTI information for a fee and the FREE Keirsey Temperament Assessment

What are 'workplace values? Workplace Values Assessment

Where can I get....... comprehensive career guidance information

Where can I get.......Free Resume Evaluation Service

Inspirational ThoughtsQuote of the Week

Word of the Week

 

To find entry, median and experienced level wages for various occupational titles : http://lmi.ides.state.il.us/wagedata/lwafiles/LWIA122.xlsTo see the employment projections per occupation in Workforce Investment Area 12 (WIA 12) from 2000-2010:http://lmi.ides.state.il.us/projections/wkinvestfiles/wia12_00-10occ.xls

To help you choose a career and educational direction, you will have access to professional counseling inventories offered free to the public and a career interest measure instantly scored on the Internet. The results of the career inventory are linked to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the most accurate source of occupational information. CareerKey: http://www.careerkey.org/english

To look up hundreds of job descriptions, the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. It describes over 250 jobs, covering 90% of all workers. Descriptions include earnings, working conditions, skills required, advancement opportunities, projected growth, related jobs, and sources of additional information. OCCUPATIONAL OUTLOOK HANDBOOK:http://www.bls.gov/oco

To learn about an online personality indicator that gives insight into how and why people understand and approach the world in such different ways. It's called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. MBTI: http://humanmetrics.com Click on "Jung Typology Test" then 'Take Test" then "Do It !" Submit for results and enjoy reading about your 'type'.                                              

For additional MBTI info check: http://www.knowyourtype.com/mbti.html    

For comprehensive career guidance, The Illinois Career Resource Network (ICRN) is your Illinois source  information for state and nationwide occupations, entry qualifications, educational and physical requirements, wages and outlook. It also shows schools, financial aid, apprenticeship programs, military service and self-employment opportunities.

Use CIS for high school through adult, and Countdown for middle and junior high. Career Click shows regional information on wages and outlook by Illinois counties. All three are at http://www.ilworkinfo.com/icrn.htm

Workplace Values Assessment: Do You Know the Work Values You Most Want in a Job and an Employer -- and Does Your Current Employment Reflect Those Values? Try this workplace values exercise: http://www.quintcareers.com/workplace_values.html

 

Quote of the Week

"Do not try to predict or manipulate the avenue through which your good will come.

Be true to your dream, and the universe will show up to support you in amazing ways."

- Alan Cohen

 

U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao said workers with a bachelor's degree or higher average almost twice what workers with just a high school diploma earn weekly. Workers with a bachelor's degree or higher average $1,393 per week and have an unemployment rate of 2%, while workers with a high school diploma average $704 and have a 4.3% unemployment rate.

"Our country is transitioning to a knowledge-based economy, and workers with higher skills and more education are being paid a premium," Chao said.

"Higher education is not necessarily a college degree. Some of the strongest demand is for workers in the skilled trades and those with associate degrees in technical occupations from community and technical colleges," she said.

 

 

 

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." -

Michael Althsuler

 

Present Favorites:

Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.

     -- Albert Einstein

 

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

     --  Elmer Leterman
 

"What distinguishes winners from losers is that winners concentrate

at all times on what they can do, not on what they can't do. If a guy

is a great shooter but not a great skater, we tell him to think only

about the shot, the shot, the shot - never about some other guy

outskating him. The idea is to remember your successes."

                                                                    - Bob Butera,

former president of the New Jersey Devils hockey team

 

 

"While you, the leader, can teach many things, character is not

taught easily to adults who arrive at your desk lacking it. Be

cautious about taking on reclamation projects regardless of the talent

they may possess. Have the courage to make character count among the

qualities you seek in others."

-- John Wooden

 

"One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is

when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get

acquainted with himself as he really is." - Norman Vincent Peale

 

"Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have

preferred to talk."

- D.J. Kaufman

 

"When we are longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to

change ourselves." - Victor Frankl

 

 

 

Word of the Week has been made available through the generosity of Peter James Boylan, President of Georgia Military College, Milledgeville Georgia.

LTC Patrick J. Beer, Dean of Students and Commandant of Cadets at Georgia Military College, prepares this study guide each week as part of the institution's character education program. 

