Career Counseling
Description of a Specific (Non-Counseling) Occupation
Accounting
Auditors and accountants are some of the most important employees in organizations. They help supervise operations, pay bills and ensure that taxes are paid correctly and on time. Accountants are also responsible for analyzing financial data of their companies and reporting the results to regulators and concerned government authorities. Some of these reports must also be made available to the company's shareholders. Apart from handling the client's financial data, some of the other job duties that auditors and accountants face in their day-to-day work include: budget analysis, financial planning services, information technology advice and limited financial legal advice. Specialists in the field of accounting or auditing depend on the kind of work they are engaged in. The majority of specialists in this field are employed in government, management, internal auditing and public accounting. The duties of a public accountant are to provide consulting, auditing, and tax services for governments and many other different types of organizations. Literally, if an individual handles huge sums of money or if they are required to pay taxes for an organization, they may require the services of a public accountant. For instance, a public accountant may advice his or her clients about the tax benefits and drawbacks related to making certain choices in their businesses. Others in the field of accounting are involved in controlling the assets of their clients, developing accounting systems, or organizing wages and other types of employee benefits. It is the responsibility of external auditors to analyze financial data and notify stakeholders and the relevant government authorities of their findings. Many accountants have also taken CPA (certified public accountant) tests and they are now authorized to work for accounting firms or to run their own accounting organizations. Forensic accountants are responsible for investigating white collar crimes such as money laundering, contract complications, bankruptcy, complicated financial transactions, embezzlement and financial fraud. Simply put, it is the duty of forensic accountants to use their finance, legal and accounting knowledge to investigate possible crimes. Forensic accountants work with the police and other entities in the justice system to help put white collars criminals behind bars (Career Profiles, 2016).
Description of 2 Sources of Occupational Information about this Field, One of Which Should Be Electronic
America's Career Kit
This information source is an integrated online platform that contains learning resources, career information, resumes, and job listings on 4 websites. These are:
America's job bank: a countrywide databank of hundreds of thousands of resumes and job vacancies
America's Learning exchange: this is some sort of clearing-house for education and training opportunities posted by registered institutions and organizations
America's Career InfoNet: provides local, state and nationwide labor market info, career planning material and occupational data.
America's Service Locator: provides the locations and directions to different service providers
O*NET
This is an online web access to a database of occupational data. Any individual can search for occupational data on this platform. Another feature of this application is that it allows for direct applications to job offerings, through My Next Move. Both My Next move and the O*NET application were developed by the National Center for O*NET Development for the Department of Labor. The O*NET database has data on work activities, abilities, knowledge, skills and interests related to certain occupations. This kind of data can be utilized for career counseling, career discovery and/or various types of HR (Human Resources) duties such as the alignment of training curricular with current work needs and description of job position. The data available on O*NET covers more than nine hundred different types of careers. Each of the occupations in the database is tagged using a name and a code that is similar to those of the 2010 edition of the Standard Occupational Classification system, making it easier to search for jobs on the platform. The database is also constantly updated so that at any given time, the information that one accesses upon searching the database, is accurate and up-to-date. This has made this one of the most powerful, searchable occupational databases in the whole of the United States (O*NET OnLine Help, 2016).
Evaluation of the Overall Quality of the Information
Users can search and access data using the following search categories:
Experience and training
Work styles -- personal values and characteristics associated with an occupation
Personal Interests
Generalized work activities -- general job activities such as planning, organizing and prioritization of work
Skills -- cross functional (resource management and problem identification) and basic skills (reading and mathematics)
Organizational context -- characteristics of organizations and how they do their work
People can access occupational data available on the O*NET platform in a variety of ways:
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