Out of work?  Thinking about changing careers?  Not sure what other careers might “fit” your personality and skills?  Well, we’ve pulled together a few resources you can use to help you figure it all out.

First, try out one of these free online career assessment tools.

The career assessments on these sites all work the same way; they ask you some questions, and then suggest a few potential occupations based on your answers.

• The Career Key has a lot of helpful, free information, so take your time and surf around before doing the test. The test takes about 15 minutes to complete and costs $9.95, but you are given a good list of potential careers.

• The MAPP Assessment has a series of 71 questions.  Each question has three career descriptions.  You are asked to rank which description you would prefer most, and which you like least.  When you are done, it provides you with a list of some potential careers.  This assessment is free, but only lists half of your suggested careers.  If you want to see more than that, you will need to buy a report.

• Career Path has several different career tests, some that are free and some that have a cost associated with them.  My favorite is the Color Career Counselor, which uses the  Dewey Color System Test to help determine suitable careers.  With this color test, you are shown a series of colors and asked which you most like to look at and which you least enjoy to see.  When you are finished, you get a basic report for free.  The basic report tells you what type of personality you have and offers some suggested career options.  You have the option to upgrade to a full report for an added fee.

Once you have a few potential careers in mind, research them using one of these free online resources:

• The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) online is a site that offers details about thousands of careers.  Use this site to find out what the earning potential is for the career you are thinking about pursuing.  Or use it to find out which schools offer programs that prepare you for the career.  It can even tell you what the working conditions are like for people in that job, as well as what a typical day is like.  (This site is maintained and operated by maintained by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistic using the most current governmental data about jobs inside the USA.)
• The Occupations section of Careers.org is a great research tool for you, too.  It provides detailed information about specific occupations, including wages, skills required as well as links to colleges offering such training.  Most of the careers listed on the site have a video that explains what that career is all about and how someone would get into that particular field or occupation.

Hopefully, with a little self-assessment and a bit of research under your belt, you will have a clearer idea of where you’d like to go in your career.  After that, you can make a plan for how to get there.   Good luck!