Written by Jill Trolinger, Master's student at Texas State University.

Often times we feel like we know ourselves well, but when it comes time to figure out the details of our career path, it is hard to know where to start.  The unlimited options are overwhelming.  CareerBeam is a wonderful guide Career Services provides access to that helped me work through this process using small, guided  steps, beginning with a “Where do I start” exercise.  CareerBeam directed me through the information maze while at the same time giving me opportunities to really target my interests through the use of personality, skills, talents, and preference assessments.  As I gathered new found insights about myself, CareerBeam used that information to personalize my profile and taper the incredible amount of provided information into bite-sized, comprehensive pieces. The areas explored on CareerBeam include values, temperament, personality, interests, corporate culture, leadership preferences, etc.

CareerBeam is also a tutorial that offers information on various aspects of industries such as health, education, trade, transportation, utilities, professional, and business services. It also has information on specific companies within those industries such as Seton Healthcare, National Center for Educational Achieve, University of Texas, American Eco Coal, Inc., Lower Colorado River Authority, Ticket City Inc., and Luminex Corporation just to name a few.  The company search can be narrowed by location, company size, ownership, and revenue.

Within CareerBeam, there is an assessment called the “Industry Attraction Exercise” to help you

determine which industries you would want to look into. The assessment has you check areas of interest such as “goods-producing, “service-providing,” “financial activities,” etc. There is a great deal of information on the many industries which comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics such as pay scale, future employment needs within the organization, and education requirements.

CareerBeam also has a resume builder template.  It was a helpful guide to write a resume and enabled me to come up with the right words to describe myself, my career objective, and my previous experience in a cohesive way.  The resume builder function is easy to download into a word document that allows for more editing.  Often times, CareerBeam is only known for its resume building tools, but as described above, the tool can be used for so much more. 

CareerBeam is a site that I find myself returning to often in my pursuit of a position with a company that feeds my intellect and my spirit.