 

This week's word:  

Word of The Week

Perception

Definition of the word of the week (PERCEPTION): The capacity for insight.

American publisher, Roger Birkman, wrote, “The reality of life is that your perceptions – right or wrong – influence everything else you do. When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place.”

Our perceptions and our misperceptions affect how we view the world around us and affect how others view us. A former mentor once described how perceptions can affect someone. He said that it is extremely important to make a good first impression. If one does, then one’s subsequent behavior would be viewed from the lens of that impression. For example, if someone is viewed as a good person (student, worker, etc.) and makes a mistake, others will tend to discount it as simply a mistake made by a good person, an aberration. However, if someone is viewed as a bad person and makes the exact same mistake, others will see the mistake as proof of their initial impression. “You see, I told you that person was bad, and this mistake proves my point.” Unfortunately, our initial impressions are sometimes wrong. An educated person knows that we must take people one individual at a time and not associate group characteristics to individuals.

A while back, I received a report from a concerned citizen that claimed a group of our college cadets had damaged some property and generally made a nuisance of themselves. When I inquired about the specifics of the incident, I realized that the concerned citizen was obviously mistaken. I knew this for a fact because I was with the cadets at the time and place in question. Now, I realize that our camouflage fatigues tend to make us all blend in. Although we were a mixed group (age, sex and race), the concerned citizen only saw a large group of black men and “assumed” that they were up to no good. When I challenged the citizen’s report and told him that I was present with the group, the story abruptly changed. I do not think that the citizen lied, he was simply a victim of distorted perceptions that led him to assume something that was not true. Sometimes we need to look beyond appearances and our own preconceptions for a clearer view of reality.

British poet, painter and visionary mystic, William Blake, wrote, “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thru chinks of his cavern.”

The following quotations are intended to assist in explaining and exemplifying the word of the week:

The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you’re needed by someone. Martina Navratilova

True science investigates and brings to human perception such truths and such knowledge as the people of a given time and society consider most important. Art transmits these truths from the region of perception to the region of emotion. Count Leo Tolstoy

Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated. George Santayana

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. Hans Margolius

A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment. Lionel Trilling

Science is nothing but perception. Plato

Do what you know and perception is converted into character. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thoughts for Reflection: 

Hang in there.

"Many of life's failures are [by] people who did not realize how close

they were to success when they gave up."

Thomas A. Edison

 

"History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually

encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won

because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats."

B C Forbes

Though we travel the world to find the beautiful, we must carry it within us or we find it not.

 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.            -Usula K. LeGuin

The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.                               -Alvin Toffler

"The bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you refuse to take the turn."                     -author unknown.

"As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny,

we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we

will fully bloom. It happens in its own time." - Denis Waitley

 

When someone gives you "advice", it your your right to take what fits

for you and discard the rest. SIFT through the advice for any pieces

you can use, but remember to be open as well. -Kristen @ Morning Mantra

 

"Success isn't something you chase. It's something you have to

put forth the effort for constantly. Then maybe it'll come when you

least expect it. Most people don't understand that."

- Michael Jordan

Ernest Holmes wrote: "It has taken humanity thousands of years to learn

that it has the power to control its destiny. From the Bible we have

the assurance that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Ancient

Greek philosophers understood something of the meaning of thought.

"What we expect," said Aristotle, "that is what we find." "What we

wish," said Demosthenes, "is in what we believe." And Shakespeare is

accredited with the same: "There's nothing good or bad, but thinking

makes it so." It is one thing to know a principle, but it's another

thing to practice it. We are all endowed with the capacity to guide our

lives through the power of our thinking. To what kind of thinking will

you give your power today?

 

How do Good People Make Tough Choices? Read the first chapter of Rushworth Kidder's book on ethical decision making. http://www.globalethics.org/news/Tough-Choices-Second-Edition-Due-out-this-Fall/160/

 

 

Life is like a wild tiger. You can either lie down and let it lay its

paw on your head—or sit on its back and ride it.

Ride the Wild Tiger