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!