NCcareers.org now offers you a personal career GPS! Map your path to success with our Career Plan Builder. This personalized platform assesses your unique skills and aspirations, providing a step-by-step roadmap to your dream career. Update your goals, track your progress, and access targeted resources - all in one place.
Sign in and start building your Career Plan now!
Start Planning
Middle and High School is the perfect time to start thinking about careers. Learn about the advantages of thinking about careers at a young age.
Career development and Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses help you plan and gain skills for success in your future career. Learn about CTE, Internships, and more from your CDC.
Learn about the services and assistance your school counselor provides and how they can help you with your career planning.
Gain skills and career experience through CTE. Learn about courses, clusters, work-based learning, student organizations (CTSOs), NTHS, industry credentials, free college courses and more.
Learn about how these NC Community College staff members can help.
NCWorks has programs that can help with career planning and more…
Next Step
Click on a bubble to learn more about an occupation or to compare it to others. Additional information including comparison data are displayed in a table below.
How to use Next Step
This tool can help you understand a next step in your career journey. The circle at the bottom left represents your current job. The circles on the right of the chart are jobs that have similar job skills and job duties but typically pay more. They may also require you to gain additional education or skills.
By placing your cursor on the circles, you can learn about these occupations.
You can click the “Compare” box on multiple occupations and add them to the “Compare Occupations” table at the bottom of the screen – you may need to scroll down to see the table.
Once the occupations are listed in the table, a side-by-side comparison allows you to see if any additional education, experience, knowledge or skills are needed.
You can click on the occupation title to view its full occupation, including education programs to help you qualify for a job in that field and a short occupation video. Using this information, you can decide which occupation would be the best next step.
You can continue this process to see what occupations might be a good second step by clicking “Add to Career Journey” in the popup box on the circle in the chart. The occupation you selected has now moved down to the bottom left and additional occupations will appear on the right side.
Repeating this process can help you chart a potential career path from beginning to end. Your chosen occupations will remain on the “Compare Occupations” table.
Compare Occupations
Occupation
Median Annual Wage
Education
Experience Needed
Knowledge Needed
Skill Needed
$41,600 ($20.00/hr)
High school diploma or equivalent
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First Step
Find out what's next in line on your career journey, or find our where to start your new journey.
Find out what's next in line on your career journey, or find our where to start your new journey.
This tool can help you understand a potential pathway to a goal career. The circle at the top right represents your goal job. The circles on the left are jobs that have similar job skills or job duties to your dream job but typically pay less. They may also require lower educational attainment or skills.