The Best Free Twin Cities Career Change Resources

Changing careers is more popular than ever before. Whether a personal choice or an monetary necessity, people are waking up to the idea that they wish to do something else. This thought is both liberating and terrifying at the same time, certainly in today's struggling economy. The good news is that there's a lot more information and support accessible now then ever before - and most of it is online and free. In this article we'll take a look at some of these many cost free choices available specifically for the Twin Cities Metro Area (Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota).

Libraries are a excellent place to start researching job choices. In general, libraries are a vast often-untapped source of job search information. Being a large metro region, there's a multitude of high quality libraries offered in the Twin Cities. Most counties and large educational institutions regularly have well organized library systems, often with much of the data available online.

Hennepin County is the largest country in the Twin Cities Metro Area. As a result, it has an extensive library system which has an superb website titled "Jobs and Careers". This website has links to many Minnesota-focused job resources and online databases, including career research, salary surveys, community resources, and help/information for those out of work. The University of Minnesota is the leading educational institution in the the state of Minnesota (one of the largest in the nation). It has a large on-line library with a wide-variety of resources available. other government webpages, some patience is required to sort through all the information available.

The Minnesota Job Bank HQ is a free web resource with links to over 800 websites focused on a Minnesota job search.  The resource is updated frequently and well supported.  Truly a great source for a MN Job Bank.

The State of Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development publishes a website called Positively Minnesota. The website has areas distinctively targeted at job-seekers, individuals exploring new careers, those with disabilities, and veterans looking for work. The website incorporates a wide variety of information on state provided career websites, publications, and alternative resources. Almost too much data in an individual place, but it's well organized and regularly updated.
The State of Minnesota also has over fifty Workforce Centers (several in the Twin Cities but also state-wide) where you can go for help and guidance. Each center is staffed and offers most of it's services without charge.

iSeek careers is a Minnesota-focused career website that was harder to find than it should have been, because it's an great site. This webpage has a very nice free section on career exploration and a database of 500 careers to browse. They have a 'Find a Job' area that has regional-specific information including employers, job openings, salary information, and top careers. A lot of the same tools the bigger sites have, but with a Minnesota-angle.

Though not Minnesota-specific, the Occupational Outlook Handbook (put out by the Federal Government) is a great place to research careers. Published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Occupational Outlook Handbook is an invaluable free source of exploring potential jobs and careers. For each career, the handbook lists the education and training requirements, earnings, expected job prospect, and the working conditions. The handbook is kept up-to-date and published every 2 years.

There are just a few valuable, free resources accessible to the Twin Cities Career-Changer. Take a look!

Five Free Top Minnesota Job Search Web Sites

We have identified the upper 5 free websites available on the internet with regards to your Minneapolis Area job search. There really are high-quality, free resources scattered through the entire sea of websites on the world wide web to guide you to research jobs in the Twin Cities, you simply need to locate them.

#5) Star Tribune 100: Without a doubt, the most accurate, total, and timely job information for an employer is accessible on their own website. The stunning part is that they are also possibly the most neglected sources of employment information on the web - just because they're challenging to come across. Every year, the Star Tribune newspaper (#2 below) publishes the StarTribune 100. This is a collection of the largest (by revenue) 100 Minnesota-based public companies. The list contains a brief overview of the company, key statistics, as well as a link to the employer's home page.

#4) Newspapers.com: Newspapers often have given way to online search engines as the favored tool for job postings. Having said that, they are still widely used and the majority have an online version out there (some for a fee). Moreover, small newspaper websites, while not as polished as the large sites, are a fantastic source of strictly local or part time work that wouldn't warrant the employer placing (and paying for) an ad in a regional paper or search engine. If you need to find part-time work in Plymouth, by way of example, the local Plymouth newspaper is an excellent resource. Newspapers.com is an online index of newspapers by city.

#3) iSeek: iSeek careers is a Minnesota-focused career site that was harder to locate than it should have been, given that it's an awesome website. This webpage has a very nice free segment on career exploration and a database of 500 vocations to browse. What's Minnesota-specific about it? They have a 'Find a Job' area that has regional-specific facts such as employers, job openings, wage information, and top careers. The majority of the same tools the bigger sites offer, but with a Minnesota-angle.

#2) Star Tribune Jobs: The StarTribune is by far the most important newspaper in Minnesota (though situated in Minneapolis and definitely with a Twin Cities focus). The have a 'StarTribune Jobs' area that combines a regional search utility with regional targeted career info. They have a full-featured search resource and free registration delivers access to some extras like resume posting and e-mail job notifications. Supplementary business section has help research employers, find out about key company leaders, and keep up to date on Minneapolis and St. Paul business-related happenings and activities. Plus, it's still free.

#1) Monster: No surprise here. Being the hottest job search website on the planet has some specific advantages - the most essential one is the number of posted jobs. In addition they have a large amount of added features like career research, e-mail notification, and an employer database. Registration is optional but cost free, and needed to use some of the supplementary tools. Use Monster.

To find all the jobs in Minnesota, use the Minnesota Job Bank HQ, the one source MN Job Bank.