CONSUMER AFFAIRS: Career One Stop can help you find jobs, career resources

The U.S. Department of Labor maintains Career One Stop (www.careeronestop.org ), a comprehensive website designed to help Americans find employment and career resources.

The website provides useful tools for job seekers, students, career professionals, and businesses alike.

At the site, you can explore particular careers and find information on training and educational opportunities, including information on possible ways to pay for training and education.

The site provides practical information on how to develop personal resumes (including providing samples and templates), job inquiry letters, cover letters, and thank–you notes.

Information on how to get ready for a job interview and on how to get through an employment interview also is available.

Two "core sites" exist within Career One Stop:

• America's Career Infonet (www.careerinfonet.org/), which provides a wealth of information on careers

• America's Service Locator (www.servicelocator.org/), designed to provide information on available national and local workforce services.

The site will lead you to the state job banks for all of the states in the country. These job banks list available jobs within the particular states, including listings by location or region.

The Indiana job bank is available directly at www.indianacareerconnect.com .

The similar Illinois employment service is available at http://ides.cmcf.state.il.us .

Information on employment trends and wage and salary information can be found through Career One Stop.

Also, if you must relocate for new employment, information on relocation issues is available through the website.

Opinions are solely the writer's. Joseph Pellicciotti is a lawyer, professor, and vice chancellor at Indiana University Northwest.