Job Hunting & Career Exploration

Newspaper classifieds are a great place to find "live" job listings.The Poughkeepsie Public Library District subscribes to the Poughkeepsie Journal; Kingston Daily Freeman; Middletown Times Herald-Record; Albany Times Union (Sunday), and others. Ask your local library about its holdings.

Try these Web links to find newspapers around the country:
NewsVoyager or Newslink

When you get to a specific newspaper site, look for the following terms as links: 'classified'; 'employment'; 'jobs'; or 'help wanted.'
Hudson Valley Help Wanted: This is a web site where local employers list job openings.
New York Job Bank: This site is sponsored by the N. Y. State Department of Labor.

For more job sites, go to the Poughkeepsie Public Library District's Useful Sites to find more helpful links in the Careers section.

Area Organizations

For useful one-on-one help, contact:

Workforce at Mid-Hudson Libraries: The Libraries Deliver Project works to enhance the career and employment resources available within Mid-Hudson libraries through partnerships with area workforce development systems, sponsored by the New York State Labor Department. Each county in the Mid-Hudson region has a full-service employment center, known as a One-Stop Center.

VESID: Employment assistance for people with disabilities.

Resumes

Search the Mid-Hudson Library System's online catalog to find books with sample resumes, cover letters and job interview techniques. Most of these titles can be found under the Dewey call number   650.14 in any public library.

Microsoft Word has a 'Resume Wizard' that helps you format your resume. Open Word, go to 'File', then 'New', select 'Other Documents' and look for resume templates and wizard.

The Poughkeepsie Public Library District has MS Word in the library on public computers. It can be used for 90 minutes with an additional session possible. Printing costs .10 cents, and floppy disks cost $1.00. You can also bring your own disk to save your work at no cost. Always SAVE your work!

If you live outside Poughkeepsie, ask your local library about its computer resources and policies.

Career Exploration

Offices of Counseling and Career Services at local community colleges provide free services to all county residents.

Dutchess Community College:( 845) 431-8040
Ulster County Community College (845) 687-5091
Columbia-Greene Community College 518-828-4181 ext. 3396

Other resources to explore include:

Careerzone is an interactive career exploration tool from the N.Y. S. Labor Department.

Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance (5 vols.)

Encyclopedia of Associations is a directory that includes professional & trade associations.

O*Net is produced for the U.S. Department of Labor, by the Occupational Information Center. This resource replaces the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), which was last published in 1991.

Occupational Outlook Handbook, which is also available online.

What Color is Your Parachute is a standard work that is updated annually.

Test Preparation

Use our online database Learning Express Library for test preparation and as an instructional web site with more than 300 online practice tests that cover civil service and other career exams, college entrance and placement exams, citizenship exams, and more.

The Adriance Memorial Library also has many job test study guides in print that may be borrowed, including both professional career tests and Civil Service sample exams. These are in the "Job Tests" area in the last aisle of the magazine stacks, arranged alphabetically by job title. If you are unable to find what you need, please ask a Reference Librarian to help you.

Search the Catalog

For books on a specific career choice, search Mid-Hudson Library System's Online Catalog.

Try a keyword search using the occupation name + any of the following term(s):
career* or occupation* or vocation* or employment or job*
For example: engineering vocation*, or food service career*
(* retrieves various endings-e.g. occupation* will retrieve occupation, occupations, occupational, etc.)

Browse the Collection

Many general career works can be found on the shelves in the Dewey call number section 331.